VOA常速英语:美国最后一位最早的航天英雄

John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the earth, once said that “To sit back and let fate play its hand out and never influence it is not the way man was meant to operate.”
约翰·格伦是首位绕地球轨道飞行的美国宇航员，他曾说“向后坐、让命运发挥作用、从不施加影响，这不是人应该运作的方式。”

John Glenn, who died on December 8 at the age of 95, lived by these words throughout his life.
约翰·格伦在12月8号去世、享年95岁，他一生都以这些话为座右铭。

John Glenn learned how to fly while attending college in 1939.During the day he studied chemistry, and in his spare time, he took flying lessons.Shortly after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, he left college to join the Marines,flying fighter planes in the Pacific theater during the Second World War, and later in the Korean conflict.
约翰·格伦在1939年上大学时学习如何驾驶飞机。大学期间，他主修化学，利用业余时间，他报了飞行课。1941年日军轰炸珍珠港后不久，他离开大学、加入海军陆战队，二战期间他在太平洋战场上驾驶战斗机，之后又参加了朝鲜战争。

In 1959, the newly-formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, put out a call for test pilots.Of the 508 candidates, seven men, including John Glenn, were chosen for astronaut training.These were the Mercury 7, America’s space pioneers.John Glenn did not get his wish of becoming the first man in space,but he did become the first American in deep space, orbiting the earth three times on February 20th, 1962.
1959年，新组建的美国国家航空航天局（NASA）招录试飞员。从508名候选者中选出7位参加航天员训练，其中就包括约翰·格伦。他们参加的任务是水星7号计划，他们是美国航天先驱。约翰·格伦没有实现当宇宙第一人的梦想，但他却成了探索深层太空的第一个美国人，他在1962年2月20日绕地球轨道飞行3周。

At the time, few members of the public realized the dangers involved in space flight. “The risks were incredibly high,” said then- NASA Flight Director Gene Krantz. “And you know, when we put John Glenn on board a rocket, he was flying the 6th Atlas and 2 of the previous 5 had blown up.”
在那时，很少有人意识到太空航行存在的危险。“这些风险出奇地高，”当时的美国国家航空航天局飞行指挥官吉恩·格朗兹说。“并且要知道，当我们把约翰·格伦送上火箭时，他乘坐的是第6架阿特拉斯火箭，过去的5架中有2架已经爆炸。”

Discouraged by lack of flight assignments in the Apollo moonshot program that followed Mercury, John Glenn left NASA in 1964. For the next decade, he worked in the private sector. Eventually, he ran for the U.S. Senate and, after two failed attempts, won a seat in 1974.
约翰·格伦由于在水星任务后没有获得阿波罗号登月计划的飞行任务而倍感沮丧，他于1964年离开美国国家航空航天局。在接下来的10年，他在私营部门工作。最终他参加了美国参议院的竞选，历经两次失败后，于1974年获得参议员席位。

He would represent Ohio for 24 years.And just before he ended his political career,at the age of 77, he became the oldest person to fly in space as a crew member of the Discovery space shuttle.
他当选为俄亥俄州参议员长达24年。就在他结束政治生涯前不久，他以77岁的高龄参与飞行任务，成为发现号航天飞机中最年长的航天员。

“John spent his life breaking barriers,from defending our freedom as a decorated Marine Corps fighter pilot in World War II and Korea,to setting a transcontinental speed record, to becoming, at age 77, the oldest human to touch the stars,” said President Barack Obama.
“约翰一生都在打破阻碍，从二战和朝鲜战争中的一名捍卫自由的授勋海军陆战队飞行员，到创造了横贯美国的飞行速度记录，再到77岁时成为探索外太空的最年长者，”总统巴拉克·奥巴马说。

“The last of America’s first astronauts has left us, but propelled by their example,we know that our future here on Earth compels us to keep reaching for the heavens.”
“美国首批航天员中的最后一位已经离开我们，但在榜样的推动下，我们知道我们在地球上的未来会迫使我们探索外太空。”