CNN：阿波罗计划带给硅谷的，不只有科技

译介 2023-06-20

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1969年7月，美国航天员阿姆斯特朗乘坐阿波罗11号登上月球，迈出了“人类的一大步”。业内人士表示，美国宇航局的阿波罗计划，不仅推动了美国航天事业的发展，也推动了硅谷科技革命的进程。究竟是怎么一回事呢？我们一起看文章。

How NASA’s Apollo program kicked off Silicon Valley’s tech revolution

美国宇航局阿波罗计划如何开启硅谷的科技革命

Richard Branson’s space tourism startup, Virgin Galactic, is showing off a luxurious lounge area and top-shelf amenities for its wealthy clientele.

理查德·布兰森（Richard Branson）的太空旅游初创公司维珍银河(Virgin Galactic),正在为其富豪客户展示豪华的休息区和顶级设施。

President John F. Kennedy’s iconic 1962 speech, directing the United States to put boots on the moon within the decade, set in motion a leap in innovation. In just seven years, America went from lagging the Soviet Union in space technology to planting a flag on the lunar surface.

美国前总统约翰·肯尼迪（John F. Kennedy）1962年发表标志性演讲，指示美国在十年内将美国宇航员送上月球，推动了创新的飞跃。在短短七年的时间里，美国从太空技术落后于苏联，发展到首个在月球表面插上国旗的国家。

The Apollo program was the birthplace of the modern tech ecosystem, says Basil Hero, a former investigative reporter and media executive who authored the new book “The Mission of a Lifetime.”

前调查记者和媒体高管、新书《一生的任务》（The Mission of a Lifetime）的作者巴兹尔·希罗（Basil Hero）表示，阿波罗计划是现代科技生态系统的发源地。

“Without [Apollo], I don’t think the computer revolution would have happened as quickly and on the same trajectory,” Hero told CNN Business. “It would have taken an extra 10 or 20 years.”

希罗对CNN财经表示：“如果没有阿波罗计划，我认为计算机革命不会发生得这么快，也不会按照同样的轨迹发生。这将需要额外10年或20年时间。”

Apollo, the startup

启动阿波罗计划

NASA’s Apollo program was the first-ever “moonshot.” And the ingredients that led to its success were a whatever-it-takes attitude, loose management structures, and deep funding.

NASA的阿波罗计划是有史以来第一个 “登月计划” 。促使其成功的因素包括不惜一切代价的态度、宽松的管理结构以及充足的资金来源。

Kennedy estimated early on that the first moon landing would cost about $7 billion to $9 billion. But the first thing James E. Webb did when he became NASA’s administrator in 1961 was tell Kennedy to double that amount. It was a move “any venture capitalist who has funded a high-tech startup would understand,” Hero writes in “The Mission of a Lifetime.”

肯尼迪很早就估计，首次登月将耗资约70亿至90亿美元。但詹姆斯•韦伯（James E. Webb）在1961年成为NASA局长时，他做的第一件事就是告诉肯尼迪要把这个数字翻一番。希罗在《一生的任务》中写道，这是“任何投资过高科技初创公司的风险投资家都会理解的举动。”

The most common mistake entrepreneurs make is insisting they can launch their companies on the cheap, Hero said. They can end up low-balling their way out of business.

希罗说：“创业者最常见的错误就是，他们坚信能以低成本开创公司，但最终可能会因成本估值过低而出局。”

Congress was the Apollo program’s financial backer, writing big checks year after year. Lawmakers even authorized NASA in 1962 to offer “supergrade” salaries so that the space agency could afford to hire the best and brightest, Hero notes in his book.

美国国会是阿波罗计划的财政支持者，年复一年地开出大额支票。希罗在他的书中指出，国会甚至在1962年授权NASA提供“超高级别”的薪水，以便该机构有能力聘请最优秀、最聪明的人才。

But, NASA could not lumber along as a bureaucratic regime if it wanted to blast humans to the moon in less than 10 years.

但是如果NASA想要在不到十年的时间内把人类送上月球，那么它就不能像官僚体制那样行事缓慢。

Enter George Mueller. He left a prestigious career at research groups such as Bell Labs to lead NASA’s human spaceflight program in 1963. The space agency’s history office describes him as “a no-nonsense, forward-thinking leader” who “introduced a remarkable series of management changes.”

进入乔治·穆勒（George Mueller）时代。在贝尔实验室（Bell Labs）等研究机构创下赫赫名声后，穆勒离开了这些机构，于1963年开始领导NASA的载人航天计划。NASA历史办公室将他描述为 “一位不说废话、有前瞻性的领导者” ，他 “引入了一系列引人注目的管理变革。”

Mueller created a “flat organization” structure: He cut out middle management and “made sure that the engineers on the front line were able to get their concerns straight up to the top people of NASA,” Hero said. If safety concerns were raised or an idea just wasn’t working out, decision makers listened and quickly shifted course.

穆勒建立了一个“扁平化组织”结构。他砍掉了中层管理岗位，“确保一线工程师能将他们的担忧直接传达给NASA高层”，希罗说到。如果有人提出了安全问题或某个想法没有奏效，决策者会听取他们的意见，并迅速改变方向。

“They really did trust people in the lower levels, and the engineers benefited from that,” Hero said.

希罗说：“他们确实信任部下，工程师也从中受益。”

Today, California’s hive of startups and tech giants, from Facebook to Google, still swear by the same management technique.

如今，从Facebook到Google，加州的众多初创企业和科技巨头仍然信奉同样的管理技术。

“Our goal is to inspire people more than manage them,” Netflix (NFLX) notes in its widely influential workplace culture manifesto. “We trust our teams to do what they think is best for Netflix (NFLX) — giving them lots of freedom, power, and information in support of their decisions.”

奈飞（Netflix，纳斯达克股票代码NFLX）影响广泛的职场文化宣言指出：“我们的目标是激励员工，而不是管理他们。我们的团队会采取他们认为对奈飞最有利的做法，给予员工更多自由、权力和信息来支持他们的决定。”

Apollo managers also had no problem bringing in young visionaries to take on unprecedented tasks, a move emulated by Silicon Valley and its obsession with young minds thinking outside the box.

阿波罗计划的管理人员也毫不犹豫地邀请年轻而有远见的人来承担前所未有的任务，这一举措以及对年轻人创新思维方式的重视被硅谷所效仿。

Mission Control in Houston, Texas, for example, was an operation that had no precursor, and no one knew how to run it. So its manager, Christopher Kraft, brought in a bunch of ambitious 20-somethings. The average age of Mission Control employees during the Apollo 11 moon landing was just 26, Hero notes.

举例来说，德克萨斯州休斯顿的NASA任务控制中心是个史无前例的机构，没人知道如何运行。所以，其管理者克里斯托弗·克拉夫特（Christopher Kraft）请来了一群雄心勃勃的20多岁年轻人进行摸索。希罗指出，在阿波罗11号登月期间，任务控制中心员工的平均年龄只有26岁。

Making more moonshots

创造更多的具有雄心和创新性的项目

In terms of computing power, a modern cellphone could outdo the entire Apollo spacecraft, physicist Michio Kaku wrote in a 2011 book.

物理学家加来道雄（Michio Kaku）在2011年的一本书中写道，就计算能力而言，现代手机可以超过整个阿波罗飞船。

The digital revolution that followed Apollo was no accident. Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs built off computing technology that NASA incubated during the Apollo era, Hero said.

阿波罗计划之后的数字革命绝非偶然。希罗说，微软的比尔·盖茨（Bill Gates）和苹果的史蒂夫·乔布斯（Steve Jobs）的计算技术都建立在NASA在阿波罗时代孵化的计算技术基础上。

Some of the tech titans that dominate today’s headlines credit NASA and Apollo as a source of inspiration, and a few have Apollo-like ambitions of their own.

如今，占据各大头条的许多科技巨头将NASA和阿波罗计划视为灵感源泉，有些甚至怀有阿波罗计划般的雄心壮志。

Elon Musk, who made a fortune off Paypal (PYPL) and now runs Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX, declared that he will relentlessly pursue the goal of reviving deep-space exploration technologies with a rocket that can take humans to Mars.

埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）凭借 Paypal （股票代码PYPL）发了大财，现在在经营特斯拉汽车公司（股票代码TSLA）和太空探索技术公司（SpaceX），他宣布将不懈追求深空探测技术的复星，通过火箭将人类带往火星。

Jeff Bezos, the multibillionaire behind Amazon (AMZN), has brought up the moon landing as a source of inspiration in numerous interviews and public speeches. He’s personally funding his own space venture, Blue Origin, that hopes to be instrumental in returning humans to the moon.

亚马逊（股票代码AMZN）背后的亿万富翁杰夫·贝索斯（Jeff Bezos）曾在众多采访和公开演讲中提到，登月是他的灵感来源。他本人资助了自己的商业太空公司蓝色起源（Blue Origin），旨在帮助人类重返月球。

今日词汇

startup n. 初创公司

whatever-it-takes adj. 不惜一切代价的

high-tech adj. 高科技的

lowball v. 向顾客虚报低价

manifesto n. 宣言，声明

computing technology 计算技术

翻译讨论

Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs built off computing technology that NASA incubated during the Apollo era, Hero said.

调整前：希罗说，微软的比尔·盖茨（Bill Gates）和苹果的史蒂夫·乔布斯（Steve Jobs）都建立在NASA在阿波罗时代孵化的计算技术基础上。

调整后：希罗说，微软的比尔·盖茨（Bill Gates）和苹果的史蒂夫·乔布斯（Steve Jobs）的计算技术都建立在NASA在阿波罗时代孵化的计算技术基础上。