美国国家公共电台 NPR--How the son of sharecroppers helped send the world's most powerful telescope to space

How the son of sharecroppers helped send the world's most powerful telescope to space

Transcript¹

NASA released the first batch² of images from the James Webb telescope this week, wowing the world with never-before-seen views of ancient and distant galaxies³.

The approximately $10 billion telescope was decades in the making, a partnership⁴ with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency that involved some 20,000 collaborators across 29 countries and 14 U.S. states. It finally launched in December 2021 after a long string of setbacks and delays that led some astronomers⁵ to fear it might never get off the ground.

Gregory Robinson wasn't one of them. The career NASA employee was brought in as director of the James Webb Space Telescope Program in March 2018 to help get the project back on the rails, over the finish line and into space. Despite the challenges, he tells Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep that he never doubted whether it would work.

"As we moved closer to launch and even as we launched, I never had a concern on the outcome," Robinson says. "My biggest concern was, 'Let's get on with it already, get to the launch site and get it off the ground.' "

While Robinson credits the work of many others in making the telescope a success, he's received special recognition for the role he played — including being recognized as one of TIME's most influential⁶ people of 2022.

In his tribute, NASA astrophysicist and Nobel laureate John Mather wrote that Robinson "channeled the forces of human nature and ingenuity," from NASA and Congress to foreign space agencies and aerospace⁷ companies.

"Our teams orbit around Greg, because we trust him to ask questions and understand our concerns and respect our opinions," Mather wrote. "He makes it look easy, but I can barely imagine how he does it, and I admire him tremendously for it."

Robinson — who most recently served as the deputy associate administrator⁸ for programs in NASA's Science Mission Directorate — has worked on several high-profile missions and held numerous leadership roles since joining the space agency in 1989.

But Robinson, the ninth of 11 children born to tobacco sharecroppers in rural Virginia, says he didn't exactly grow up dreaming about space ... other than watching the moon landing.

"I often refer to Webb as our Apollo moment today," he adds. "But space was not high on my list."

Gregory Robinson began his career at NASA in 1989. Before his role directing the James Webb Space Telescope Program, he was responsible for assessing NASA programs for technical and cost effectiveness, quality and performance.

Danville, Va., is less than five hours away from agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., but Robinson says his childhood was "a long way from NASA."

Under the sharecropping system, a landowner will allow people to farm their land in exchange for a portion of the crops produced. Robinson describes it as a product from slavery through Jim Crow that still continues today.

"There are lots of nuances in there ... who keeps the books, and who alters the books. And as you go through that process there's winners and there's losers," he says. "And it keeps the losers tied to the farm so they can never get away to go on and do other things."

Robinson — who began his education in a racially segregated⁹ elementary school — recalled to The Washington Post that his teachers would tell students they could do anything they wanted if they had an education, which appealed to him because he wanted to "get out of Danville and have a better life."

He tells Morning Edition he really enjoyed math and science, and had a knack¹⁰ for those subjects. He also had a knack for football, which earned him a scholarship to Virginia Union University in Richmond.

"I thought I was a top-notch football player, and for my high school and my county and my district I probably was," he says. "But when I got to college the real athletes showed up, and that was a big difference. But it was really my ticket to get to college."

He wanted to major in engineering, but Virginia Union didn't offer it. They did have a dual¹¹ degree program with Howard University, so he ended up graduating with degrees in both math and electrical engineering.

It was during Robinson's time at Howard that NASA landed on his radar¹². He recalls having friends who interned¹³ at the Goddard Space Flight Center in nearby Maryland and really enjoyed it. And while he didn't originally intend to work in the industry, he eventually made his way to NASA too.

"Once you walk through the gate and get started, the bug¹⁴ bites you fast and the bug never stops biting," he says.

His upbringing informed his work at NASA, and whatever he does next

Robinson has worked on many spaceflight and space shuttle missions over the years and held notable leadership positions, including as the deputy center director at NASA's John H. Glenn Research Center and NASA deputy chief engineer.

And he's applied¹⁵ lessons from his childhood to even his most high-tech¹⁶ projects.

Robinson says he learned a lot living through the process of school desegregation, including how to work with many different types of people.

"One of the things I learned is not everyone is bad who doesn't look like me," he says. "As a matter of fact, there are a lot of good folks who don't look like me, and we have a lot of things in common."

He also credits sports with teaching him the importance of leading, following and being a team player.

"Both of those [lessons] really helped shape me early on," he says. "And, of course, a really good strong family was important as well."

Robinson's latest mission was to get the Webb telescope to launch and through commissioning. With that done, what comes next? He laughs that he's worked himself out of a job, and says he's considering retirement¹⁷.

"Of course I have a lot of knowledge and experiences, life and professional, that I still want to share and increase impact across the globe," Robinson adds. "So I still plan to do some things, but it's time to go to the next phase of life."

The audio for this interview was produced by Lilly Quiroz and edited by Simone Popperl.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 batch   

n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量

参考例句：

• The first batch of cakes was burnt.第一炉蛋糕烤焦了。
• I have a batch of letters to answer.我有一批信要回复。

3 galaxies   

星系( galaxy的名词复数 )； 银河系； 一群（杰出或著名的人物）

参考例句：

• Quasars are the highly energetic cores of distant galaxies. 类星体是遥远星系的极为活跃的核心体。
• We still don't know how many galaxies there are in the universe. 我们还不知道宇宙中有多少个星系。

4 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

5 astronomers   

n.天文学者，天文学家( astronomer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Astronomers can accurately foretell the date,time,and length of future eclipses. 天文学家能精确地预告未来日食月食的日期、时刻和时长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings. 天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

7 aerospace   

adj.航空的，宇宙航行的

参考例句：

• The world's entire aerospace industry is feeling the chill winds of recession.全世界的航空航天工业都感受到了经济衰退的寒意。
• Edward Murphy was an aerospace engineer for the US Army.爱德华·墨菲是一名美军的航宇工程师。

8 administrator   

n.经营管理者，行政官员

参考例句：

• The role of administrator absorbed much of Ben's energy.行政职务耗掉本很多精力。
• He has proved himself capable as administrator.他表现出管理才能。

9 segregated   

分开的； 被隔离的

参考例句：

• a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
• The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。

10 knack   

n.诀窍，做事情的灵巧的，便利的方法

参考例句：

• He has a knack of teaching arithmetic.他教算术有诀窍。
• Making omelettes isn't difficult,but there's a knack to it.做煎蛋饼并不难，但有窍门。

11 dual   

adj.双的；二重的，二元的

参考例句：

• The people's Republic of China does not recognize dual nationality for any Chinese national.中华人民共和国不承认中国公民具有双重国籍。
• He has dual role as composer and conductor.他兼作曲家及指挥的双重身分。

12 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

13 interned   

v.拘留，关押( intern的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was interned but,as he was in no way implicated in war crimes,was released. 他曾被拘留过，但因未曾涉嫌战争罪行而被释放了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These soldiers were interned in a neutral country until the war was over. 这些士兵被拘留在一个中立国，直到战争结束。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

14 bug   

n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器

参考例句：

• There is a bug in the system.系统出了故障。
• The bird caught a bug on the fly.那鸟在飞行中捉住了一只昆虫。

15 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

16 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

17 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。