美国国家公共电台 NPR--What it's like spending Thanksgiving in space

What it's like spending Thanksgiving in space

Transcript¹

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with U.S. astronaut Christina Koch about her experience of spending Thanksgiving in space.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

This Thanksgiving, we're thinking about some of the people farthest away from us. Think really far - like, out of this world.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Five, four, stage engine start, three, two, one, boosters and ignition. And lift off of Artemis 1. We rise together back to the moon and beyond.

MART?NEZ: That was NASA's Artemis 1 rocket taking flight last week. Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson spoke² to her team at the Kennedy Space Center just after liftoff.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

CHARLIE BLACKWELL-THOMPSON: You were part of a first - doesn't come along very often - once in a career, maybe. But we are all part of something incredibly special - the first launch of Artemis.

(APPLAUSE)

MART?NEZ: Right now, there are no astronauts in the capsule, just a few mannequins. But the Artemis mission hopes to put the first woman and first person of color on the moon by 2025.

We heard from one of the astronauts on the Artemis team last week, Christina Koch.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

CHRISTINA KOCH: We're going to be answering the biggest philosophical³ questions of our time, if we can get to Mars, talking about whether or not we're alone in the universe, putting perspective on our place in the universe. And the fact that we are willing to devote ourselves to answering those questions collectively is the important part about this Artemis mission.

MART?NEZ: Sure, those kinds of deep questions might be important to humankind.

We here at MORNING EDITION have other priorities, and we're going to play an extra piece of that interview now to get into the Thanksgiving spirit. Remember, there are a few Americans spending their holiday on the International Space Station.

Christina Koch holds the record for the single longest spaceflight by a woman. So before my co-host, Leila Fadel, could let her go, she just had to ask about turkey.

LEILA FADEL, BYLINE⁴: Did you spend Thanksgiving in space?

KOCH: I did. It's fun to think that actually almost every holiday that was, I was in space, and I got to experience in space. And I think the important part about that for me is that community is what you make it.

And for me, being able to celebrate all those holidays with my crewmates, being able to share the excitement, even with the ground teams through video, we used to do performances for them of holiday music, and just taking our traditions, applying them in a new place really brings out the humanity in all that we do.

Even though there are such a huge technical innovation and amazing challenges we overcome to do human spaceflight, at the core of it all is that human. And that's really what the holidays in space brought back to me.

FADEL: But what's it like in space? I mean, I'm assuming you can't fry a turkey or, like, spend your day roasting. I don't know.

KOCH: It's a great point. So I actually really enjoyed cooking in space in the limited ways that we can. You're exactly right. Typically, everything we do is either an MRE style or it's a rehydrated in a little plastic package. But in the limited ways that we can prepare food, we definitely did that because of the community aspect, you know, that it kind of brings.

So we have a food warmer, which is - doesn't actually cook like an oven might. But if you stick food in there for long enough, you can do things like roast onions, roast garlic. We did get some of those fresh supplies up every now and again on a cargo⁵ supply vehicle, so we would save them for the holidays. And I definitely roasted onions, garlic and turkey for my crewmates.

(SOUNDBITE OF MECO'S "STAR WARS THEME/CANTINA BAND")

MART?NEZ: That was astronaut Christina Koch speaking with my co-host, Leila Fadel, about what's on the Thanksgiving table in space.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 philosophical   

adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的

参考例句：

• The teacher couldn't answer the philosophical problem.老师不能解答这个哲学问题。
• She is very philosophical about her bad luck.她对自己的不幸看得很开。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。