SpaceX准备首次将宇航员送入太空

SpaceX准备首次将宇航员送入太空

In the beginning, everyone was skeptical. But Elon Musk's SpaceX defied expectations—and on Wednesday hopes to make history by ferrying two NASA astronauts into space, the first crewed flight from US soil in nine long years.

一开始，所有人都持怀疑态度。但是伊隆·马斯克的太空探索技术公司(SpaceX)却出乎人们的意料。本周三，该公司将两名美国国家航空航天局(NASA)的宇航员送入太空，希望创造历史。这是九年来首次有宇航员从美国本土进入太空。

US President Donald Trump will be among the spectators at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to witness the launch, which has been given the green lightdespite months of shutdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic.

美国总统唐纳德·特朗普将与观众一起在佛罗里达州肯尼迪航天中心见证发射，尽管由于冠状病毒大流行而关闭了数月，发射仍获批。

The general public, in a nod to virus restrictions, has been told to watch via a livestream as Crew Dragon is launched by a Falcon 9 rocket toward the International Space Station.

由于受到病毒的限制，公众被告知要通过直播观看“乘龙号”由猎鹰9号火箭发射到国际空间站。

NASA's Commercial Crew program, aimed at developing private spacecraft to transport American astronauts in to space, began under Barack Obama.

美国国家航空航天局的商业乘员计划，旨在开发私人宇宙飞船运送美国宇航员进入太空，开始于巴拉克·奥巴马时期。

But his successor sees it as a symbol of his strategy to reassert American domination of space.

但是他的继任者认为这是他的战略的一个象征，以重申美国对太空的统治。

He has ordered NASA to return to the moon in 2024,which has given the storied space agency a boost.

他命令美国国家航空航天局在2024年重返月球，给这个著名的太空机构带来了助力。

In the 22 years since the first components of the ISS were launched, only spacecraft developed by NASA and by the Russian space agency have carried crews there.

在国际空间站第一批组件发射后的22年里，只有美国国家航空航天局和俄罗斯航天局开发的航天器将宇航员送到那里。

NASA used the illustrious shuttle program—huge, extremely complex, winged ships that carried dozens of astronauts into space for three decades.

美国国家航空航天局使用了杰出的航天飞机计划——巨大的、极其复杂的、有翼的飞船，30年来将数十名宇航员送入太空。

But their staggering cost and two fatal accidents finally put an end to the program.

但是他们惊人的花费和两起致命的事故最终结束了这个计划。

The last shuttle, Atlantis, landed on July 21, 2011.

最后一架航天飞机亚特兰蒂斯号于2011年7月21日着陆。

After, NASA astronauts learned Russian and travelled to the ISS in the Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan.

之后，美国国家航空航天局的宇航员学习了俄语，并乘坐俄罗斯联盟号火箭从哈萨克斯坦前往国际空间站。

But it was only ever meant to be a temporary arrangement. NASA had entrusted two private companies—aviation giant Boeing and upstart SpaceX—with the task of designing and building capsules that would replace the shuttles.

但这只是暂时的安排。美国国家航空航天局已经委托两家私营公司，航空巨头波音公司和新贵SpaceX公司，负责设计和制造可以取代航天飞机的太空舱。

'Success story'

“成功故事”

At 4:33 pm on Wednesday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set to take off from Launch Pad 39A with the Crew Dragon capsule at its top.

周三下午4点33分，SpaceX公司的猎鹰9号火箭将从39A发射台起飞，其顶部是乘龙号太空舱。

NASA has awarded SpaceX more than $3 billion in contracts since 2011 to build the spacecraft. The capsule will be crewed by Robert Behnken, 49, and Douglas Hurley, 53, both veteran space travelers.

自2011年以来，NASA已经授予SpaceX公司超过30亿美元的合同来建造航天器。太空舱将由49岁的罗伯特·贝恩肯和53岁的道格拉斯·赫利驾驶，他们都是经验丰富的太空旅行者。

Nineteen hours later they will dock at the ISS, where two Russians and an American are waiting for them.

19个小时后，他们将在国际空间站停靠，两名俄罗斯人和一名美国人正在那里等着他们。

The weather forecast remains unfavorable, with a 60 percent chance of bad conditions, according to Cape Canaveral forecasters.

据卡纳维拉尔角气象预报员说，天气预报仍然不太好，有60%的可能出现恶劣天气。

The next launch window is Saturday, May 30.

下一次发射时间是5月30日，星期六。

The launch has taken five years longer than planned to come about, but even with the delays SpaceX has beaten Boeing to the punch.

这次发射比原计划多花了5年时间，但即使有延迟，SpaceX还是抢先了波音。

Boeing's test flight of its Starliner failed due to serious software issues, and will have to be redone.

由于严重的软件问题，波音公司的Starliner试飞失败，需要重新设计。

"It's been a real success story," Scott Hubbard, former director of NASA's Ames Center in Silicon Valley who now teaches at Stanford, told AFP.

“这是一个真正的成功故事，”斯科特·哈伯德告诉法新社，他曾任美国宇航局位于硅谷的艾姆斯中心主任，目前在斯坦福大学任教。