The first time humans flew to the moon, it came at the end of a rotten year. War, political violence, racial strife, protesters in the streets — it felt like everything was coming unraveled. Yet when Apollo 8 splashed down, it proved so inspiring that one American summed up the feeling with a telegram thanking the astronauts: “You saved 1968.”

人类首次飞向月球时，正值一个糟糕年份的尾声。战争、政治暴力、种族冲突、街头抗议——仿佛一切都在分崩离析。然而当“阿波罗8号”溅落归航时，它如此激励人心，以至于一位美国人用一封电报总结了当时的心情，感谢宇航员说：“你们拯救了1968年。”

Fifty-eight years later, another U.S. spacecraft hurtled toward the heavens this week to begin a journey back to the moon amid deep divisions at home. For a brief moment, the talk was again about courage, exploration, national ambition and common purpose. But it was no fault of the four astronauts of Artemis II that the planet they left behind remains riven by war, strife and violence or that 2026 has not, as yet, been saved.

58年后，又一艘美国航天器于本周冲向太空，开启重返月球的旅程，而此时国内同样深陷分裂。有那么一刻，人们又谈起了勇气、探索、国家雄心和共同目标。但“阿尔忒弥斯2号”的四位宇航员无法为他们身后这颗依然被战争、冲突与暴力撕裂的星球负责，也无法为2026年尚未被拯救这一事实负责。

The launch of Artemis II on Wednesday evening captured the tenor of the times in a country that can still do big things but seems forever mired in big problems. The roar of the rocket managed to hold the spotlight for less than 2 1/2 hours before President Donald Trump came on the screen to change the subject. While he congratulated the astronauts at the top, he quickly turned the nation’s attention back to the latest war dividing Americans and the economic turmoil it has wrought here and around the world.

周三晚间“阿尔忒弥斯2号”的发射映射出一个国家的时代基调：它依然能够成就大事，却似乎始终困于巨大的麻烦之中。火箭的轰鸣声占据聚光灯的时间甚至没能超过两个半小时，特朗普总统便出现在屏幕上，改变了话题。尽管他一开始向宇航员表示了祝贺，但很快就把国家的注意力拉回到那场正在分裂美国的最新战争及其在国内和全球造成的经济动荡上。

This is, it seems, a country impervious to unity these days, led by a president with little interest in pursuing it. Rather than take advantage of the moment to try to bring Americans together behind a fresh leap back into the next frontier, Trump focused on what has torn Americans apart. He did not have to give that speech just after the launch. It did not say anything new. He chose that particular moment to draw the cameras back to himself so that he could “tell everybody how great I am,” as he described his goal beforehand.

如今的美国似乎难以实现团结，而领导它的总统也几乎无意推动团结。特朗普并没有利用这个契机引导美国人团结在重返未知疆域的壮举之后，而是专注于那些撕裂美国的事物。他本不必在发射后紧接着发表那场演讲，而且讲话内容也没有新意。他选择那个特定的时刻，是为了将镜头拉回自己身上，以便他能够“告诉大家我有多伟大”——正如他事先所说。

“Had he said more about it last night in the speech, that would have been a unifying factor,” said Roger D. Launius, a retired NASA chief historian. “Everybody likes this stuff. You might question the cost, but generally we all sort of like it. There’s not a lot of NASA haters out there. It’s nonpartisan.”

“如果他昨晚在讲话中多谈一些这件事，本可以成为一种凝聚人心的因素，”NASA前首席历史学家罗杰·劳尼乌斯说。“大家都喜欢这种事情。你或许会质疑成本，但总体来说，我们都挺喜欢的。几乎没有什么人反对NASA。这是超越党派的。”

Still, Launius said, the Artemis II launch did remind him of that brief moment of shared endeavor in 1968. “I think there were a lot of people who paused to see that,” he said. “Now they immediately got back to other things. Within a half-hour, it was over. But I do think there was a similar camaraderie.”

不过劳尼乌斯也表示，“阿尔忒弥斯2号”的发射让他想起了1968年那个短暂的共同奋斗时刻。“我觉得很多人都停下来关注了这件事，”他说。“但很快大家又回到了别的事情上。不到半小时就结束了。但我确实认为当时存在一种类似的休戚与共的情谊。”

To be sure, Artemis is not Apollo, and going back to the moon does not fire the imagination like going there in the first place. For many Americans, it seems like a rerun, even if most were not old enough to remember the last time humans ventured beyond Earth’s orbit. Like Apollo 8, which paved the way for Apollo 11 to actually land on the moon, Artemis II will circle the satellite without actually touching down, leaving that to a successor craft in the coming years.

诚然，“阿尔忒弥斯”并非“阿波罗”，重返月球也不像人类首次登月那样能激发想象力。对许多美国人来说，这看起来像是一场“重播”，即使大多数人年纪尚轻，并未亲历人类首次飞离地球轨道。正如为“阿波罗11号”真正登月铺平道路的“阿波罗8号”一样，“阿尔忒弥斯2号”只是环月飞行，而不会真正着陆，着陆的任务将留给未来几年的后续飞行器。

Moreover, for all the wonder of those iconic launches in the 1960s and early 1970s, the sense of coming together did not last long. Apollo did not end the turmoil over the Vietnam War or civil rights or the assassinations of the era. And once Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took that great leap for humanity and beat the Russians — which, after all, was John F. Kennedy’s real goal — the magic ended for many ready to move on.

此外，尽管20世纪60年代和70年代初那些标志性的发射壮举令人惊叹，但那种团结感并未持续太久。阿波罗计划并没有结束围绕越战、民权运动或那个时代的政治暗杀造成的动荡。而一旦尼尔·阿姆斯特朗和巴兹·奥尔德林完成了那次“人类的一大步”并击败了苏联人——这终究才是约翰·肯尼迪的真实目标——对于许多准备好转向其他事务的人来说，那份魔力也就此消散。

Yet there was still something awe-inspiring about reaching out again after so long, as enthusiastic crowds gathered in Florida and online around the world concluded this week. It is no small feat to travel 250,000 miles from the Earth. Only 24 humans have ever visited our nearest neighbor, 12 of whom actually landed on the moon, and none in more than half a century.

然而，在阔别多年后再次触碰深空，依然有着某种震撼人心的力量，正如本周在佛罗里达集结的热情人群以及全球在线关注者所感受到的那样。从地球启程飞行40万英里绝非易事。历史上仅有24人造访过我们最近的邻居，其中只有12人真正登上了月球，且半个多世纪以来再无人踏足。

Under its commander, Reid Wiseman, Artemis II is bringing the first woman (Christina Koch), the first Black man (Victor Glover) and the first non-American (Jeremy Hansen of Canada) to another world.

在指令长里德·怀斯曼的带领下，“阿尔忒弥斯2号”正将首位女性（克里斯蒂娜·科赫）、首位黑人（维克多·格洛弗）以及首位非美国人（来自加拿大的杰里米·汉森）带往另一个世界。

And this time, NASA says, humans are traveling to the moon to stay. Artemis IV and Artemis V are supposed to land on the dusty surface in 2028, and future expeditions are meant to serve as a springboard toward the even more ambitious mission of sending humans for the first time to Mars.

而这次，NASA表示，人类前往月球是为了留下。“阿尔忒弥斯4号”和“5号”预计将于2028年在这片布满尘埃的表面着陆，未来的远征将作为跳板，向着更雄心勃勃的首次载人登陆火星任务迈进。

“We need this,” Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said in an interview Thursday, a day after attending the launch with his twin brother and fellow former astronaut Scott Kelly. “Right now, with the division in our country, just everything seems to be one side or the other and politicized and just like the chaos in the world right now. On top of it, we’ve got a war in Europe, people can’t afford their lives, election coming up. It’s just a crazy time. It’s moments like this that I think give people hope.”

“我们需要这个，”亚利桑那州民主党参议员马克·凯利在周四的采访中说道。就在前一天，他与双胞胎兄弟、同为前宇航员的斯科特·凯利共同出席了发射仪式。“眼下，随着我们国家的分裂，似乎所有事情都非此即彼、被政治化，就像现在世界的混乱局势一样。除此之外，欧洲还有战争，人们生活不堪重负，大选也近在眼前。这真是一个疯狂的时代。正是这样的时刻，我认为能给人们带来希望。”

There are so few things that bring Americans together these days. Public faith in the presidency, Congress, the Supreme Court, business, the police and the media has fallen. Establishments and endeavors that were once widely respected are now seen through partisan or ideological lenses. Even institutions like Harvard University, the FBI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are now distrusted by wide swaths of Americans on one side of the aisle or the other.

如今，能把美国人凝聚在一起的事情少之又少。公众对总统、国会、最高法院、企业、警察和媒体的信任度都在下降。曾经广受尊敬的机构和事业现在都被打上了党派或意识形态的烙印。甚至像哈佛大学、联邦调查局和疾控中心这样的机构，现在也被两党中一方的广大美国人所不信任。

While Americans used to rally around the president at the start of a war, Trump’s attack on Iran was the first major conflict in the history of polling not to have public support from the beginning. Trump is a historically unpopular president, but according to Gallup polling, every president over the past two decades has governed without the support of a majority of Americans for most of their tenures.

虽然过去美国人习惯在战争爆发之初团结在总统周围，但特朗普对伊朗的袭击却是民意调查史上首次在开战之初就未获得公众支持的重大冲突。特朗普是一位在历史上不受欢迎的总统，但根据盖洛普民意调查，过去二十年里的每一位总统，在其大部分任期内都未能在获得多数美国人支持的情况下执政。

NASA has been an outlier. While many Americans question whether the moon should be a high priority, the space program has high ratings. Of 16 federal agencies tested by the Pew Research Center in 2024, NASA was seen favorably by more Americans than all but two others (the National Park Service and the U.S. Postal Service), with 67% positive versus just 12% negative.

NASA是一个例外。尽管许多美国人质疑是否应将登月作为高度优先事项，但航天计划却拥有极高的支持率。皮尤研究中心在2024年对16个联邦机构进行的调查中，NASA的好感度排在第三位（仅次于国家公园管理局和美国邮政署），有67%的美国人对其持正面看法，而只有12%持负面看法。

To listen to the astronauts themselves describe their hopes for their mission in the months before the launch was to hear the palpable desire not just to depart the Earth but to heal it. In a series of interviews with The New York Times in January, the space-farers gave voice to distinctly terrestrial aspirations.

在发射前几个月聆听宇航员们描述他们对任务的希望，就能感受到一种强烈的渴望——不仅是离开地球，更是治愈地球。在今年1月接受《纽约时报》的一系列采访中，这些太空旅行者表达了明显属于地球上的愿望。

Koch talked about how the moon mission would be “celebrating the fact that we recognize that we can go farther when we go together.” Glover compared it to 1968 when “it was a tough time in the country” and said that he hoped “that we can create a touchpoint for our generation that’s equal to or maybe even, maybe there’s a path to be even greater” than Apollo 8.

科赫谈到，登月任务将是“为了庆祝这样一个事实：我们意识到，当我们共同进发时，可以走得更远”。格洛弗将其比作1968年，那时“国家正处于艰难时期”，并表示他希望“我们能够为我们这一代人创造一个与‘阿波罗8号’同等，甚至可能更伟大的连接点”。

Wiseman acknowledged that even amid all the technological tests and flight simulations, he had been mulling over the state of society. “I’ve been thinking — in the world that it is today, what are the things that we can best do to lift up our friends on planet Earth?” he said. “I hope we have a great impact on bringing the world together even just for a minute.”

怀斯曼承认，即使在所有的技术测试和飞行模拟中，他也一直在思考社会的现状。“我一直在想——在当今这个世界，我们最能做些什么来最好地鼓舞我们在地球上的朋友们？”他说。“我希望我们能对世界团结产生巨大作用，哪怕只是片刻。”

在指令长里德·怀斯曼的带领下，“阿尔忒弥斯2号”正将首位女性（克里斯蒂娜·科赫）、首位黑人（维克多·格洛弗）以及首位非美国人（来自加拿大的杰里米·汉森）带往另一个世界。

That is perhaps an even heavier lift than the Space Launch System achieved above Florida this week. Even more than in 1968, America is a country splintered into tribal factions. Americans who watched Apollo 8 take off mainly did so on one of three major broadcast networks or one public network. An estimated 1 billion people around the world watched or listened as Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders read from the Book of Genesis on Christmas Eve.

这或许比本周在佛罗里达州升空的“空间发射系统”火箭所承载的任务还要艰巨。与1968年相比，现在的美国更像是一个分裂成部落式派系的国家。当年观看“阿波罗8号”发射的美国人主要通过三大广播网或一个公共网络观看。据估计，当年全球有10亿人在圣诞夜收看或收听了弗兰克·博尔曼、詹姆斯·洛威尔和威廉·安德斯朗读《创世记》中的章节。

The revival of the space exploration program has been a priority of Trump’s since his first term, the kind of grand project that fits his vision of making America great again. Yet with the war on Iran disrupting markets and economies, he devoted just 35 seconds to the launch at the start of his nationally televised address shortly after takeoff. “It’s amazing,” he said, praising NASA and the astronauts. “They are on the way, and God bless them. These are brave people.”

自特朗普第一个任期以来，重启太空探索计划就是他的优先事项之一，这类宏大项目符合他“让美国再次伟大”的愿景。然而，由于对伊朗的战争扰乱了市场和经济，他在全国电视讲话中只在开场时用35秒提到了这次发射。“太了不起了，”他称赞了NASA和宇航员。“他们正在路上，上帝保佑他们。这些都是勇敢的人。”

Kelly said he hoped the spirit of Artemis II would invigorate Americans for more than a day. “It’s a way they all get to see some of the great things that our country can do,” he said. “So it definitely is a unifying event. We’ll see how unifying it is and how long it lasts.”

凯利表示，他希望“阿尔忒弥斯2号”的精神能激励美国人不止一天。“这能让所有人都有机会亲眼目睹，我们的国家依然有能力成就一番伟业，”他说。“所以这绝对是一个团结人心的盛事。我们将拭目以待它究竟能有多大的凝聚力，以及能持续多久。”

周三晚间，执行“阿尔忒弥斯2号”任务的火箭在升空后划破天际。