密歇根新闻广播 儿时的梦想铸就了今天的我

Fifty years ago this week, America crowded around television sets to watch Neil Armstrong take man's first step onto the moon. Among the viewers was a kid from East Detroit named Jerry Linenger.

That moon walk inspired the then 14-year-old to become a NASA astronaut. Linenger went on to man missions aboard two U.S. space shuttles and the Russian space station Mir, and travel some 54 million miles in space.

Stateside talks to Jerry Linenger about that fateful July day in 1969, and how he turned a childhood dream into a career.

In July of 1969, Linenger and his family were camping in Canada. The campsite was densely¹ packed, everyone gathered together with their eyes glued to a small black and white screen. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin climbed out of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module² and took the first steps onto the surface of the moon.

As he watched the scene on a generator-powered TV placed atop a picnic table, Linenger was awestruck.

Looking up at the moon I said, Our guys are up there, I told my brother Ken³, Our guys are up there. That's incredible, Linenger said. That inspired the living daylights out of me. Went home [to a] blue collar neighborhood in Detroit. Dad drove a telephone truck, five kids in the family, and I said, Dad, I want to be an astronaut some day.

Linenger took that aspiration⁴ and launched into action. After high school, he joined the Navy, and went to medical school at Wayne State University. Then, in August, 1992, he became a member of NASA's Astronaut Group 14.

Linenger's first mission to space was in 1994 aboard the space shuttle Discovery, but he's most well-known for his time aboard the Russian space station Mir. That trip marked a new, internationally collaborative chapter in space exploration history. Linenger was the first American to conduct a space walk from a foreign space station wearing a non-American space suit.

Even in a seemingly small space station, Linenger says never felt claustrophobic, and loved the feeling of weightlessness.

I was flying as if I had done that all my life, and I could be upside down talking to you right now, and I would be totally comfortable, Lingenger said. You can be up on the ceiling, you can be down on the floor, you can be standing⁵ on a wall.

During Linenger's nearly five-months on board the space station, he and his two Russian crewmates survived the most severe fire ever aboard an orbiting spacecraft.

You learn to compartmentalize the chaos⁶ around you, and use your brain and work your way through the problem, Linenger said. You keep your cool, and you survive. Then you go to a dark corner of the space station and...go through the emotion of it, and let those emotions out.

NASA's budget for fiscal⁷ year 2020 is $21 billion, up 1.4% over fiscal year 2019. Linenger says it's still important to fund development of new space technology, even in an age where space travel is not the government's top priority.

The important thing is we do something challenging and hard. And so it brings out the best in us, and so it keeps our technology on the cutting edge and competitive in the global competitive environment we find ourselves in," he explained.

These days, Linenger is enjoying life and retirement⁸ at his home in Michigan's Leelenau Peninsula. But he has some advice for others inspired by the trillions of twinkling stars beyond the earth.

To any young person, you're in the right place at the right time, and the sky is not the limit. I found out the sky is not the limit, you can go to space, and who knows where we go to [in the] next generation.”

This post was written by Stateside production assistant Catherine Nouhan.

1 densely   

ad.密集地；浓厚地

参考例句：

• A grove of trees shadowed the house densely. 树丛把这幢房子遮蔽得很密实。
• We passed through miles of densely wooded country. 我们穿过好几英里茂密的林地。

2 module   

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。

3 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

4 aspiration   

n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出

参考例句：

• Man's aspiration should be as lofty as the stars.人的志气应当象天上的星星那么高。
• Young Addison had a strong aspiration to be an inventor.年幼的爱迪生渴望成为一名发明家。

5 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

6 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

7 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

8 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。