Jared Isaacman was in his office in mid-January, barely a month into his job as NASA administrator, when his cellphone rang.

|1月中旬，贾里德·艾萨克曼就任NASA局长才一个月，正在办公室里，他的手机突然响了。

“Jared, I want to check in with you,” said President Donald Trump, as Isaacman recounted the conversation. “Are we doing something in the 2028 window for Mars? What do you think about the nuclear rocket?”

“贾里德，我想跟你聊聊，”唐纳德·特朗普总统在电话里说，艾萨克曼回忆这段对话。“我们在2028年这个时间窗口有没有针对火星的相关计划？你对核动力火箭怎么看？”

Isaacman’s agency is on the verge of one of the most momentous space landmarks of the modern era: the launch of Artemis II, a mission that is set to propel astronauts farther from the planet than any human beings have traveled in history as they loop around the moon. And yet the president was instead focused on what would come next.

艾萨克曼领导的NASA正处在现代航天史上最具里程碑意义的时刻之一：阿耳忒弥斯二号发射任务即将实施。按照计划，执行此次任务的宇航员将绕月飞行，距离地球之远将超越人类历史上任何一次太空航行。总统的注意力却已经投向了这项任务之后的未来。

Trump, who turns 80 this year, grew up in the days of Apollo, when spacefarers voyaged to another world and fired imaginations back on the one they left behind. Trump, however, wants to top the achievements of Apollo 11 and its brethren. A moon base! A nuclear rocket! A trip to Mars! And whatever it will be, it has to be huge, and it has to get started before he is due to leave office in January 2029.

今年将迎来80岁生日的特朗普成长于阿波罗计划的年代。当时宇航员奔赴另一个星球，令地球上的人们浮想联翩。而如今，特朗普想要超越阿波罗11号及其他阿波罗系列任务创下的成就。月球基地！核动力火箭！火星之旅！无论最终要实现什么，规模必须足够宏大，而且必须在他2029年1月卸任前正式启动。

The man who slaps his names on buildings and dreams of adding his face to Mount Rushmore hopes to make history by pushing space exploration to new heights, literally and figuratively. No president since NASA’s glory days under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson has pressed the space agency as hard as Trump.

这个热衷于把自己的名字刻在各大建筑上、梦想着把自己的头像加到拉什莫尔山总统群雕里的男人希望将太空探索推向新的高度——无论是字面意义还是象征意义，以此来创造历史。自肯尼迪与约翰逊执政时期的NASA黄金岁月以来，没有任何一任美国总统像特朗普这样对航天局施加如此之大的推动力度。

The upcoming launch of Artemis II will be the first step in the journey. Four astronauts are scheduled to fly to the moon as soon as Wednesday.

即将实施的阿耳忒弥斯二号发射将是这段征程的第一步。四名宇航员计划最早于本周三启程，执行绕月飞行任务。

1月，NASA局长贾里德·艾萨克曼（左二）与阿耳忒弥斯二号任务机组人员在肯尼迪航天中心合影。

Trump wants to be on hand when they get off the ground, if all goes well, to celebrate a milestone achievement for America and, he hopes, for his own legacy.

如果一切顺利，特朗普希望亲临发射现场，见证火箭升空。他要为美国的这一里程碑式成就庆贺，也希望这能成为自己政治遗产中的一笔。

In an interview, Isaacman said the president’s goals were driven by a constellation of national security, commercial, resource and technological interests, as well as his preternatural instinct for grand undertakings.

在一次采访中，艾萨克曼表示，总统的这些目标背后是国家安全、商业、资源与技术利益的多重考量，同时也源于他对宏大事业异乎寻常的敏锐直觉。

“The president knows the importance of taking on big, bold endeavors and he does it across all of the important technological domains,” Isaacman said. “So when he talks to me about returning to the moon, he doesn’t talk about a repeat of Apollo. He says: Do we build a moon base? What does the lunar economy look like? We’re not just going to plant the flag.”

“总统深知开展宏大、大胆事业的重要性，而且他在所有关键的技术领域都在践行这一点，”艾萨克曼说。“所以当他和我谈及重返月球时，他说的不是重复阿波罗计划。他会问：我们要不要建月球基地？月球经济会是什么样子？我们要做的不仅仅是插上一面国旗。”

In fact, Isaacman said, Trump has made clear that humans need to stay. “What I have heard him say many times is, ‘Make sure when we go back that we are not going for the brief Apollo program,’” Isaacman said. “He specifically said, ‘We better be doing more than getting rocks this time.’”

艾萨克曼还说，事实上，特朗普已经明确表态，人类必须在月球驻留。“我多次听他说过：‘一定要确保，我们这次回去，不是开展像阿波罗计划那样短暂的任务，’”艾萨克曼回忆道。“他还特别强调：‘这次我们最好不要只带回几块石头。’”

Liz Huston, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement that the president is “building on the transformational achievements” of his first term. “With President Trump’s America-first policies, the United States will lead humanity into space and enter a new era of groundbreaking achievements in space technology and exploration.”

白宫发言人莉兹·休斯顿在声明中表示，总统正在其首个任期的“变革性成就基础上继续前行”。“凭借特朗普总统的美国优先政策，美国将带领人类走向太空，开启航天技术与太空探索领域突破性成就的新时代。”

Trump was not exactly a space aficionado before coming to office. He is not known for waxing romantically about watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land on the moon in 1969 when he was 23 years old.

入主白宫前，特朗普算不上航天爱好者。1969年尼尔·阿姆斯特朗与巴兹·奥尔德林实现月球登陆时，他23岁，但从未有人听说过他深情追忆当年观看登月直播的经历。

NASA拟建月球基地的艺术概念图。

When a 10-year-old boy asked Trump about space in 2015 during a campaign stop in New Hampshire, the candidate seemed indifferent. “Right now, we have bigger problems — you understand that?” he said. “We’ve got to fix our potholes.”

2015年，特朗普在新罕布什尔州举行竞选活动时，一个10岁的男孩向他询问太空相关的问题，当时这位总统候选人显得漠不关心。“眼下，我们有更棘手的问题——你明白吗？”他说。“我们得先把路上的坑洼补好。”

But along the way, he became persuaded that fixing potholes was not exactly the same as reaching for the stars. Just weeks before the 2016 election, his campaign’s surrogates pledged “a new vision” for America’s space program.

但随着时间推移，他逐渐意识到，修补路面坑洼与奔赴星辰大海终究不是一回事。2016年大选前几周，他的竞选团队代言人承诺，要为美国的航天计划勾勒“全新愿景”。

“During the campaign, he saw the linkages between space and the larger ‘Make America Great’ grand vision,” said Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, who served as executive secretary of the National Space Council, which Trump reconstituted in his first term.

“竞选期间，他看清了太空事业与‘让美国再次伟大’这一更宏大愿景之间的关联，”乔治·华盛顿大学太空政策研究所所长斯科特·佩斯说。佩斯曾担任美国国家太空委员会执行秘书，该委员会正是特朗普在首个任期内重新组建的。

Kennedy set the goal of reaching the moon not out of love of exploration, but to compete with the Soviets. Once Americans won the space race, the public and presidents largely lost interest.

肯尼迪当年定下登月目标并非出于对太空探索的热爱，而是为了与苏联展开竞争。一旦美国赢得了这场太空竞赛，美国公众与历任总统就基本失去了对航天事业的兴趣。

Richard Nixon scrapped the final three Apollo moonshots and shifted resources into building a workmanlike space shuttle. Ronald Reagan kicked off the development of a permanent crewed space station, which Bill Clinton transformed into a joint venture with the Russians. George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush each set sights on returning to the moon and then going to Mars, but neither got far. Barack Obama wanted to land astronauts on an asteroid, a vision that went nowhere.

尼克松取消了阿波罗计划的最后三次登月任务，将资源转向打造一款实用性更强的航天飞机。里根启动了永久性载人空间站的研发，比尔·克林顿则将其转变为美俄合作项目。老布什与小布什都曾定下先重返月球、再登陆火星的目标，却都未能取得实质性进展。奥巴马曾计划让宇航员登陆小行星，这一愿景最终也不了了之。

2019年7月，特朗普总统与宇航员迈克尔·柯林斯（特朗普右侧）和巴兹·奥尔德林（特朗普左侧）合影。

Trump, however, came to see space as a place to make a mark. He invited Aldrin and Michael Collins, Aldrin’s Apollo 11 crewmate, to the White House for the 50th anniversary of their historic flight, and put Aldrin in the gallery for his State of the Union address in 2019. He flew to Florida to personally witness the SpaceX launch in 2020 as Elon Musk’s company helped restore NASA’s ability to send astronauts to the International Space Station from its own soil.

然而，特朗普却将太空视为一个可以让他留下印记的领域。阿波罗11号历史性登月50周年之际，他邀请奥尔德林以及同乘阿波罗11号的成员迈克尔·柯林斯到访白宫；2019年的国情咨文演讲中，他还特意邀请奥尔德林出席国会旁听席。2020年，当埃隆·马斯克的公司帮助美国宇航局恢复了从本土向国际空间站发射宇航员的能力时，他专程飞往佛罗里达，亲临现场见证了SpaceX公司的发射任务。

Whether the president will remain attentive to Artemis II is an open question. As the launch date got pushed off, Trump did nothing to call attention to the mission. Even though its four astronauts were in the gallery for his State of the Union address in February, Trump did not acknowledge them or mention their journey.

但总统是否会持续关注阿耳忒弥斯二号任务目前还是未知数。随着发射日期一再推迟，特朗普并未采取任何行动来引起人们对该任务的关注。尽管执行此次任务的四名宇航员出席了他2月的国情咨文演讲，坐在国会旁听席上，特朗普却既没有向他们致意，也没有提及这次太空任务。

NASA faces uncertainties about its moon program after Artemis II. Keeping the world captivated could depend heavily on Trump’s ongoing commitment.

阿耳忒弥斯二号任务之后，NASA的月球计划仍面临诸多不确定性。而能否让全世界持续关注这项事业很大程度上取决于特朗普是否会持续支持该计划。

“As something as technically challenging as spaceflight is, you have to have the White House and the president acting as the spokesman for it,” said Harrison H. Schmitt, one of the last two men to step foot on the moon as part of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972 and one of only four moon walkers still alive today. “There’s just no question about that.”

“航天飞行这种技术难度极高的事业，必须要有白宫和总统亲自为其发声，”哈里森·施密特说。“这一点是毋庸置疑的。”1972年，作为阿波罗17号任务的宇航员，施密特成为最后两位踏上月球表面的人类之一，也是如今仍在世的仅有的四位登月宇航员之一。