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中文导读：45年前，美国两名宇航员登上月球，这是人类首次登上月球。当时美国和前苏联正进行激烈的空间战，那段时期被叫做太空竞赛阶段。开始于美国与前苏联之间的冷战，当时美苏竞争激烈。现在，美苏航天局并没有计划要加强两国太空合作，但是他们激烈的太空竞赛已经成为过去。
Forty-five years ago, humans visited another world for the first time. Two American astronauts stepped out oftheir spacecraft and onto the moon. This happenedduring a fierce competition in space technologybetween the U.S. and the former Soviet Union. The timeperiod is known as the Space Race.

The Space Race began in the 1950s during the period of political and militarytension called the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Alexander Laveykin is the deputy director of the Memorial Museum ofCosmonauts. He is also a former cosmonaut, the Russian term for spaceexplorer. He says the Space Race was as much about politics as it was aboutscience.

“There was a big competition between us and America: who will launch thefirst space satellite? It turned out, we were the first ones.”

The Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite, Sputnik, in 1957. It was a 58 centimeter metal ball with four wire transmitters. The satellite circledthe Earth and transmitted a simple signal. The American public did not likehearing about the Russians’ success.

In 1958, the U.S. launched its first satellite called Explorer 1. But the Sovietsagain moved ahead in the Space Race. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the firstperson to orbit the Earth. He returned to the Soviet Union as a hero.

One month after Mr. Gagarin, Alan Shepherd became the first Americanastronaut in space.

Kathleen Lewis is a museum official at the National Airand Space Museum in Washington D.C. She saysthen-President John Kennedy wanted the U.S. to sethigher goals than the Soviets. He wanted the U.S. toland on the moon.

“On the United States side, I think there is a bit of hubristhat we can do anything better.”

On July 20, 1969, American Neil Armstrong became thefirst person to walk on the moon.

The space race slowed and moved toward cooperationin the 1970s. The United States and the Soviet Unionconducted their first joint space mission in 1975. DougMillard works at London’s Science Museum. He saysbuilding the International Space Station and the declineof Communism in the Soviet Union helped end the ColdWar.

Kathleen Lewis says current tensions between the US and Russia do notseem to affect their cooperation in space.

“You don't want to be arguing politics when you're up in a tin can 200-and-some miles [325 km] above Earth. You have nowhere to go, so you've got tofocus on things that you can agree on and avoid the things that you mighthave disagreements on.”

Currently, the American and Russian space agencies do not have plans forincreased cooperation. But their competitive space race is now a thing of thepast.

I’m Jonathan Evans.