SpaceX Successfully Lands Rocket on a Drone Ship

Today’s attempt was the fourth time SpaceX had tried to land its Falcon 9 on a drone ship. The rocket has not been inspected but appeared to land upright in relatively calm waters -- a stark difference from previous attempts that have resulted in fiery crash landings.

这并不是SpaceX第一次回收火箭，它此前曾有过三次实验，不过都失败了。在这次的实验中，火箭笔直地立在回收平台上，但由于火箭尚未经过检查，所以还不知道究竟是什么原因使得这次的实验结果和前三次的完全不同。不过和前几次实验条件显著不同的是，这次回收海域附近的海水风浪很小，而这很有可能就是原因。

"The rocket landed instead of putting a hole in the ship or tipping over," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a news conference after the successful landing, later adding: "It’s another step toward the stars."

在成功着陆后的新闻发布会上，SpaceX的CEO伊隆·马斯克说道：“前几次火箭不是在回收平台上烧个洞，就是横着倒在平台上，而这次它完美地着陆在了上面！”随后他后补充道：“我们离星辰大海又近了一步。”

SpaceX successfully landed a Falcon 9 rocket in December on land after launching a satellite into orbit. Having the ability to recycle rockets is something Musk has said will "revolutionize access to space," reducing costs by as much as a factor of one hundred, he said.

去年12月，在把一颗卫星送入轨道后，SpaceX成功在陆地上实现了对其猎鹰9火箭的回收。那时马斯克曾说，拥有回收火箭的能力将“彻底改变进入太空的方式”，把一次发射的成本缩减100倍。

"Full and rapid re-usability is fundamental," Musk noted again today.

而这次他再次强调道：“快速、完全的可回收利用能力在未来的航天领域将至关重要。”

Mastering a drone ship landing is necessary when it is "just not physically possible to return to launch site," Musk previously explained. The drone ship landings are especially needed for "high velocity missions," which would allow payloads such as satellites to reach a higher orbit, such as geostationary orbits, he said.

马斯克此前曾解释，说当火箭因为“条件不允许而不能回到发射点”时，海上漂浮平台回收技术就是必须的了。航天部门经常要执行“高速度任务”，用火箭把包括卫星在内的负载物送到地球同步轨道等更高一些的轨道上去。而在这时，海上漂浮平台火箭回收技术就显得非常有必要了。

The liftoff this afternoon from Cape Canaveral in Florida marked the first resupply mission for SpaceX since an explosion after liftoff last June that destroyed Dragon and the thousands of pounds of cargo on board.

今天下午在佛罗里达卡纳维拉尔角的成功发射标志着SpaceX补给任务的第一次成功。去年6月，执行补给任务的天龙号飞船曾在发射升空不久后发生爆炸，毁掉了舱内数千磅的补给物资。

The rocket is being welded to the deck using steel shoes so it doesn’t tip over during its trip back to port, Musk said. The plan is to re-fire that rocket about 10 times on the ground to test it before using it on a mission, possibly as early as June, he said.

马斯克说，工作人员正在用钢材把回收成功的火箭焊接在平台甲板上，以确保火箭在回港途中不会翻倒。他还透露这架回收的火箭可能会在6月份的一个新任务中被使用，在那之前他们将在基地进行大约10次的再点火实验，以确保火箭的机能正常。

On board Dragon is a very special piece of cargo, called the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM for short. This is a fabric room NASA envisions astronauts will be able to set and pack up with ease. Sensors inside BEAM monitor temperature and radiation changes.

此次发射火箭搭载的天龙号太空舱里有一件特别的货物，比奇洛可扩展活动模块，简称BEAM。这是一种由NASA设想的纺织物房屋，宇航员能够将其轻松的展开或收起。BEAM内设的传感器会监控温度和辐射变化。

"When we’re traveling to Mars or beyond, astronauts need habitats that are both durable and easy to transport and to set up. That’s where expandable technology comes in," NASA said in a blog post.

NASA在它的官方博客中写道：“当我们要前往火星或者更远地方的时候，宇航员对于生活舱的要求是既要耐用，又要便于运输和打开。因此可扩展技术就应运而生了。”

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来源:abcnews爱语吧作者:陶祥飞