One small step for man, One giant leap for mankind

One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind

这是一个人的一小步，却是人类的一大步

英国《每日邮报(Daily Mail)》2010年3月28日报导，一份人类初次登陆月球的飞行计划，证明美国航天员尼尔?阿姆斯特朗(Neil A. Armstrong)当年想说的是：「这是一个人的一小步，却是人类的一大步(One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind)。」

这份极为罕有的文件，据信是阿姆斯特朗唯一一次将这句话付诸文字，预计在拍卖会拍出5万5000英镑高价。
当时正在隔离受检的阿姆斯特朗，于这份文件上题字并签名，再交付美国航天总署(NASA)发言人约翰?麦里希(John McLeaish)。麦里希确认后注明日期，并在背面写上声明。

麦里希2001年接受专访时表示，他曾询问阿姆斯特朗那句话的意思，阿姆斯特朗响应：「我知道自己想表达什么。」当年，阿姆斯特朗在飞行计划上写下这句后来举世闻名的话语。

麦里希将文件珍藏在办公室数年之久，成为他最珍贵的收藏之一，直到他2007年逝世，这份文件才遭到拍卖。

阿姆斯特朗曾在自传中表示，他从未将这句话付诸文字。但专家相信，他返回地球时曾顺手写下，但完全忘记这回事。
飞行计划还附有已故的麦里希之妻佩西亲笔信函。她曾表示，丈夫对拥有阿姆斯特朗致赠的礼物相当自豪。
私人收藏家委托邦瀚斯拍卖公司(Bonhams)4月13日于纽约拍卖这份文件，引发各界关注。

拍卖专家马修?海利(Matthew Haley)说：「这可能是20世纪最令人难忘的一句话，更由说话者亲笔写下。这份文件非常珍贵，是阿姆斯特朗在隔离检疫期间，或与麦里希对话之际为他写下。麦里希在背面写道：『阿姆斯特朗完成初登月球任务，1969年8月9日接受隔离检疫时，为我签署这份文件，以资证明』。」

邦瀚斯伦敦总部发言人爱德华?柯里(Andrew Currie)说：「这是相当独特的物品，内含历史性重大意义。」

阿姆斯特朗这句深具指标性的话，真正想表达的涵义引发多年激辩。当年从月球回传的话语，地球上5亿人听见阿姆斯特朗表示「One small step for man, One giant leap for mankind」他似乎不小心漏掉句子中的a，让这句话失去原意。

40 years ago, on July 20, 1969 American astronaut Neil Armstrong, Commander of the Apollo 11 spacecraft made a historic first human landing on the moon. As the world watched the dramaticlanding on TV, Neil Armstrong uttered words which marked the triumph of the US space program in the race to land a man on the moon. As he took his first step on the moon surface, Neil Armstrong described his historic first step as "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

Altogether NASA successfully landed 12 men on the moon from 6 Apollo missions - Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17. No other nation has ever succeeded in landing man on the moon. Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon took place in December 1972. This means that nobody has been to the moon for the last 35 years. And NASA is now preparing to put another man on the moon by 2020.

Some people questioned whether this was just one big hoax, that actually nobody ever landed on the moon. If NASA did land 6 Apollo missions on the moon, why does it have to wait until 2020 to land another man there? But it seems far fetched to believe that the US Government had told lies to the whole world. So we have to accept that American astronauts did in fact land on the moon 35-40 years ago.

Why did US astronauts willingly risk their lives going to the moon? The whole journey from earth to the moon and back is fraught with dangers. A direct hit from a meteorite could destroy the spacecraft! A malfunction (hardware or software) onboard the spacecraft (like in Apollo 13) could have easily sent the spacecraft deep into outer space, never to return to earth.

Perhaps the astronauts believe that exploring the heavens is like reaching for the last frontier. Man has reached the most remote parts of the earth, climbed the highest mountains, and explore the deepest depth of the oceans. So the last frontier is outer space. And there is that determination to reach it, to successfully land man on the moon as a stepping stone to venturing further out, hopefully a preclude to landing man on another planet like Mars one day.

Think about it. To reach outerspace, one must first be able to break free of the gravititional pull of the earth. What is your last frontier? What do you need to break free of before you can conquer your last frontier? Would that be one small step for you, or would it be a giant leap?

• commander [kə´mɑ:ndə] n.指挥员，司令员 (初中词汇)
• apollo [ə´pɔləu] n.阿波罗 (初中词汇)
• dramatic [drə´mætik] a.戏剧的；戏剧般的 (初中词汇)
• triumph [´traiəmf] n.胜利 vi.得胜，战胜 (初中词汇)
• program [´prəugræm] n.说明v.为...安排节目 (初中词汇)
• mission [´miʃən] n.代表团；使馆vt.派遣 (初中词汇)
• actually [´æktʃuəli] ad.事实上；实际上 (初中词汇)
• remote [ri´məut] a.遥远的；偏僻的 (初中词汇)
• frontier [´frʌntiə] n.国境；边疆；边界 (初中词汇)
• planet [´plænit] n.行星 (初中词汇)
• conquer [´kɔŋkə] v.征服；克服；抑制 (初中词汇)
• historic [his´tɔrik] a.有历史意义的 (高中词汇)
• successfully [sək´sesfəli] ad.成功地 (高中词汇)
• explore [ik´splɔ:] v.勘探；探索；探查 (高中词汇)
• determination [di,tə:mi´neiʃən] n.决心；决定 (高中词汇)
• willingly [´wiliŋli] ad.情愿地，乐意地 (四级词汇)
• landing [´lændiŋ] n.登陆；降落；楼梯平台 (六级词汇)
• fraught [frɔ:t] a.充满...的 (六级词汇)
• hopefully [´həupfəli] ad.抱着希望地 (六级词汇)