亿万富翁上太空说了什么？

近日，英国维珍银河公司（Virgin Galactic）创始人、亿万富翁理查德·布兰森（Richard Branson）乘坐自家飞行器进入太空。布兰森在太空中激动发言，称自己曾是仰望星空的少年，如今成年后飞向宇宙。舱内其余几位同行者欣喜体验失重感受。

无注释原文：

Branson Completes Virgin Galactic Flight, Aiming to Open Up Space Tourism

The New York Times

Soaring more than 50 miles into the hot, glaringly bright skies above New Mexico, Richard Branson at last fulfilled a dream that took decades to realize: He can now call himself an astronaut.

On Sunday morning, a small rocket plane operated by Virgin Galactic, which Mr. Branson founded in 2004, carried him and five other people to the edge of space and back.

More than an hour later, Mr. Branson took the stage to celebrate. “The whole thing was magical,” he said.

Later, during a news conference, Mr. Branson was still giddy, saying “I don’t know what’s going to come out of my mouth because I feel I’m still in space.”

Mr. Branson’s flight reinforces the hopes of space enthusiasts that routine travel to the final frontier may soon be available to private citizens, not just the professional astronauts of NASA and other space agencies. Another billionaire with his own rocket company — Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon — has plans to make a similar jaunt to the edge of space in nine days.

In each case, billionaire entrepreneurs are risking injury or death to fulfill their childhood aspirations — and advance the goal of making human spaceflight unexceptional.

“They’re putting their money where their mouth is, and they’re putting their body where their money is,” said Eric Anderson, chairman of Space Adventures Limited, a company that charters launches to orbit. “That’s impressive, frankly.”

At 8:40 a.m. Mountain time, a carrier aircraft, with the rocket plane, named V.S.S. Unity, tucked underneath, rose off the runway and headed to an altitude of about 45,000 feet. There, Unity was released, and a few moments later, its rocket motor ignited, accelerating the space plane on an upward arc.

Although Unity had made three previous trips to space, this was its first launch that resembled a full commercial flight of the sort that Virgin Galactic has promised to offer the general public, with two pilots — David Mackay and Michael Masucci — and four more crew members including Mr. Branson.

This flight resembled a party for Virgin Galactic and the nascent space tourism business. Guests included Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX; Michelle Lujan Grisham, the governor of New Mexico; and about 60 customers who have paid for future Virgin Galactic flights.

Stephen Colbert of the CBS program “The Late Show” introduced segments of the webcast. After the landing, the R&B singer Khalid performed a new song.

When the fuel was spent, Unity continued to coast upward to an altitude of 53.5 miles. The four people in back unbuckled and experienced about four minutes of floating before returning to their seats.

Mr. Branson was accompanied in the cabin by Beth Moses, the company’s chief astronaut instructor; Colin Bennett, lead operations engineer; and Sirisha Bandla, vice president of government affairs and research operations.

Mr. Bennett said that he was busy with tasks during the first part of the flight and then he heard Ms. Moses shouting, “Don’t forget to look out the window.”

He did. “It’s very zen,” Mr. Bennett said of the view of Earth below. “What jumped out at me were the colors and just how far away it looked. It felt like we were just so far up there, and I was just mesmerized.”

Ms. Bandla’s role was to evaluate another market Virgin Galactic is targeting: scientists doing research that takes advantage of minutes of microgravity. She conducted an experiment from the University of Florida which looked at how plants react to the changing conditions — particularly the swings in gravity — during the flight, part of research that could aid growing food on future long-duration space missions.

As the space plane re-entered the atmosphere, the downward pull of gravity resumed. Unity glided to a landing back at the spaceport.

Michael Moses, president of Virgin Galactic, said the flight appeared to go flawlessly. “The ship looks pristine, no issues whatsoever,” Mr. Moses said.

- ◆ -

注：中文文本为纽约时报官方译文，仅供参考

含注释全文：

Branson Completes Virgin Galactic Flight, Aiming to Open Up Space Tourism

亿万富翁布兰森圆梦，太空旅游离我们还有多远？

The New York Times

Soaring more than 50 miles into the hot, glaringly bright skies above New Mexico, Richard Branson at last fulfilled a dream that took decades to realize: He can now call himself an astronaut.

新墨西哥州美国太空港——理查德·布兰森(Richard Branson)在新墨西哥州炎热明亮的天空中翱翔了50多英里，终于实现了他花费几十年才实现的梦想：他现在可以称自己为宇航员了。

1）表示“急剧增加”，英文解释为“If the amount, value, level, or volume of something soars, it quickly increases by a great deal.”举个🌰：

Shares soared on the New York stock exchange.

纽约证券交易所股票暴涨。

2）表示“高飞，翱翔”，英文解释为“If something such as a bird soars into the air, it goes quickly up into the air.”举个🌰：

If you're lucky, a splendid golden eagle may soar into view.

幸运的话，一只金色雄鹰会跃入视线。

3）作动词，表示“升空；升腾”，英文解释为“to rise quickly and smoothly up into the air”举个🌰：

The rocket soared (up) into the air.

火箭升空。

📍《经济学人》（The Economist）一篇分析受疫情影响的旅游业的文章中提到：Soaring incomes in China explain part of the increase. 这一增长的部分原因是中国人收入猛增。

On Sunday morning, a small rocket plane operated by Virgin Galactic, which Mr. Branson founded in 2004, carried him and five other people to the edge of space and back.

周日上午，他于2004年创立的维珍银河（Virgin Galactic）运营的一架小型火箭飞机载着他和其他五人到达太空边缘并返回。

More than an hour later, Mr. Branson took the stage to celebrate. “The whole thing was magical,” he said.

一个多小时后，布兰森走上讲坛庆祝。“整件事都很神奇，”他说。

表示“登台演出/表演/演讲”，英文解释为“To walk onto a stage, as to begin a performance, deliver a speech, etc.”

Later, during a news conference, Mr. Branson was still giddy, saying “I don’t know what’s going to come out of my mouth because I feel I’m still in space.”

在随后的新闻发布会上，布兰森仍然很兴奋，他说：“我不知道自己会说出什么，因为我觉得自己还在太空里。”

giddy /ˈɡɪdɪ/ 表示“飘飘然的”，英文解释为“feeling silly, happy, and excited and showing this in your behaviour”举个🌰：

She was giddy with excitement.

她激动得飘飘然的。

Mr. Branson's flight reinforces the hopes of space enthusiasts that routine travel to the final frontier may soon be available to private citizens, not just the professional astronauts of NASA and other space agencies. Another billionaire with his own rocket company — Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon — has plans to make a similar jaunt to the edge of space in nine days.

布兰森的飞行增强了太空爱好者们的希望——不久之后，不仅是NASA和其他太空机构的专业宇航员，普通人可能享受前往天际的常规旅游。另一位拥有自己的火箭公司的亿万富翁——亚马逊创始人杰夫·贝佐斯（Jeff Bezos）——计划在九天内进行一次类似的太空边缘旅行。

1）表示“加强；充实；使更强烈”，英文解释为“to make a feeling, an idea, etc. stronger”举个🌰：

Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes.

这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。 

2）表示“加固；使更结实”，英文解释为“to make a structure or material stronger, especially by adding another material to it”举个🌰：

All buildings are now reinforced to withstand earthquakes.

所有建筑现都已加固，以抗地震。

表示“（短途）旅行，游览；远足”，英文解释为“a short journey for pleasure, sometimes including a stay”。

In each case, billionaire entrepreneurs are risking injury or death to fulfill their childhood aspirations — and advance the goal of making human spaceflight unexceptional.

两件事都是亿万富翁企业家冒着受伤或死亡的风险来实现童年愿望，并推进让人类太空飞行变得平凡的目标。

“They're putting their money where their mouth is, and they're putting their body where their money is,” said Eric Anderson, chairman of Space Adventures Limited, a company that charters launches to orbit. “That's impressive, frankly.”

“他们真正行动起来，他们身体力行。”负责将火箭发射到轨道的公司太空探险有限公司（Space Adventures Limited）的主席埃里克·安德森（Eric Anderson）说。“说真的，这让人很钦佩。”

表示“以实际行动支持；以行动证明自己的话”，英文解释为“to show by your actions and not just your words that you support or believe in something”。

表示“包租（飞机、船等）”，英文解释为“to hire/rent a plane, boat, etc. for your own use”举个🌰：

They've chartered a plane to take delegates to the conference.

他们包了一架飞机送代表参加会议。

📺美剧《罪恶黑名单》（The Blacklist）第2季第6集中的台词提到：Who chartered the planes? 谁租的飞机？

At 8:40 a.m. Mountain time, a carrier aircraft, with the rocket plane, named V.S.S. Unity, tucked underneath, rose off the runway and headed to an altitude of about 45,000 feet. There, Unity was released, and a few moments later, its rocket motor ignited, accelerating the space plane on an upward arc.

北美山区时间上午8点40分，一架运输机载着名为“VSS团结”（V.S.S. Unity）的火箭飞机从跑道上起飞，前往约4.5万英尺的高度。在那里，“团结”号被释放了，几分钟后，它的火箭发动机点火，使这架太空飞机加速上升。

表示“把…夹入；把…藏入；把…塞入”，英文解释为“to put something into a safe or convenient place”举个🌰：

Eventually I found the certificate tucked under a pile of old bills.

最后我发现证书压在一堆旧账单下。

🎬电影《消失的爱人》（Gone Girl）中的台词提到：Gotta make sure nothing's tucked inside. 我得确保你没落任何东西。

表示“在…底下；在…下面”，英文解释为“under or below”举个🌰：

He was wearing a garish T-shirt underneath his shirt.

他在衬衫里面穿了件花哨的T恤衫。

🚀altitude表示“海拔；海拔高度；高程”，英文解释为“the height above sea level”举个🌰：

We are flying at an altitude of 6 000 metres.

我们的飞行高度是6 000米。

区分：

🚩latitude：the distance of a place north or south of the equator (= the line around the world dividing north and south) , measured in degrees 纬度

🚩longitude：the distance of a place east or west of the Greenwich meridian , measured in degrees 经度

1）表示“激起”，英文解释为“If something or someone ignites your feelings, they cause you to have very strong feelings about something.”举个🌰：

There was one teacher who really ignited my interest in words.

曾经有一位老师真正激起了我对文字的兴趣。

2）表示“点燃；着火”，英文解释为“When you ignite something or when it ignites, it starts burning or explodes. ”举个🌰：

The bombs ignited a fire which destroyed some 60 houses.

炸弹引起了一场火灾，烧毁了大约六十间房屋。

Although Unity had made three previous trips to space, this was its first launch that resembled a full commercial flight of the sort that Virgin Galactic has promised to offer the general public, with two pilots — David Mackay and Michael Masucci — and four more crew members including Mr. Branson.

虽然“团结”号此前曾三次前往太空，但这次，是与维珍银河承诺向公众推出的全商业飞行类似的首次发射，除两名飞行员——戴维·麦凯（David Mackay）和迈克尔·马苏奇（Michael Masucci）——之外，还有包括布兰森在内的另外四名机组成员。

表示“看起来像；显得像；像”，英文解释为“to look like or be similar to another person or thing”举个🌰：

So many hotels resemble each other.

许多酒店看上去都差不多。

This flight resembled a party for Virgin Galactic and the nascent space tourism business. Guests included Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX; Michelle Lujan Grisham, the governor of New Mexico; and about 60 customers who have paid for future Virgin Galactic flights.

这次飞行仿佛是维珍银河与新兴太空旅游业的一次庆祝派对。嘉宾包括SpaceX创始人伊隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）；新墨西哥州州长米歇尔·卢扬·格里沙姆（Michelle Lujan Grisham）；以及大约60名已为维珍银河的未来飞行支付了费用的顾客。

nascent /ˈnæsənt/ 表示“新生的；初期的”，英文解释为“Nascent things or processes are just beginning, and are expected to become stronger or to grow bigger.”如：the still nascent science of psychology 方兴未艾的心理学。

Stephen Colbert of the CBS program “The Late Show” introduced segments of the webcast. After the landing, the R&B singer Khalid performed a new song.

CBS节目《深夜秀》（The Late Show）主持人斯蒂芬·科尔伯特(Stephen Colbert)介绍了网络直播的内容。着陆后，R&B歌手哈立德（Khalid）演唱了一首新歌。

1）作名词，可以表示“部分，片，段；（柑橘、柠檬的）瓣；（圆的一部分）弓形”，举个🌰：

She cleaned a small segment of the painting.

她擦干净了这幅画的一小部分。

2）表示“分割；划分”，英文解释为“to divide sth into different parts”举个🌰：

Market researchers often segment the population on the basis of age and social class.

市场研究人员常常按年龄和社会阶层划分人口。

3）表示“（电视、广播或互联网节目的）节，段”，英文解释为“a short piece of film that forms part of a television or radio programme, or that is broadcast on the internet”举个🌰：

CNN last week broadcast a segment on homicides in the city.

CNN上周播出了有关这座城市凶杀状况节目的一段。

When the fuel was spent, Unity continued to coast upward to an altitude of 53.5 miles. The four people in back unbuckled and experienced about four minutes of floating before returning to their seats.

燃料耗尽后，“团结”号继续向53.5英里的高空滑行。后排四名乘客解开了安全带，在回到座位前体验了大约四分钟的失重漂浮。

熟词僻义，作动词，表示“（通常指下山时凭借惯性）滑行，下滑”，英文解释为“to move forward in a vehicle without using the engine, usually down a hill”举个🌰：

At the top of the hill I switched off the engine and we just coasted down the other side.

在山顶，我关上发动机，我们就沿着另一侧的山坡顺势滑行。

表示“解开…扣；松”，英文解释为“to release the buckle (= metal fastener) of a shoe, belt, etc. so that you can remove it”。

Mr. Branson was accompanied in the cabin by Beth Moses, the company's chief astronaut instructor; Colin Bennett, lead operations engineer; and Sirisha Bandla, vice president of government affairs and research operations.

布兰森的机上随行人员包括公司的首席宇航员指导员贝丝·摩西（Beth Moses）；首席运维工程师科林·本内特（Colin Bennett）；以及政府事务和运营研究副总裁西丽莎·班德拉（Sirisha Bandla）。

Mr. Bennett said that he was busy with tasks during the first part of the flight and then he heard Ms. Moses shouting, “Don't forget to look out the window.”

本内特说，在飞行的第一阶段，他正忙着手头的任务，然后就听到摩西大喊，“别忘了看看窗外。”

He did. “It's very zen,” Mr. Bennett said of the view of Earth below. “What jumped out at me were the colors and just how far away it looked. It felt like we were just so far up there, and I was just mesmerized.”

他确实看了。“很放松，”本内特这样形容下方地球的风光。“最吸引我的是那些颜色，以及它看起来是那么遥远。感觉我们飞到了太高的地方，简直让我目眩神迷。”

1）作形容词，表示“放松的；（对无法改变的事情）不担心的”，英文解释为“relaxed and not worrying about things that you cannot changezen”举个🌰：

Don't worry about doing the right thing with your baby - be more zen about it and you'll be happier.

不要担心为自己的孩子你是否采取了正确的行动——越放松你就会越高兴。

2）作名词，Z大写，Zen表示“禅，禅宗（佛教派别之一，强调禅定而止息杂虑）”，英文解释为“a form of Buddhism, originally developed in Japan, that emphasizes that religious knowledge is achieved through emptying the mind of thoughts and giving attention to only one thing, rather than by reading religious writings”。

表示“迷住；迷惑”，英文解释为“to have someone's attention completely so that they cannot think of anything else”举个🌰：

I was completely mesmerized by the performance.

我完全被表演迷住了。

Ms. Bandla's role was to evaluate another market Virgin Galactic is targeting: scientists doing research that takes advantage of minutes of microgravity. She conducted an experiment from the University of Florida which looked at how plants react to the changing conditions — particularly the swings in gravity — during the flight, part of research that could aid growing food on future long-duration space missions.

班德拉的任务是对维珍银河的另一个目标市场进行评估：让科学家研究出这几分钟微重力（microgravity）环境的利用办法。她在佛罗里达大学(University of Florida)进行了一项实验，观察植物在飞行期间不断变化——特别是重力波动——的环境里如何做出反应，这是帮助未来长期太空任务种植食物的研究的一部分。

1）表示“摆动，摇摆，摇晃，摇荡”，英文解释为“a swinging movement”；

2）表示“改变，变化”，英文解释为“a change”，举个🌰：

He experiences severe mood swings (= sudden changes from one extreme mood to another).

他的情绪波动很大。

As the space plane re-entered the atmosphere, the downward pull of gravity resumed. Unity glided to a landing back at the spaceport.

当太空飞机重新进入大气层，重力向下的拉力又会恢复。“团结”号滑翔返回了航天港着陆。

表示“（中断后）继续，重新开始”，英文解释为“If an activity resumes, or if you resume it, it starts again after a pause.”举个🌰：

Normal services will be resumed in the spring.

春天将恢复正常服务。

📍《经济学人》（The Economist）一篇讲述疫情之下学生上课问题的文章中提到复课就用的resume classes：As well as letting final-year secondary-school students facing exams resume classes, Denmark has also begun to reopen crèches and primary schools. 丹麦除了让面临毕业考试的中学毕业班复课外，还开始逐步重开幼儿园和小学。

glide /ɡlaɪd/表示“滑行，滑动”，英文解释为“to move smoothly and quietly, as if without effort”举个🌰：

Waiters glide between tightly packed tables bearing trays of pasta.

侍者们托着一盘盘的意大利面食在拥挤的餐桌间自如穿行。

Michael Moses, president of Virgin Galactic, said the flight appeared to go flawlessly. “The ship looks pristine, no issues whatsoever,” Mr. Moses said.

维珍银河总裁迈克尔·摩西（Michael Moses）表示，此次飞行几乎无可挑剔。“船体看起来跟新的一样，没有任何问题，”摩西说。

表示“崭新的；状态良好的”，英文解释为“new or almost new, and in very good condition”如：pristine new offices 崭新的办公室。

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