文/By+Michael+Bartiromo+译/袁瑞

On July 16， 1969， astronauts Buzz Aldrin， Neil Armstrong， and Michael Collins left Earth in Apollo 11. A few days later on July 20， man took his first steps on the moon. Frankly， we're still amazed at how they pulled it off1）.

1969年7月16日，宇航员巴兹·奥尔德林、尼尔·阿姆斯特朗和迈克尔·柯林斯乘坐“阿波罗11号”离开地球。几天之后的7月20日，人类在月球上迈出了第一步。坦白说，我们现在对他们的成功仍感到惊奇。

1. Neil Armstrong's famous quote was incorrectly transmitted. Instead of saying， "That's one small step for man，" the astronaut claims he said， "That's one small step for a man." As he once clarified to a biographer： "I think that reasonable people will realize that I didn't intentionally make an inane2） statement and that certainly the 'a' was intended， because that's the only way the statement makes any sense."

2. President Nixon was prepared for the worst， as was his speechwriter William Safire. Safire put together a tribute3） to the Apollo 11 astronauts just in case they never made it home. "In ancient days， men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations4），" the president would have read in one of the speech's poignant5） lines. "In modern times， we do much the same， but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood."

3. Neil Armstrong couldn't afford the life insurance policy for an astronaut， so he， along with Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins， made an alternate plan. Prior to their mission， the three signed hundreds of autographs6） while under quarantine7）. They then sent these autographs off to a friend， who would postmark them on the date of Apollo 11's launch， and in the event of a tragedy， the friend would distribute the memorabilia8） to the astronauts' families for them to sell for money.

4. The Apollo 11 mission insignia9） was designed by crew member Michael Collins. On astronaut Jim Lovell's advice， he chose an eagle preparing to land on the surface of the moon with an olive branch in its beak. NASA， however， felt the eagle's talons10） looked too aggressive， so Collins resubmitted the design with the eagle holding the olive branch in its claws.

5. Upon entering the lunar module11） to begin their journey home， Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong discovered that a switch on a crucial circuit breaker12） was broken， leaving them without a way to ignite the engine. They tried to sleep while NASA's mission control worked out a solution， but Aldrin eventually decided to jam his felt-tip pen13） into the mechanism to use as a make-shift switch， and it worked.

6. According to the astronauts who landed there， the moon has a smell. After tracking moon dust back into the lunar module and removing their helmets， astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin thought the lunar materials smelled of "wet ashes in a fireplace" and "gunpowder"， respectively. But back here on Earth， our oxygen-rich atmosphere renders the moon dust odor-free.endprint

1. 尼尔·阿姆斯特朗的那句名言当年被人传错了。这名宇航员声称，他当时说的并非“这是人类迈出的一小步”，而是“这是一个人迈出的一小步”。正如他曾经向一位传记作者澄清的那样：“我想明理的人都会认识到我不会故意说一句蠢话，‘一个这个词当然是我本来就要说的，因为唯有这么说这句话才有意义。”

2. 尼克松总统当时做了最坏的打算，他的演讲稿撰稿人威廉·萨菲尔也是如此。萨菲尔写了一篇悼念“阿波罗11号”宇航员的颂词，以备万一他们再也无法返回家园时使用。“古时候，人们仰望星空，在星座当中看到了他们的英雄，”总统原本会朗诵的演讲稿中有这样一句痛彻心扉的文字，“在现代，我们做着几乎同样的事情，但是我们的英雄却是有着血肉之躯的伟大人物。”

3. 尼尔·阿姆斯特朗无力为自己买一份宇航员人寿保险单，所以他跟巴兹·奥尔德林和迈克尔·柯林斯一起制定了一个备用计划。在执行任务之前的隔离期间，这三个人签了几百张亲笔签名。然后他们把这些签名寄给了一个朋友，这个朋友会在“阿波罗11号”发射当天给这些签名盖上邮戳。如果悲剧发生，这个朋友就会把这些具有纪念意义的签名分发给三位宇航员的家属，让他们拿去卖钱。……