Technology Report - Test of Big Space Rocket Set for Late 2012
This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语科技报道。
An American space company says a powerful new rocket should be ready for a test launch by the end of next year. The company is Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX. Its new rocket is called the Falcon Heavy.
美国一家航天公司表示，明年年底前一种强大的新型火箭将准备试验发射。这家空间探索技术公司即SpaceX公司。该公司的这种新型火箭被称为“重型猎鹰（Falcon Heavy）”。
Company officials say it will be able to transport satellites or spacecraft weighing up to fifty-three metric tons into orbit. Fifty-three metric tons is one hundred seventeen thousand pounds. That load weight is double the capacity of NASA space shuttles. The space agency is retiring its shuttles after thirty years.
该公司官方表示，“重型猎鹰”能够将重达53公吨的卫星或航天器送入空间轨道。53公吨等于11.7万磅。这种火箭的负重是美国宇航局航天飞机的2倍。在历经30年沧桑后，美国宇航局的航天飞机即将退役。
Elon Musk is the chief executive officer of SpaceX.
艾龙·马斯科（Elon Musk）是SpaceX公司的首席执行官。
ELON MUSK: "One hundred seventeen thousand pounds is more than a fully loaded Boeing 737 with one hundred thirty-six passengers, luggage and fuel in orbit. So that is really, really humongous. It's more payload capability than any vehicle in history, apart from the Saturn Five."
马斯科：“11.7万磅比一架满载136名乘客以及行李和燃料飞行的波音737飞机还重。所以该火箭的负重是非常大的，它比历史上任何火箭的有效负载都大，除了土星5号火箭。”
NASA used Saturn Five rockets during its Apollo and Skylab programs in the nineteen sixties and seventies. A Saturn Five launched the Apollo 11 mission that landed the first humans on the moon in nineteen sixty-nine.
二十世纪五六十年代美国宇航局在阿波罗计划和天空实验室计划中曾使用土星5号火箭。1969年，一艘土星5号火箭发射了阿波罗11号任务，将首名人类送到月球。
The rockets were removed from service in nineteen seventy-three. But they remain the most powerful ever built.
火星5号火箭1973年退役，但仍是有史以来建造的最强大的火箭。
Elon Musk says the Falcon Heavy will be the second most powerful rocket ever. He says it was designed to do more than carry satellites and other equipment into space. He says the rocket was designed to meet NASA's ratings for human flight safety. So it could someday be used to carry astronauts and other travelers into space.
马斯科表示，重型猎鹰将成为有史以来第2强的火箭。他说，这种火箭不仅仅被设计用于携带卫星或其它设备进入太空，还设计来满足美国宇航局人类飞行安全的评级。因此，有一天它将被用于运送宇航员和其它乘客进入太空。
Mr. Musk says the Falcon Heavy could also be used for missions like carrying a robotic lander to collect samples from Mars.
马斯科先生说，重型猎鹰也能用于类似携带机器人登录火星采集样本的任务。
ELON MUSK: "It has so much capability, so much more capability than any other vehicle, that I think we can start to contemplate missions like a Mars sample return, which requires a tremendous amount of lift capability because you've got to send a lander to Mars that still has enough propellant to return to Earth."
马斯科：“它具备如此大的，超越其它任何火箭的能力。因此我认为我们可以开始考虑火星样本回收一类需要强大运载能力的任务。因为你发射一个登陆器到火星后，还需要有足够的推进剂返回地球。”
The first launch is planned from the company's launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. A launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, is expected in late twenty-thirteen or fourteen.
首次发射计划将在该公司位于加州范登堡空军基地的发射场进行。随后的发射预计将于2013年底或2014年在佛州卡纳维拉尔角进行。
In time, SpaceX hopes to launch ten Falcon Heavy rockets a year. It says the rocket should reduce launch costs to about two thousand dollars a kilogram. That is about one-tenth the cost of carrying loads into orbit on a space shuttle.
随着时间的推移，SpaceX公司希望每年发射10艘重型猎鹰火箭。该公司称，这种火箭可以将发射费用降低到2000美元每公斤，这大约是使用航天飞机将负载物送入轨道的费用的十分之一。
SpaceX already has a billion-and-a-half-dollar deal with NASA to use a smaller rocket to transport cargo to the International Space Station. The rocket is the Falcon 9, and the deal is for after the two last shuttles -- Endeavour and Atlantis -- are retired this year.
SpaceX公司已经与美国宇航局达成一项15亿美元的协议，使用一种较小的猎鹰9号火箭向国际空间站运送货物。该协议是为奋进号和亚特兰蒂斯号这2家航天飞机今年退役后准备的。 |