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VOA慢速英语2011--American History: The Space Race

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THE MAKING OF A NATION - American History: The Space Race

STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember.
(SOUND: Radio signals from Sputnik)
On a cold October day in nineteen fifty-seven, the Soviet1 Union launched a small satellite into orbit around the Earth. Radio Moscow made the announcement.
RADIO MOSCOW: "The first artificial Earth satellite in the world has now been created. This first satellite was today successfully launched in the USSR."
The world's first satellite was called Sputnik 1. Sputnik was an important propaganda2 victory for the Soviets3 in the Cold War with the United States.
Many people believed the nation that controlled space could win any war. And the Soviet Union had reached outer space first.
(MUSIC)
The technology that launched Sputnik probably began in the late nineteenth century. A Russian teacher of that time, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, decided4 that a rocket engine could provide power for a space vehicle.
In the early nineteen hundreds, another teacher -- American Robert Goddard -- tested the idea. He experimented with small rockets to see how high and how far they could travel. In nineteen twenty-three, a Romanian student in Germany, Hermann Oberth, showed how a spaceship might be built and launched to other planets.
Rocket technology improved during World War Two. It was used to produce flying bombs.
(SOUND: V-1 bomb)
Thousands of people in Britain and Belgium died as a result of V-1 and V-2 rocket attacks. The rockets were launched from Germany. The larger V-2 rocket had the ability to hit the United States.
After the war, it became clear that the United States and the Soviet Union -- allies5 in wartime -- would become enemies in peacetime. So, both countries employed German scientists to help them win the race to space.
(SOUND: Radio signals from Sputnik)
The Soviets took the first step by creating Sputnik. This satellite was about the size of a basketball. It got its power from a rocket. It orbited Earth for three months.
Within weeks, the Soviets launched another satellite into Earth orbit, Sputnik 2. It was much bigger and heavier than Sputnik 1. It also carried a passenger: a dog named Laika. Laika orbited Earth for seven days (but died after several hours.)
(MUSIC)
The United States joined the space race about three months later. It launched a satellite from Cape6 Canaveral, in the southeastern state of Florida. This satellite was called Explorer 1. It weighed about fourteen kilograms. Explorer One went into a higher orbit than either Sputnik. And its instruments made an important discovery. They found an area of radiation about nine hundred-sixty kilometers above Earth.
The next major space victory belonged to the Soviets. They sent the first man into space. In April nineteen sixty-one, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was launched in the vehicle known as Vostok. He remained in space for less than two hours. He landed safely by parachute near a village in Russia.
Less than a month later, the United States sent its first astronaut into space. He was Alan Shepard. Shepard remained in space only about fifteen minutes. He did not go into Earth orbit. That flight came in February, nineteen sixty-two, with John Glenn.
By nineteen sixty-five, the United States and the Soviet Union were experimenting to see if humans could survive outside a spacecraft. In March, Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first person to do so. A strong tether connected Leonov to the spacecraft. The tether gave him oxygen to breathe. And it permitted him to float freely at the other end.
After about ten minutes, Leonov had to return to the spacecraft. He said he regretted the decision. He was having such a good time!
A little more than two months later, an American would walk outside his spacecraft. Astronaut Edward White had a kind of rocket gun. This gave him some control of his movements in space. Like Leonov, White was sorry when he had to return to his spacecraft.
Later that year, nineteen sixty-five, the United States tried to have one spacecraft get very close to another spacecraft while in orbit. This was the first step in getting spacecraft to link, or dock7, together. Docking8 would be necessary to land men on the moon. The plan called for a Gemini spacecraft carrying two astronauts to get close to an unmanned satellite.
The attempt failed. The target satellite exploded as it separated from its main rocket. America's space agency decided to move forward. It would launch the next in its Gemini series. Then someone had an idea: why not launch both Geminis. The second one could chase the first one, instead of a satellite. Again, things did not go as planned.
It took two tries to launch the second Gemini. By that time, the first one had been in orbit about eleven days. Time was running out. The astronauts on the second Gemini moved their spacecraft into higher orbits. They got closer and closer to the Gemini ahead of them. They needed to get within six hundred meters to be considered successful.
After all the problems on the ground, the events in space went smoothly9. The two spacecraft got within one-third of a meter of each other. The astronauts had made the operation seem easy.
In January nineteen fifty-nine, the Soviets launched a series of unmanned Luna rockets. The third of these flights took pictures of the far side of the moon. This was the side no one on Earth had ever seen. The United States planned to explore the moon with its unmanned Ranger10 spacecraft.
There were a number of failures before Ranger 7 took pictures of the moon. These pictures were made from a distance. The world did not get pictures from the surface of the moon until the Soviet Luna 9 landed there in February, nineteen sixty-six.
For the next few years, both the United States and Soviet Union continued their exploration of the moon. Yet the question remained: which one would be the first to put a man there. In December, nineteen sixty-eight, the United States launched Apollo 8 with three astronauts. The flight proved that a spacecraft could orbit the moon and return to Earth safely.
The Apollo 9 spacecraft had two vehicles. One was the command module11. It could orbit the moon, but could not land on it. The other was the Lunar module. On a flight to the moon, it would separate from the command module and land on the moon's surface. Apollo 10 astronauts unlinked the Lunar module and flew it close to the moon's surface.
(SOUND)
After those flights, everything was ready.
NASA ANNOUNCER: "Twelve ... eleven ... ten ... nine ... ignition sequence start ... six ... five ... four ... three ... two ... one … zero. All engines running. Liftoff. We have a liftoff. Thirty-two minutes past the hour, liftoff of Apollo 11.”
On July sixteenth, nineteen sixty-nine, three American astronauts lifted off in Apollo 11. On the twentieth, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin entered the Lunar module, called the Eagle. Michael Collins remained in the command module, the Columbia.
The two vehicles separated.
(SOUND)
It was a dangerous time. The Eagle could crash. Or it could fall over after it landed. That meant the astronauts would die on the moon.
Millions of people watched on television or listened on the radio. They waited for Armstrong's message.
NEIL ARMSTRONG: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”
The Eagle has landed. Then they waited again. It took the astronauts more than three hours to complete the preparations needed to leave the Lunar module.
Finally, the door opened. Neil Armstrong climbed down first. He put one foot on the moon. Then, the other foot. And then came his words, from so far away:
NEIL ARMSTRONG: “That's one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind."
STEVE EMBER: That's one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.
WALTER CRONKITE: “Man on the Moon. Oh, boy! Whew, boy!
RADIO COMMUNICATIONS: “OK, were gonna be busy for a minute.”
CBS Television newsman Walter Cronkite shared the excitement that he and so many people felt as man first walked on the surface of the moon.
Years later, Cronkite would remember the historical significance (importance) of that moment in nineteen sixty-nine.
WALTER CRONKITE: “It’s hard, I think, to imagine our emotions at the moment. It really was something that had to grip you. It was as if you could have stood at the dock and waved goodbye to Columbus. You knew darn good and well that this was the real history in the making.”
Armstrong walked around. Soon, Aldrin joined him.
NASA RADIO COMMUNICATION: “They’re setting up the flag now.”
The two men placed an American flag on the surface of the moon. They also collected moon rocks and soil.
When it was time to leave, they returned to the Eagle and guided it safely away. They reunited with the Columbia and headed for home. The United States had won the race to the moon.
WALTER CRONKITE: “The thing that made this one particularly gripping was that sense of history -- that, if this was successful, this was a date that was going to be in all the history books, for time evermore. I think we sensed that at the time, sitting there at the Cape [Canaveral], watching that great beast get on its way, that this was it.”
(MUSIC)
You can find our series online with transcripts12, MP3s, podcasts and pictures at voanews.cn. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. I’m Steve Ember, inviting13 you to join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English.
___
Contributing: Jerilyn Watson
This was program #208. For earlier programs, type "Making of a Nation" in quotation14 marks in the search box at the top of the page.


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1 Soviet Sw9wR     
adj.苏联的,苏维埃的;n.苏维埃
参考例句:
  • Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
  • Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。
2 propaganda 20gzs     
n.宣传,宣传机构
参考例句:
  • A lot of propaganda has painted him as bad.大量宣传把他说得很坏。
  • Art may be used as a vehicle for propaganda.艺术可以用作为宣传的媒介。
3 soviets 95fd70e5832647dcf39beb061b21c75e     
苏维埃(Soviet的复数形式)
参考例句:
  • A public challenge could provoke the Soviets to dig in. 公开挑战会促使苏联人一意孤行。
  • The Soviets proposed the withdrawal of American ballistic-missile submarines from forward bases. 苏联人建议把美国的弹道导弹潜艇从前沿基地撤走。
4 decided lvqzZd     
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
参考例句:
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
5 allies 0315fa8e6410a54cc80a4eb2babcda27     
联盟国,同盟者; 同盟国,同盟者( ally的名词复数 ); 支持者; 盟军
参考例句:
  • The allies would fear that they were pawns in a superpower condominium. 这个联盟担心他们会成为超级大国共管的牺牲品。
  • A number of the United States' allies had urged him not to take a hasty decision. 美国的一些盟友已力劝他不要急于作决定。
6 cape ITEy6     
n.海角,岬;披肩,短披风
参考例句:
  • I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
  • She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。
7 dock GsQx9     
n.码头;被告席;vt.使(船)进港;扣;vi.进港
参考例句:
  • We took the children to the dock to see the ships.我们带孩子们到码头去看轮船。
  • The corrupt official stood in the dock.那贪官站在被告席上。
8 docking 1f09edca718cff07e4fc0d8ffa8f3303     
n.扣工资
参考例句:
  • The tug eased into the narrow docking space. 拖船小心地驶入狭窄的码头停泊处。
  • Rendezvous and docking stood fourth in the list of objectives. 第四个目标是实现飞船的会合与对接。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史
9 smoothly iiUzLG     
adv.平滑地,顺利地,流利地,流畅地
参考例句:
  • The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作,所以工作进展顺利。
  • Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。
10 ranger RTvxb     
n.国家公园管理员,护林员;骑兵巡逻队员
参考例句:
  • He was the head ranger of the national park.他曾是国家公园的首席看守员。
  • He loved working as a ranger.他喜欢做护林人。
11 module iEjxj     
n.组件,模块,模件;(航天器的)舱
参考例句:
  • The centre module displays traffic guidance information.中央模块显示交通引导信息。
  • Two large tanks in the service module held liquid oxygen.服务舱的两个大气瓶中装有液态氧。
12 transcripts 525c0b10bb61e5ddfdd47d7faa92db26     
n.抄本( transcript的名词复数 );转写本;文字本;副本
参考例句:
  • Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样,都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
  • You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书,你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句
13 inviting CqIzNp     
adj.诱人的,引人注目的
参考例句:
  • An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
  • The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人,使人感到亲切温馨。
14 quotation 7S6xV     
n.引文,引语,语录;报价,牌价,行情
参考例句:
  • He finished his speech with a quotation from Shakespeare.他讲话结束时引用了莎士比亚的语录。
  • The quotation is omitted here.此处引文从略。

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