我们踏上新的航程，是为了获取新的知识，为了赢得新的权利，获取并运用权利，是为了全人类的进步。空间科学，正如核科学以及其他技术，本身没有道德可言。它成为善或者恶的力量，取决于人类，并且只有当美利坚合众国取得一个卓越的地位，才能帮助决定这片新的领域将成为和平的海洋还是可怕的战场。我不认为我们应该或者必须对敌对分子滥用太空比滥用陆地和海洋更加无动于衷。但是我确实认为，太空能够在非战争的目的下开发和利用、在不重复人类曾经犯过的错误的情况下开发和利用。
We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. I do not say that we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours.
在太空上还没有争斗、歧视和国家冲突。太空的危险是针对我们所有人的。太空值得全人类尽最大的努力去征服，而且和平合作的机会可能不会重来。但是，有些人问，为什么选择月球？为什么选择登月作为我们的目标？他们理所当然地要问为什么我们要登上最高峰？35年前，为什么要飞越大西洋？为什么赖斯大学要与得克萨斯大学比赛？
There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
我们决定登月，我们决定在这个10年间登月，并且完成其他的事，不是因为它们轻而易举，而是因为它们困难重重。因为这个目标将有益于组织和分配我们的最优的能力和技能，因为这个挑战是我们乐于接受的，因为这个挑战是我们不愿推迟的，因为这个挑战是我们志在必得的，对于其他的挑战也是一样。
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
正是因为这些理由，我把去年关于提升航天计划的决定作为我在本届总统任期内最重要的决定之一。
It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the Presidency.
在过去的24小时里，我们看到一些设施已经为人类历史上最复杂的探险而建立起来。我们感受到了土星C-1助推火箭试验产生的震动和冲击波，它比把约翰·格伦送入太空的大力神火箭还要强大好几倍，相当于1万辆汽车踩足油门产生的功率。我们看到了5个F-1火箭发动机，每一个都相当于8个土星火箭发动机的功率，它们将会用于更先进的土星火箭，在卡纳维拉尔角即将兴建的48层大楼中组装起来，这幢建筑宽一个街区，长度是我们这个体育场的两倍。
In the last 24 hours we have seen facilities now being created for the greatest and most complex exploration in man’s history. We have felt the ground shake and the air shattered by the testing of a Saturn C-1 booster rocket, many times as powerful as the Atlas which launched John Glenn, generating power equivalent to 10,000 automobiles with their accelerators on the floor. We have seen the site where five F-1 rocket engines, each one as powerful as all eight engines of the Saturn combined, will be clustered together to make the advanced Saturn missile, assembled in a new building to be built at Cape Canaveral as tall as a 48 story structure, as wide as a city block, and as long as two lengths of this field.
在过去的19个月中至少有45颗卫星进入太空环绕地球运行，其中大约40颗标着“美国制造”的标记，它们比苏联的卫星更加精密，更能为世界人民提供更多的知识。
Within these last 19 months at least 45 satellites have circled the earth. Some 40 of them were made in the United States of America and they were far more sophisticated and supplied far more knowledge to the people of the world than those of the Soviet Union.
正在飞向金星的水手号飞船是空间科学史上最复杂精细的装置。其精确程度可以与在卡纳维拉尔角发射的一枚火箭击中这个体育场的40码线之间媲美。
The Mariner spacecraft now on its way to Venus is the most intricate instrument in the history of space science. The accuracy of that shot is comparable to firing a missile from Cape Canaveral and dropping it in this stadium between the 40-yard lines.
海事卫星让海上的船只航行更安全，气象卫星给我们空前准确的飓风和风暴警告，它同样也能用于森林火灾和冰山的预警。
Transit satellites are helping our ships at sea to steer a safer course. Tiros satellites have given us unprecedented warnings of hurricanes and storms, and will do the same for forest fires and icebergs.
我们经历过失败，但是别人也经历过，即使他们不承认失败。它们可能不为人所知。
We have had our failures, but so have others, even if they do not admit them. And they may be less public.
很显然，我们落后了，并且在载人航天方面继续落后一段时间。但是我们并不打算一直落后，在这个10年间我们将会迎头赶上。
To be sure, we are behind, and will be behind for some time in manned flight. But we do not intend to stay behind, and in this decade, we shall make up and move ahead.
我们获得的关于宇宙和环境的新知识，新的学习、绘图和观测技术，用于工业、医学和家庭的新工具和计算机，所有这些都将促进科学和教育的发展。像赖斯大学这样的技术院校将会因此而得益。
The growth of our science and education will be enriched by new knowledge of our universe and environment, by new techniques of learning and mapping and observation, by new tools and computers for industry, medicine, the home as well as the school. Technical institutions, such as Rice, will reap the harvest of these gains.
