《卫报》为中国航天之父钱学森所撰写的讣告

《卫报》为中国航天之父钱学森所撰写的讣告

Qian Xuesen, who has died aged 98, was one of the greatest Chinese scientists of the modern era, and a man widely regarded as the father of China's missile and space programme. His life spanned nearly a century, from the final few days of the Qing Dynasty, through the Republican period, from 1912 to 1949, and on to the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It also embodied the conflicts between the US and China, the two countries where he was to be based most of his life, and between which he was forced, finally, to choose.

钱学森，享年98岁，中国现代最伟大的科学家之一，被一致认为是中国导弹及空间技术之父。他 生于清朝末年，经历国民时期，后又伴随新中国共同走过60年风雨，其一生横跨近一个世纪。他也见 证了中美两国之间的冲突。而他却不得不在这两个于他最为重要的两个国家中作出抉择。

Qian was the son of a government official, born in the city of Hangzhou in the coastal province of Zhejiang. He was educated at Shanghai Jiaotong University, and, in 1935, with the help of a scholarship, went first to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, and then, a year later, to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he was to be awarded his doctorate, and be based for the next two decades. 钱学森原籍浙江杭州，生于官宦之家。他早年就读于上海交通大学，而后在1935年，获得奖学金 ，前往美国麻省理工学院深造。年后，在加州理工学院授获博士学位，并根植于是二十年。

It was while in California, during the second world war, that his research concentrated on jet propulsion. With a number of other key US scientists, responding to the German V1 and V2 rockets, he devised a range of highly effective missiles, which proved crucial in the final stages of the war effort. Qian also participated in the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bomb. As a result of this, he was made the first director of the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Jet Propulsion Centre at Caltech in 1949.

钱学森在加州期间恰逢二次大战，其研究项目为喷气推进。当时德国已研发出V1、V2火箭，在同 其他美国尖端科学家共事下，他研发出一种高效导弹，在战争后期发挥了巨大作用。钱学森还参与曼 哈顿计划，研发了第一颗原子弹。基于以上成就，他于1949年担任加工理工学院丹尼尔和佛罗伦斯· 古根海姆喷气推进中心首任主任。

In the same year, however, the communists won their final push to become rulers of the PRC, exiling the Nationalist leadership under Chiang

Kai-shek, whom the US had largely supported, to the island of Taiwan. Qian was immediately suspected of being a communist sympathiser, with claims being made that his name had appeared on Communist party documents as early as the late 1930s. His application for US citizenship was subsequently denied, and he was detained after applying to leave America. One US official at the time called this the \did\

然而是年，中国共产党大获全胜，成立中华人民共和国。其对手—美国曾大力支持的—蒋介石国 民党政府被迫退居台湾。钱学森即被怀疑同情共产党人，并有人宣称，其名曾在30年代末中国共产党 早期文件中出现。其美国公民申请被拒，而后申请离美时被拘。当时一名美国官员称此举“立国以来 ，蠢无前例”。 1955年，钱学森终被允许返回中国。

The US's loss (one of Qian's colleagues in the 1930s had called Qian a scientist of genius) was China's gain, at a critical period in its development. Qian was immediately allowed to establish an Institute of Mechanics in Beijing, and to work within the state -established Chinese Academy of Science. His skills and knowledge were absolutely critical at a time when many of China's most talented scientists had refused to return home because of the political changes that had taken place there. A symbol of the respect and trust Qian enjoyed was his admission to the Communist party in 1958. He started work on what was to become the Dongfeng missile. 20世纪30年代钱学森的同事称其是天才科学家，他的出走是美国的损失，中国的收获。钱回国后 随即在北京建立力学院，并创建中国科学院。他的知识和技能在当时绝对起着关键性作用，因为当时 很多极具天赋的中国科学家由于政治原因拒绝回国。钱学森在1958年加入中国共产党，是其受中共重 视并信任的标志。随后他被派研发“东风”导弹。

As a result both of his work, and of support from the Soviet Union (despite the fact that relations between these two countries had deteriorated badly in the late 1950s), China was able to test its own atomic bomb in 1963-64. A mere 15 years after its founding, it had joined the elite nuclear club. This was a seminal moment in the country's development.

尽管在50年代末期，中苏关系恶化，但在他的努力以及苏联的支持下，中国得以在1963年至1964 年之间试爆自制的原子弹。使得中国仅仅在建国 15年之后跻身于“大国核俱乐部”。而此事对于中 国的发展产生了重大影响。

Qian seems to have been largely unaffected by the tumult of the Cultural Revolution, from 1966, probably because he was working in such a key national strategic area. While chaos reigned in the rest of China, military and technical research continued unaffected.

可能出于国家关键性战略项目工作缘故，钱学森似乎并没有受到始于1966年的文化大革命动乱的 影响。尽管举国上下动荡不安，但军事以及技术研究似乎一直未受影响。

In 2009, as China is preparing to build a space exploration launch pad on the island of Hainan, and has set itself the aim of getting a Chinese man on the moon in the next decade, Qian's contribution to China's space and missile programme should not be underestimated. Much of the technology behind the Shenzhou rockets, launched into space from the 1990s onwards to much national fanfare, can be traced back to research that Qian undertook. And much of that was based on what he had studied in the US during his 20 years there.

到了2009年，中国已计划在海南省建立一个太空发射场，并且订立了要在十年内实现中国人登月 的目标；此时此刻，钱学森对中国航天以及导弹项目所作的贡献仍然不容小觑。从90年代开始经历了 一系列发射活动的神舟载人飞船，曾在全国范围内掀起了热潮，而该系列飞船背后的技术，大多可以 追溯到钱学森当年所做的研究，而他所做的研究，又大多是源于他在美国20年的学习。 After his retirement in 1991, he maintained a low profile, despite being garlanded with awards. He is survived by his wife, the highly acclaimed Beijing opera singer Jiang Ying.

钱学森在1991年退休之后一直被各种奖项和光环围绕，但他仍然保持低调。其身后遗下夫人蒋英 ，是北京备受尊敬女歌唱家。

Qian Xuesen, rocket scientist, born 11 December 1911; died 31 October 2009 钱学森，航天科学家，生于1911年12月11日，2009年10月31日逝世。

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