VOA常速英语2019--以色列“创世纪号”登月失败

Data suddenly stopped coming from the spacecraft, and after a few agonizing¹ minutes, it became clear that the Beresheet was gone.

航天器数据突然停止传输。令人焦灼的几分钟过去后，一个明显的事实摆在眼前：创世纪号失联了。

We finished an initial look at our telemetry data. It seems that the failure in our inertial measurement unit caused a chain of events in the spacecraft avionics which cut off the engines and cause the loss of the mission. The loss of the spacecraft was broadcast live on television screens all across Israel.

我们对遥感勘测的数据进行了初步的审查。看情况似乎是惯性测量单位的失灵导致航天器的电子设备出现了一系列问题，导致引擎切断，任务失败。创世纪号的这次失利在以色列全境的电视上进行了直播。

Israel was hoping to join a league of only three other nations that have managed to land on the moon: the US, the Soviet² Union and China. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on hand to witness the crash. He said this isn’t an end to the program. If at first you don’t succeed, you try again. It’s a reminder³ of how hard it is to get to the moon.

以色列本来希望加入另外3个国家的行列，这3个国家都曾凭一己之力着陆于月球，他们是美国、苏联和中国。以色列总理内塔尼亚胡亲眼目睹了失利的景象。他表示，这不是以色列航天项目的结束。如果一开始没成功，就再尝试。这是在提醒我们登月不易。

The Chinese landed their first craft on the moon earlier this year. The US Space Agency, NASA, is planning to get new probes on the moon by 2024, and to get people back on the lunar surface by 2028.

中国今年初将第一个航天器着陆在月球上。而美国宇航局也在计划在2024年之前将新的探测器发送到月球上，并在2028年之前再次载人登月。

1 agonizing   

adj.痛苦难忍的；使人苦恼的v.使极度痛苦；折磨(agonize的ing形式)

参考例句：

• I spent days agonizing over whether to take the job or not. 我用了好些天苦苦思考是否接受这个工作。
• his father's agonizing death 他父亲极度痛苦的死

2 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

3 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。