30年后，太空穿梭机计划退休

30年后，太空穿梭机退休 After 30 years, the space shuttle program retires MARIO RITTER: I'm Mario Ritter. BARBARA KLEIN: And I'm Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. This week, we talk about the final American space shuttle flight. Last week, space shuttle Atlantis returned to Kennedy Space Center in Florida after 13 days in space. It was the last of 135 flights for the world's first reusable space vehicle design. But as one historic program came to an end this month, others continue to explore new worlds. The American space agency's Dawn spacecraft began circling Vesta, a member of the asteroid belt that orbits the sun. MARIO RITTER: And we mark an anniversary. It has been one year on Neptune since that planet was discovered. Neptune, however, is the farthest planet from the sun. It is so distant, in fact, that 165 years have passed on Earth since its discovery. (MUSIC) Shuttle Farewell BARBARA KLEIN: Sometimes the high technology of space exploration hides the human side of efforts to reach toward the stars. But, the space shuttle program has come to represent the success, and tragedy, of discovery at the limits of our world. MARIO RITTER: The first shuttle flight was nearly perfect. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, launched Columbia from Kennedy Space Center on April 12th 1981. The nation watched on television. The shuttle launch marked the completion of goals set nearly ten years earlier. Columbia raced into the sky and into history. Its 2,500,000moving parts made it the most complex and costly vehicle ever made. The spacecraft would repeat its first success 27 times. But Columbia and a crew of seven astronauts were lost on its 28th mission. On February 1st, 2003, Columbia broke up as it reentered the atmosphere. The accident sped the retirement of NASA's remaining three shuttles. BARBARA KLEIN: Seventeen years earlier, America mourned another accident. On January 28th 1986, shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after take off. President Ronald Reagan spoke of the lost crew. RONALD REAGAN: "The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us with the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them. Nor the last time we saw them this morning as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye. And slipped the surly bonds of earth, to touch the face of God." Both accidents showed the danger of manned space flight. But NASA studied its mistakes and worked to correct them. After the Challenger tragedy, Endeavor was built at a cost of 1.7 billion dollars. A total of six shuttles were built. The first, Enterprise, was a test model. NASA says the program cost about 114 billion dollars over 30 years. MARIO RITTER: Discovery holds the record for most shuttle flights with 39. It spent a total of one full year in space. Five shuttles have carried over 350 astronauts. Sally Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983. Forty-eight women have followed her. Astronauts representing 16 countries have flown in space shuttles. The spacecraft helped build the International Space Station, repair the Hubble Space Telescope and launched many satellites and space probes. So as Atlantis landed for the final time, Astronaut Chris Ferguson simply said "Mission complete, Houston." CHRIS FERGUSON: "Mission complete, Houston. After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle has earned its place in history, and it has come to a final stop." (MUSIC) Dawn to Vesta BARBARA KLEIN: Another historic event took place on July 15th. The American space agency's Dawn spacecraft began an extended orbit around the asteroid Vesta. Marc Rayman is chief engineer of the project. MARC RAYMAN: "This is the first time a spacecraft has orbited a body in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. And so to me one of the things that's so neat about this mission is we're visiting one of the last unexplored worlds in the inner Solar System." Asteroids are pieces of rock that orbit the sun. They sometimes are called planetoids, or small planets. Dawn was sent to the asteroid belt in search of information that may help scientists better understand how our solar system was formed. Marc Rayman says Vesta was chosen as Dawn's first stop because of its special qualities. MARC RAYMAN: "Many people think of asteroids as sort of little chips of rock, right? That's how they're depicted in movies, maybe the size of a building or a mountain or something like that. But Vesta is not like that. This is a very big place. It's more than 330 miles, or 530 kilometers in diameter and it's got twice the surface area of California." MARIO RITTER: Vesta is the second largest asteroid in the asteroid belt. Many scientists believe asteroids are space objects that never combined with other material to form a planet. More than 7,000 asteroids have now been identified. Most are less than 100 kilometers wide. Marc Rayman says Vesta appears to have a layered structure, one that is similar to planets like Earth, Mars and Venus. Scientists have repeatedly studied Vesta since its discovery more than 200 years ago. Most of what is known about it was learned through telescopic images. NASA hopes that Dawn's year long orbit around Vesta will help scientists learn more about the development of the solar system, and how asteroids and other space objects were created. BARBARA KLEIN: NASA launched Dawn from Cape Canaveral in Florida four years ago. The spacecraft had to travel about three billion kilometers to reach Vesta. The spacecraft will move closer and closer to the asteroid until it is eventually within 120 kilometers of Vesta's surface. After Dawn has finished collecting information, it will move on to explore its next target. MARC RAYMAN: "We will use the tremendous capabilities of this ion propulsion system to climb out of orbit around Vesta, travel for almost another three years through the asteroid belt to dwarf planet Ceres and then go into orbit around Ceres and undertake the same kind of measurements there that we'll be doing at Vesta. And that will make Dawn the first spacecraft ever to orbit two different Solar System destinations." Ceres was once considered the largest asteroid. It was discovered in 1801. Now it is defined as a dwarf planet. (MUSIC) Happy Birthday, Neptune! MARIO RITTER: This month, Neptune completed one full orbit around the sun since its discovery 165 years ago. The big, blue, icy planet was first discovered in 1846. Neptune remains the first, and only, planet found with math. The French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier predicted its existence while studying the unusual orbital movements of the planet Uranus. He believed a more distant planet was affecting Uranus' motion. He sent his predictions to a German astronomer at the Berlin Observatory. Using information from Le Verrier, Johann Galle saw Neptune for the first time on September 23rd, 1846. A British astronomer named John Couch Adams had also predicted Neptune's position in space. Both are given credit for first predicting the position. BARBARA KLEIN: Neptune is named for the Roman god of the sea. The planet's orbit lies about four billion five hundred million kilometers from the sun. That is about 30 times further away than Earth. Neptune is the most distant member of our solar system. It cannot be seen from Earth without the aid of binoculars or a telescope. The planet's atmosphere is made up mostly of hydrogen, helium and methane. Its blue-green color is caused by methane gases in the outer atmosphere. Most of what we know about Neptune comes from NASA's Voyager Two spacecraft. It was the first and only space probe to visit the planet in 1989. MARIO RITTER: Thirteen known moons circle Neptune. The largest of these is called Triton. It was discovered just days after Neptune's discovery in 1846. Voyager Two discovered six of the moons during its flight around the planet. It also confirmed the existence of rings around the planet. Neptune is one of four planets known as the gas giants. The other three are Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. These planets are made up almost entirely of gas. They are also four to 12 times the size of earth. Earlier this month, on July 12th, Neptune reached the same area in the sky that it occupied when it was first observed by Johann Galle. So this year, you could say, Neptune is celebrating its first birthday since being discovered. BARBARA KLEIN: This program was written by June Simms. I'm Barbara Klein with Mario Ritter who is also our producer. Find links to NASA's space shuttle pages and also images of Neptune at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more Explorations in VOA Special English. asteroid: any one of the many small planets which go around the sun 小行星 Ceres: 谷神星(以罗马农业女神命名, 代表女性生儿育女) Neptune: a planet in the solar system that is 8th in order of distance from the sun 海王星 helium: a chemical element; Helium is a very light colourless gas that does not burn, often used to fill balloons and to freeze food. 氦 methane: a gas without colour or smell, and it burns easily and is used as fuel. Natural gas consists mainly of methane. 甲烷;沼气 马里奥:我是马里奥?。 巴巴拉?克莱因:我是巴巴拉克莱因探索在美国之音特别英语。这个星期，我们谈论最后美国航天飞机飞行。上周，亚特兰蒂斯号航天飞机返回佛罗里达州的甘乃迪航天中心在经过13天的空间。这是最后135个航班，为世界上第一个可重复使用的航天器设计。 但作为一个历史性的程序来结束这个月，其他人继续探索新世界。美国太空总署的曙光号开始环绕灶神星，一个成员的小行星带环绕太阳。 马里奥:我们的周年纪念。它已经一年以来，发现了海王星的行星。海王星，然而，是离太阳最远的行星。它是如此遥远，事实上，已经过去了165年以来地球上发现。 (音乐) 航天飞机的告别 巴巴拉克莱因:有时高技术的太空探索隐藏的人性的一面，努力达到对星星。但是，太空穿梭机计划来代表成功，和悲剧，发现在限制我们的世界。 马里奥:第一次航天飞机飞行几乎是完美的。 美国国家航空航天局，美国航空航天局，推出了哥伦比亚从甘乃迪航天中心于四月十二日1981。国家电视上看。航天飞机发射标志着完成目标集近十年前。 哥伦比亚跑入天空，成为历史。25个00000个运动部件使最复杂和昂贵的车了。宇宙飞船的第一次成功，27次重复。 但哥伦比亚和一组七名宇航员进行了第二十八项任务。2003年2月1日，哥伦比亚分手了因为它重返大气层。 意外加速退休的美国宇航局的剩余的三架航天飞机。 巴巴拉克莱因:十七年前，美国为另一个意外。一月二十八日1986，挑战者号航天飞机爆炸后不久，脱下。 罗纳德总统里根谈到失落的船员。 罗纳德里根:“挑战者号航天飞机机组人员的尊敬我们的方式，他们住在自己的生命。我们永远不会忘记他们。特别是最后一次我们看到他们今天早上当他们准备上路，挥手再见。和挣脱地球的束缚，去触摸上帝的脸。” 事故显示危险的载人太空飞行。但美国宇航局研究了其错误并改正。 在挑战者号的悲剧，努力建造成本1700000000美元。共有六架航天飞机建造。第一，企业，是一个测试模型。美国宇航局说，该计划的成本约114000000000美元超过30年。 马里奥:发现保持着最多的航天飞机飞行39。它总共花了一整年的空间。五航天飞机进行了超过350名宇航员。萨莉赖德成为美国第一位在太空1983。四十八个女人跟着她。 代表16个国家的宇航员在航天飞机飞行。航天器帮助建立了国际空间站，维修哈伯太空望 远镜和发射了许多卫星和空间探测器。 所以作为亚特兰蒂斯号降落的最后时间，宇航员克里斯?福格森说“任务完成，休斯敦。” 克里斯:“任务完成，休斯敦。之后，全世界超过30年，太空梭赢得了它在历史上的地位，并已到最后你给我站住。” (音乐) 黎明灶神星 巴巴拉克莱因:另一个历史性的事件发生在七月十五日。美国太空总署的黎明号飞船开始了一个扩展的轨道在小行星灶神星。 马克?莱曼是该项工程的总工程师。 马克?莱曼:“这是第一次一个飞船绕身体在火星和木星之间的小行星带。于是我一件很整洁这个使命是我们参观的最后一个未知的世界，在太阳系内。” 小行星岩石碎片，太阳的轨道。他们有时被称为小行星，或小的行星。 黎明被送往小行星带搜索的信息，可以帮助科学家更好地了解我们的太阳系形成。马克?莱曼说灶神星被选为黎明前你给我站住因为其独特的品质。 马克?莱曼:“很多人认为小行星的小芯片的石头，对吗,这就是他们所描绘的电影，也许规模的建筑物或山脉之类的。但灶神星不是那样的。这是一个非常大的地方。它超过330英里，或530公里直径的两倍的表面积的加利福尼亚。” 马里奥:灶神星是最大的小行星在小行星带。许多科学家认为，小行星的空间物体，不会与其他材料形成一个星球。超过7000颗小行星现在已确定。大多数都小于100公里宽。 马克?莱曼说灶神星似乎具有层状结构，一个类似的行星像地球一样，火星和金星。 科学家们反复研究灶神星自从发现200年前。大多数是了解它是通过图像伸缩。美国国家航空航天局希望黎明的新年灶神星轨道将帮助科学家了解发展的太阳能系统，以及如何小行星和其他空间对象的创建。 巴巴拉?克莱因:美国宇航局发射的黎明在佛罗里达州卡纳维拉尔角四年前。飞船前往约三十亿公里到达灶神星。飞船将接近的小行星，直到它最终在120公里的灶神星的表面。 天亮后已完成收集资料，它将继续在探索它的下一个目标。 马克?莱曼:“我们将用巨大的能力，这种离子推进系统爬出来的灶神星轨道，旅游近三年通过的小行星带，矮行星谷神星，然后进入轨道环绕谷神星和进行这种测量，我们会在维斯塔。这将使黎明的第一个航天器的轨道不同的太阳能系统的目的地。” 谷神星曾经被认为是最大的小行星。它被发现于1801。现在它被定义为矮行星。 (音乐) 生日快乐，海王星～ 马里奥:这个月，海王星完成一个完整的轨道围绕太阳自165年前发现。大，蓝色的星球，是首次发现在1846。 海王星是第一，只有发现的星球，与数学。法国数学家的乐维内尔预测其存在，学习不寻常的轨道运动的行星天王星。他认为更遥远的行星天王星运动的影响。他派他的预测德国天文学家在柏林天文台。 利用信息从维内尔，约翰?加勒发现海王星的第一时间1846年9月23日。英国天文学家亚当斯?库奇也预测海王星的位置空间。进行信用第一预测的位置。 巴巴拉克莱因:海王星得名于罗马神海。该行星的轨道位于约四十五亿公里的太阳。这是约30倍，远比地球。海王星是我们太阳系最远的成员。它不能从地球看不借助双筒望远镜或望远镜。 该行星的大气主要由氢，氦和甲烷。它的蓝绿色的颜色是由甲烷气体在外大气层。 大多数我们所知道的海王星来自美国宇航局的旅行者2号航天器。这是第一个也是唯一的空 间探测器光临地球在1989。 马里奥:十三颗已知的卫星绕海王星。其中最大的是海神。它被发现后不久，发现海王星的1846。旅行者2号发现六的月亮绕地球飞行时。这也证实了存在的环围绕地球。 海王星是一个已知的四颗行星的气体巨星。其他三个是木星，土星和天王星。这些行星的组成几乎完全气体。他们也在四至12倍地球大小的。 本月早些时候，七月十二日，海王星到天空中的同一地区，它被占领时，它是第一次观察到约翰?加勒。这一年，你可以说，海王星是庆祝第一个生日因为被发现。 巴巴拉?克莱因:这个计划是六月写的?。我是巴巴拉克莱因和马里奥谁是我们的制作人。发现链接到美国宇航局的航天飞机网页和图像海王星在。”。下周再次加入我们的美国之音特别英语更多的探索。 小行星:任何一个许多小的行星绕太阳小行星 谷神星:谷神星(以罗马农业女神命名，代表女性生儿育女) 海王星是太阳系的行星是第八，与太阳的距离海王星 氦的化学元素;氦气是一种很轻的无色气体，不燃烧，通常用于填充气球和冷冻食品。氦 甲烷:一种无色无臭的气体，它极易燃烧，用作燃料。天然气主要由甲烷构成。甲烷沼气;