Giant leap for women

In the last century, a series of missions have been carried out to explore the moon – Earth’s only natural satellite. Among them, NASA’s Apollo 11 mission was groundbreaking as it succeeded in landing the first humans on the moon on July 20, 1969.
月球是地球唯一的天然卫星，人们在上世纪进行了一系列探月任务。其中，美国航空航天局的阿波罗11号具有开创性意义，1969年7月20日，人类在该任务中首次成功登上月球。

Several decades later, NASA announced its Artemis program. Named after the Greek goddess of the moon and twin sister of Apollo, the Artemis program will send humans to the moon by the year 2024. And this time, the moon will welcome its first female astronaut.
几十年后，美国航空航天局公布了阿尔忒弥斯项目。该项目以古希腊的月亮女神、阿波罗的孪生姐妹之名命名，将于2024年把宇航员送往月球。与此同时，月球也将迎来首位女性宇航员。

Up until now, only 12 people, all male, have ever walked on the moon. “The last person walked on the Moon in 1972,” Bettina Inclan, NASA communications director said in a statement. “No woman has ever walked on the lunar surface.”
截止目前，仅有12位男性宇航员登上月球。“上一位登月的人还是在1972年，”美国航空航天局宣传总监贝蒂娜·因克莱恩在一份声明中如此表示。“还没有女性登上月球表面。”

But the Artemis program will change this.
但阿尔忒弥斯项目将改变这一局面。

Women, of course, have been involved in space projects and made valuable contributions. In 1963, astronaut Valentina Tereshkova from the Soviet Union became the first woman to blast off into space.
当然，女性一直都在参与航天项目，并做出了宝贵贡献。1963年，来自苏联的宇航员瓦莲京娜·捷列什科娃成为了首位进入太空的女性。

However, the progress toward women’s access to space flight programs has been slow. Women have been held back by various requirements and security concerns. For example, astronauts had to be test pilots with a certain amount of experience. This was a problem as the field was dominated by males at the time. Indeed, the gender bias seemed to exist in the early space programs, The New York Times reported.
然而，女性在进入航天飞行项目方面的进展较为缓慢，受到了各种要求与安全顾虑的影响。比如，宇航员需为拥有一定经验的试飞员。这成了一个问题，因为当时该领域多为男性主导。据《纽约时报》报道，性别歧视在早期的航天计划中似乎的确存在。

In 1962, NASA wrote to a little girl who wanted to be an astronaut. The letter said, “We have no present plans to employ women on spaceflights because of the degree of scientific and flight training, and the physical characteristics, which are required.”
1962年，美国航空航天局给一位想要当宇航员的小女孩写信。信中写道：“由于科学与飞行训练的程度以及身体特征等原因的需要，目前在航天飞行方面我们并没有雇用女性的计划。”

Women have indeed made progress in this particular area, and arguably have advantages over their male colleagues. Women tend to be smaller, which means they use less oxygen and take up less space in small spacecrafts. Also, women usually have greater emotional awareness and communication skills that make them better-suited to long spaceflights.
女性在这一特定领域确实有所进步，并且可以说比男性更有优势。女性通常身材娇小，这意味着她们在小型航天器中的耗氧量以及所占空间都更小。此外，女性通常拥有更好的情感认知与沟通技能，更适应长途航天飞行。

Despite challenges, women have shown that they are more than capable of joining that elite group of men who have gone to the moon. And this will truly be a remarkable moment in history.
尽管遇到了各种挑战，但女性仍展现出了出色的能力，完全能够成为登月精英群体中的一员。而这将真正成为历史上的非凡时刻。

以上文章内容选自《21世纪学生英文报高中版》，详情请见《21世纪学生英文报高中版》高三725期