Episódio 27: Moon Landing (Aterrissagem na Lua)

Duolingo English for Portuguese Speakers Podcast

Era dia 20 de julho de 1969, pouco antes das 11 da noite.

Jo Thompson tava sentada no seu sofá em Dover, no estado de Delaware, na frente de uma pequena TV em preto e branco.

Como outras centenas de milhões de pessoas, Jo estava esperando pra ver se pela primeira vez na história, os humanos seriam capazes de caminhar sobre a superfície da Lua.

Foi assim que ela assistiu ao vivo à descida do módulo de aterrissagem lunar, ou lunar lander.

The reception on the television wasn’t good, but I could see the astronaut Neil Armstrong walk down the steps of the lunar lander.

“One small step for man.

One giant leap for mankind.”

Then a second astronaut came down.

It was amazing! It was the first time anyone walked on the moon! But I was also very worried.

Jo não tava apenas preocupada com os astronautas, mas também com as roupas, principalmente as luvas, que eles usavam.

É que ela tinha ajudado a costurar essas luvas.

E era a estreia dessas peças no espaço.

Ninguém sabia como ia ser, se elas iam realmente proteger os astronautas.

I spent three years working on those gloves.

During that time, we tested the gloves meticulously.

But on the moon, anything could happen.

A rock could tear the suit, and then the astronaut might never make it back home.

It was scary, and I was so nervous.

Welcome to “Histórias em Inglês com Duolingo”.

Eu sou Helena Fruet.

Nesse podcast, você vai poder praticar inglês no seu ritmo, ouvindo histórias reais e emocionantes.

Os protagonistas falam um inglês simples e fácil de entender — perfeito pra quem tá aprendendo.

Hoje temos dois protagonistas que tiveram papéis inesperados na missão Apollo 11, a primeira que levou humanos pra Lua.

Durante a maior parte dos anos 60, Jo não pensou na Lua nem nos astronautas.

Na verdade, naquela época ela não pensava em nada do que acontecia no resto do mundo.

Ela tinha acabado de se tornar mãe, e quando terminava sua jornada de trabalho como costureira, voltava correndo pra casa pra cuidar da filha.

In the spring of 1960…

“We choose to go to the moon!”

…President John F.

Kennedy announced that U.S.

astronauts were going to go to the moon in less than ten years.

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other thing…”

The goal was to get there before the Russians, who also wanted to get to the moon before anyone else.

But I wasn’t really paying attention to the news at that time.

And I had no idea that they were making the astronauts’ suits right here, in Dover.

E Jo podia ter continuado sem prestar atenção, se não fosse uma amiga ter pedido um favor pra ela.

A amiga queria que elas fossem juntas pedir emprego na International Latex Company.

A empresa estava contratando mulheres pra costurar, ou sew, trajes espaciais que seriam usados na missão Apollo 11.

Jo gostou da ideia, e elas foram juntas pra fábrica.

We went into a big building that looked like a factory.

My friend told the manager that she wanted a job, and he said that she had to take a sewing test.

Then the manager looked at me and asked, “Are you here for a job too?” I said, “No, I already have one.” He told me that they really needed more workers and said I should take the sewing test too.

So I did.

We each sat at a sewing machine, and then he gave us instructions.

O teste foi… difícil.

Elas tiveram que costurar em linhas retas e curvas, além de demonstrar que conseguiam fazer vários tipos de pontos.

Elas também precisaram deixar as costuras exatamente a meio centímetro da dobra do tecido.

Jo sabia costurar muito bem porque era o que tinha feito a maior parte da vida.

No final, a amiga dela reprovou no teste e ela foi aprovada!

The manager said, “Tell your other boss that you’re quitting.

You’ll start work here in two weeks.” I was surprised, but I was ready for a change.

And the new job paid more! So I told my boss at the dress company that I was leaving, and then I started my new job.

Jo tava animada, mas ao mesmo tempo tinha medo.

Naquela época, ninguém sabia como costurar um traje espacial que protegesse uma pessoa na Lua.

A empresa International Latex Company fazia sutiãs e cintas modeladoras, e não trajes espaciais! Esse era um terreno totalmente desconhecido.

E Jo sabia que não podia se dar ao luxo de cometer nenhum erro.

They told us, “A man’s life will depend on this.

You need to do your best work, because if the part you made fails, then an astronaut might die.” We heard this all the time.

Jo ficou responsável por costurar as luvas dos astronautas, e ela trabalhou diretamente com uma equipe de engenheiros que iria projetar os modelos.

Usually, the engineers thought of ideas for the design of the gloves, and we sewed them.

But sometimes, they came and sat next to us at our sewing machines.

They wanted to see what we were doing because most of them knew nothing about sewing.

So, we made prototypes of the gloves, and if we saw a problem, we told them.

Then, they asked for suggestions or made a completely new design.

The engineers worked hard to make the gloves perfect.

Como o resto do traje espacial, as luvas tinham que ser resistentes, mas também flexíveis.

Não podiam ter vazamentos e precisavam ter um buraco pra um monte de cabos que iam pra diferentes partes da mão.

E não era só um par de luvas.

Cada astronauta precisava de vários pares… costurados à mão, e todos feitos sob medida.

Most of the time, it was very difficult work.

The sewing room was quiet because we had to work so slowly and carefully.

We got molds of each astronaut’s hands, and we used them to make the gloves.

Then, the gloves went to a lab, and they tested them to make sure that there weren’t any problems.

Depois de cada teste, os engenheiros e as costureiras resolviam os problemas que iam surgindo e voltavam a trabalhar em cada pequeno detalhe pra aperfeiçoar ainda mais as luvas.

De vez em quando, os astronautas iam lá experimentar.

When the astronauts came to try on the gloves, they talked to us and told us about their work.

Sometimes they gave us signed photos, and we had cake together.

Meeting the astronauts really helped me feel that my work was important.

These men were going to wear the gloves I made to the moon, so I needed to make sure that they were perfect.

As costureiras e os engenheiros continuaram aperfeiçoando os trajes até pouco antes do lançamento.

Finalmente, na manhã de 16 de julho de 1969, os três astronautas da Apollo 11 subiram na cápsula que levaria eles até a Lua.

E o foguete decolou!

Everybody was really worried about everything.

We were confident in our work, but we were still very nervous.

A viagem pra Lua durou quatro dias.

Na hora da descida, 650 milhões de pessoas no mundo todo estavam sintonizadas pra ver os astronautas pisando no solo lunar.

Eram os primeiros seres humanos a fazer aquilo.

After they landed, I woke up my daughter.

I said, “I want you to see this.

There are men on the moon.” It was incredible! It was hard to believe that the gloves I saw on the television were once in my hands.

To me, that was the most amazing part: that the gloves went from my hand to the moon.

I thought, “Is this really happening?” I thought about all the hours in the sewing room, all of the work on the gloves, all of the changes.

In the end, we did something amazing!

Naquela noite, Jo dormiu aliviada.

A parte da viagem que mais deixava ela preocupada tinha sido um sucesso! As luvas tinham cumprido sua função.

No dia seguinte, os astronautas decolaram da Lua e voltaram pra Terra.

Era um milagre, ou miracle!

The moon landing was an engineering miracle.

It was a big success for the nation.

I had one small job, but I feel proud of what I did.

I was able to help make history.

Em outro canto do mundo, Greg Force, de dez anos, também acompanhou a chegada na Lua.

Ele e sua família moravam na ilha de Guam, um território dos Estados Unidos no Pacífico.

O pai de Greg trabalhava na Nasa.

Ele era responsável por uma estação em Guam que transmitia as mensagens dos astronautas no espaço pro Centro de Controle, ou Mission Control.

De vez em quando, o pai de Greg deixava ele ouvir essas mensagens.

It was so fascinating to know that Mission Control was talking to people who were in space.

My dad had a speaker in his office, so I often sat there and listened to the astronauts talking to Mission Control.

Most of it was a little bit boring.

But if you listened in the morning, you could hear the music Mission Control played to wake up the astronauts.

At that time, I really wanted to become an astronaut.

No dia da chegada à Lua, Greg tava indo fazer compras com a mãe.

No estacionamento, eles ligaram o rádio do carro enquanto a nave espacial, que tinha sido batizada de A Águia, ou The Eagle, descia na superfície lunar.

The astronauts were very calm and direct when they talked to Mission Control.

There was no emotion in their voices.

I didn’t really understand what was happening until they said, “The Eagle has landed.” Then we knew they were on the moon.

It was just so cool.

It was crazy to look up at the moon and know that people were there.

And I thought to myself, if I become an astronaut, then I’ll be able to go there too.

Mas Greg não fazia ideia de que só três dias depois, estaria envolvido na missão Apollo 11 – e de um jeito que nunca tinha imaginado.

Three days later, the astronauts were traveling back to Earth and getting ready to land in the ocean.

It was kind of a boring part of the mission because everyone was just waiting.

Then, late in the evening, while I was watching TV with my mom and my brothers, we got a phone call.

It was my dad calling from the station.

O pai de Greg disse que teve um problema na antena parabólica da estação que captava as mensagens vindas do espaço.

Uma das partes que fazia a antena girar tinha quebrado, o que impedia a comunicação com os astronautas durante a volta pra Terra.

Mission Control needed to talk to the astronauts when they were reentering the Earth’s atmosphere, to make sure they didn’t have any problems.

And the station on Guam was the only one in the world that could communicate with them in those final moments.

But the antenna at the station couldn’t move, and it would take a week to fix it.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have that much time.

Os astronautas voltariam pra Terra no dia seguinte.

Então, o pai de Greg teve uma ideia.

Ele pensou: “Se eu pudesse passar graxa ao redor da parte quebrada, pra evitar que a antena emperre, ela poderia funcionar por mais tempo”.

Mas, tinha um problema: o único jeito de chegar na parte quebrada era por meio de um buraquinho de 6 centímetros!

No one at the station could fit their arm in that hole.

So my dad thought, “Well, I’ve got four sons.” My little brothers were still too young to understand what to do, and my older brother’s arm was too big.

But my arm was small enough to fit.

So, half an hour later, someone came to my house to take me to the station.

O carro de Greg levou meia hora pra chegar na estação, que ficava no meio da floresta, numa área super-remota.

Era um lugar escuro e silencioso.

A antena ficava sobre uma plataforma elevada onde estavam várias pessoas.

I didn’t completely understand what was happening, but it was exciting.

This was the first time my dad ever asked me for help.

And it was late at night, so I knew it must be something important.

As soon as we arrived at the station, I got out of the car and someone said, “Your dad is up there.” So we climbed up a big ladder to the antenna.

My dad was very calm and professional.

NASA workers like him never seemed stressed because they prepared for difficult situations.

My dad had a problem, and he was going to fix it.

A parte quebrada era o rolamento, uma bola de metal que permitia que a antena girasse.

O pai de Greg mostrou pra ele uma peça de reposição, pra que ele entendesse como funcionava.

E então, ele explicou a tarefa.

Greg teria que pegar um punhado de graxa, ou grease, colocar a mão no buraco e passar a graxa ao redor do rolamento.

My dad gave me a bunch of grease.

It was messy, so, of course, I thought it was really cool.

I took the grease and put my hand into the hole, which was a little bit bigger than my arm.

I repeated this process two or three times, until my dad thought there was enough grease.

Then he said, “OK, you need to go back home.” I had school the next day.

So, I went home.

Naquela noite, Greg não soube se o que ele tinha feito tinha dado certo ou não.

Quando acabou, ele foi direto pra cama.

Mas mais tarde ele soube que graças ao seu braço fininho, a antena tinha funcionado, pelo menos até o fim da missão.

The astronauts got back to Earth the next day.

After they landed in the ocean, they got on a ship, and I remember seeing pictures of them waving from the windows.

Oito dias depois de sair da Terra, os astronautas estavam de volta.

E graças a uma antena na ilha de Guam, eles puderam se comunicar com o Centro de Controle durante todo o trajeto.

A missão pra Lua foi um enorme sucesso! E pra surpresa de Greg, os astronautas não foram os únicos que apareceram no jornal.

A couple of days later, we started getting phone calls.

We got a call from a relative in Europe.

They heard about the 10-year-old boy who helped save the Apollo mission.

My aunt who lived in Denver, in the state of Colorado, called and said, “Greg was on the news!” We were really surprised, because after the astronauts landed successfully, we didn’t think much about that night at the station.

I just did what my dad asked me to do.

Greg achava que a imprensa tinha exagerado quando contou sua história.

Mas não foi só a imprensa que reconheceu seu papel na Apollo 11.

Algumas semanas depois, Neil Armstrong, um dos astronautas que pisaram na Lua, visitou a estação em Guam como parte de uma turnê mundial e agradeceu a Greg pessoalmente.

There were a lot of kids waiting at the station to meet Neil Armstrong.

I brought a newspaper article about me fixing the antenna.

And when I met Neil Armstrong, I shook his hand, then I asked him if he could sign the article.

He wrote, “Thanks for your help, Greg.” And I felt special.

Neil Armstrong met a lot of kids that day, but I was the only one who helped him come back to Earth.

Greg Force é preparador físico e mora em Greenville, na Carolina do Sul.

A primeira narradora, Jo Thompson, é uma costureira aposentada que mora em Delaware.

Esse episódio foi produzido por Samia Bouzid, uma produtora de podcasts que mora na Filadélfia.

Eu sou Helena Fruet.

Thank you for listening!