SpaceX將正式將人類送入太空

SpaceX將正式將人類送入太空

Well, it all comes down to this. NASA has given SpaceX the thumbs up to become the first company in its Commercial Crew program to send humans into space. The race between SpaceX and Boeing, which had hoped its Starliner spacecraft would be the first to send humans to space from American soil in roughly a decade, is nearing its end.

好吧，一切都?xì)w結(jié)于此。美國國家航空航天局(NASA)對(duì)太空探索技術(shù)公司(SpaceX)表示贊許，稱其將成為第一家將人類送上太空的商業(yè)載人計(jì)劃公司。太空探索技術(shù)公司和波音公司之間的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)已經(jīng)接近尾聲。

The launch, which won’t take place for another couple of months, will be the culmination of an incredible amount of work on the part of SpaceX, which has seen its fair share of setbacks along the way.

這次發(fā)射要再過幾個(gè)月才會(huì)進(jìn)行，它將是SpaceX公司難以置信的努力的頂點(diǎn)，該公司在發(fā)射過程中也遇到了不少挫折。

The mission will see a pair of NASA astronauts — Dough Hurley and Bob Behnken — travel from Earth to the International Space Station. Being able to send US astronauts to the space station without relying on seats aboard Russian rockets has been a major goal for NASA and it hired both Boeing and SpaceX to come up with crewed spacecraft capable of filling that need.

這次任務(wù)將看到美國國家航空航天局的兩名宇航員——Dough Hurley和Bob Behnken——從地球前往國際空間站。美國宇航局的一個(gè)主要目標(biāo)是能夠在不依賴俄羅斯火箭的情況下將美國宇航員送往空間站，NASA聘請(qǐng)了波音公司和SpaceX公司來設(shè)計(jì)能夠滿足這一需求的載人飛船。

Early on, most analysts assumed Boeing would be the first to get the all-clear from NASA to send humans to space. However, as months passed it became clear that SpaceX was hitting its milestones more rapidly than its competitor. It was all going so well for SpaceX… until it didn’t.

早些時(shí)候，大多數(shù)分析人士認(rèn)為，波音公司將是第一個(gè)獲得NASA批準(zhǔn)將人類送上太空的公司。然而，幾個(gè)月過去了，情況變得越來越明顯:SpaceX比競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手更快地實(shí)現(xiàn)了里程碑式的突破。對(duì)SpaceX來說，一切都進(jìn)展得很順利……直到它失敗了。

In April 2019, a static test of Crew Dragon resulted in an explosion and a total loss of the vehicle. An investigation was launched and NASA noted that there would be significant delays as a result. This seemed to open the door for Boeing to take the lead, but the company’s Starliner spacecraft ran into its own laundry list of problems and recently had to abort an unmanned trip to the space station after a glitch caused the ship to burn too much fuel early on.

在2019年4月，乘員龍的靜態(tài)測(cè)試導(dǎo)致了爆炸和車輛的全部損失。一項(xiàng)調(diào)查已經(jīng)啟動(dòng)，美國國家航空和宇宙航行局指出，這將導(dǎo)致重大延誤。這似乎為波音公司打開了領(lǐng)先的大門，但該公司的“星際飛船”(Starliner)遇到了自己的一系列問題，最近不得不取消了一次前往空間站的無人駕駛之旅，原因是一處故障導(dǎo)致飛船在早期燃燒了太多燃料。

Now, with 2020 well underway and NASA desperate for a vehicle to send astronauts into space, it seems SpaceX will cross the finish line first. The launch, which is currently expected to take place in early May, will be one for the record books.

現(xiàn)在，隨著2020年的到來，美國國家航空和宇宙航行局(NASA)迫切需要一種能將宇航員送入太空的運(yùn)載工具，SpaceX似乎會(huì)第一個(gè)沖過終點(diǎn)線。此次發(fā)射預(yù)計(jì)將于5月初進(jìn)行，一切將載入史冊(cè)。