US Astronauts Look Forward to New Space Mission

美国宇航员今年将有新动作

 

The first U.S. astronauts chosen to fly on a private spaceship to the International Space Station, or ISS are preparing for the planned trip later this year.

 

首批获得遴选、可以执行私人太空任务并去往国际空间站（ISS）的宇航员们，现在正在为今年晚些时候安排的太空之旅做准备。

 

The two astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, recently spoke with the Reuters news agency in Houston, Texas. They met at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Agency, where NASA, the United States’ space agency, trains astronauts for spaceflight.

 

这两名宇航员是鲍勃·本肯和道格·赫尔利。他们最近在德克萨斯州的休斯顿接受了路透社的采访。他们是在林登·约翰逊美国航空航天中心见面的，这里是美国宇航局（NASA）训练执行太空任务的宇航员的地方。

 

Behnken and Hurley spoke about their preparations and recent tests of the spacecraft that will carry them to space.

 

本肯和赫尔利谈及了他们的准备工作以及他们最近的测试工作。测试工作的对象是即将承载他们飞往太空的宇宙飞船。

 

The two men will fly on the Crew Dragon spacecraft, which was built by private American company SpaceX. In March, the Crew Dragon completed a successful six-day unmanned test mission to the ISS. The spacecraft returned safely to Earth, landing in the Atlantic Ocean, and was recovered several days later.

 

他们将乘坐的是龙飞船，龙飞船是由美国私企太空探索技术公司（SpaceX）研制的。3月，龙飞船成功地完成了为期6天的无人试飞任务，目的地是ISS。龙飞船得以安全返回地球并在大西洋着陆。仅在几天后，就恢复了运行状态。

 

But during a ground test carried out on April 20, the same Crew Dragon capsule exploded. The test involved a system designed to propel the spacecraft and its crew to safety in the event of a launch failure. SpaceX is leading the investigation into the April accident. The company has called the explosion, an “anomaly.”

 

不过，在4月20日进行的一次地面测试中，经历了这一切的同一个龙飞船太空舱发生了爆炸。这次测试涉及到的一个系统是专门用来为宇宙飞船及宇航员提供动力，从而带领他们飞到安全区域的。SpaceX正在牵头调查4月的事故。SpaceX称这次爆炸事故是“异常情况”。

 

Behnken and Hurley both flew on NASA’s space shuttles. They told Reuters the test failure represents part of the process. They noted that the Crew Dragon technology is far more developed than what was used in the space shuttle program, which ended eight years ago.

 

本肯和赫尔利两人都参加过NASA的航天飞机飞行任务。他们在接受路透社采访时表示，试验故障是整个流程不可或缺的一部分。他们还表示，龙飞船的技术比之前航天飞机任务的技术都要成熟。而先前的航天飞机任务已经是8年前的任务了。

 

Mike Hopkins is another astronaut who was chosen for a later mission aboard the Crew Dragon with astronaut Victor Glover. Hopkins spoke about the latest difficulties in the ground tests. This is part of the process. It’s not surprising that it’s happened, he said. We all wish that we haven’t had some of these issues, but... as long as you’ve got a good process, a good team put together, you can get through them.

 

迈克·霍普金斯是另一位获选参加后期某次航空任务的宇航员。这次任务要乘坐的同样是龙飞船。跟他搭档的是维克多·格洛弗。霍普金斯谈及了地面测试最近遇到的一些困难。困难是流程的一部分。困难的发生在我们的预料之内，他如是说道。我们都希望不会遇到这样的问题，不过，只要流程完善、只要团队精良，就一定能度过难关。

 

The Crew Dragon and the Falcon 9 rocket that carry it into Earth’s orbit are both SpaceX creations. The first successful crewed launch will mark a major step forward in NASA’s plans to use private companies to fuel future space travel.

 

无论是龙飞船还是猎鹰九号运载火箭都抵达了地球轨道，这些都是SpaceX的研发成果。首次成功的载人发射任务标志着NASA向前迈出的一大步，这一大步体现在通过私企助力未来太空之旅的方向上。

 

The space agency is paying SpaceX and U.S.-based Boeing a total of $6.8 billion to build competing rocket and capsule systems to send astronauts into space. Since NASA ended its space shuttle program in 2011, U.S. astronauts have used Russian-launched spacecraft to get to the ISS.

 

NASA目前向SpaceX和总部位于美国的波音公司支付了68亿美元，供其建造具有竞争力的火箭和太空舱系统，从而实现载人航空。自从NASA于2011年结束其航天飞机的项目以来，美国的许多宇航员都是通过俄罗斯发射的宇宙飞船抵达ISS的。

 

Boeing plans to launch its Starliner capsule, without a crew, sometime this year, followed by a later mission with astronauts. The Starliner is designed to return to Earth on land, not sea.

 

波音公司计划发射其商业太空出租车（Starliner）的太空舱，这将是一次无人飞行，预计时间是今年。之后，会有载人飞行。Starliner的设计是让宇宙飞船在返回地球时能着陆于陆地，而非海洋。

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