美国国家公共电台 NPR--SpaceX rocket explodes shortly after test-flight takeoff in Texas

SpaceX rocket explodes shortly after test-flight takeoff in Texas

Transcript¹

SpaceX's new stainless²-steel rocket named Starship exploded Thursday just four minutes after liftoff. In a statement, the company said, "with a test like this, success comes from what we learn."

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

They say what goes up must come down.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: Five, four, three...

(SOUNDBITE OF ROCKET LAUNCHING)

MART?NEZ: A SpaceX rocket with no one on board successfully blasted off this morning in Boca Chica, Texas. Here is what happened next.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: The entire Starship stack continued to rotate. We should have had separation by now. Obviously, this is - does not appear to be a nominal³ situation.

MART?NEZ: Yeah. Minutes into its flight, SpaceX's megarocket Starship blew up. From member station WMFE, Brendan Byrne joins us to talk about the launch failure and what's next for SpaceX's Starship. Brendan, OK, so what happened this morning in Texas?

BRENDAN BYRNE, BYLINE⁴: So let's reiterate⁵. No one was on board, and there was actually no payload on board because this was a test flight. And SpaceX said this morning that if the rocket cleared the launch pad, it would be an important milestone⁶ in itself. And, A, it did do just that. It successfully left the pad. But as you mentioned, three minutes after launch, it began to tumble. And about four minutes into the mission, we saw it blew up - that was about 18 miles in altitude - in something SpaceX termed a rapid, unscheduled disassembly of the rocket.

So it was the second attempt to launch SpaceX's Starship, which is no easy feat⁷. This vehicle is made of stainless steel, which is very cheap, but it is very, very heavy. And that means this rocket needs a lot of thrust to fly. Starship gets a big lift from its first-stage super-heavy booster, which has 33 engines that all work in unison⁸ to get this 40-story-tall vehicle off the ground with twice the thrust of the Saturn⁹ V rocket. That's the rocket that got the Apollo astronauts to the moon. And it's still early, but we noticed that as the rocket launched, not all of those 33 engines were firing at the same time. So that could have led to this rapid, unscheduled disassembly.

MART?NEZ: Yeah. Still dwelling¹⁰ on what you said - rapid, unscheduled disassembly. So why does SpaceX need such a powerful rocket?

BYRNE: Well, A, in the short term, it's for moon missions. NASA, the space agency, has an ambitious plan to land humans on the moon this decade. The program is called Artemis, and it's contracted SpaceX to build that lander. That lander is Starship. So it needs to prove that this thing can get orbital and then eventually take humans to the moon. For SpaceX, it's using Starship for Starlink. This is the thousands of satellites that are blanketing the globe to provide internet access. Starlink is big revenue for SpaceX, and Starship is going to put a lot of these into orbit at one time. There's also a fly-by moon mission called dearMoon, which is taking artists and creators to the moon and back on Starship. And eventually, SpaceX wants to use Starship to take people to Mars.

MART?NEZ: Now, you mention how despite the launch failure, SpaceX is still considering this a successful mission. So how does this play out for the company?

BYRNE: Yeah. So in a tweet, the company said, quote, "with a test like this, success comes from what we learn. And today's test will help us improve Starship's reliability¹¹ as SpaceX seeks to make life multiplanetary." And basically, it reiterates¹² SpaceX's philosophy. They design based on failure. They push their hardware to the limit to the point of blowing things up, and they learn what they can from this. Ahead of the mission, SpaceX said any data they get from this will help with future launches, as long as they cleared the pad they were learning, which they did today.

And CEO Elon Musk¹³ tempered those expectations ahead of this mission, saying super-heavy booster was an older design and that the next booster, which is almost ready for launch, has a better chance of flight. But as I mentioned, this is a key piece of NASA's plan to get to the moon. The agency is watching closely, and this is a setback¹⁴ in those ambitions.

MART?NEZ: Brendan Byrne is a reporter at member station WMFE in Orlando. Brendan, you may disassemble for the morning.

BYRNE: Thank you, A (laughter).

(SOUNDBITE OF HOME'S "RESONANCE")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 stainless   

adj.无瑕疵的，不锈的

参考例句：

• I have a set of stainless knives and forks.我有一套不锈钢刀叉。
• Before the recent political scandal,her reputation had been stainless.在最近的政治丑闻之前，她的名声是无懈可击的。

3 nominal   

adj.名义上的；(金额、租金)微不足道的

参考例句：

• The king was only the nominal head of the state. 国王只是这个国家名义上的元首。
• The charge of the box lunch was nominal.午餐盒饭收费很少。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 reiterate   

v.重申，反复地说

参考例句：

• Let me reiterate that we have absolutely no plans to increase taxation.让我再一次重申我们绝对没有增税的计划。
• I must reiterate that our position on this issue is very clear.我必须重申我们对这一项议题的立场很清楚。

6 milestone   

n.里程碑；划时代的事件

参考例句：

• The film proved to be a milestone in the history of cinema.事实证明这部影片是电影史上的一个里程碑。
• I think this is a very important milestone in the relations between our two countries.我认为这是我们两国关系中一个十分重要的里程碑。

7 feat   

n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的

参考例句：

• Man's first landing on the moon was a feat of great daring.人类首次登月是一个勇敢的壮举。
• He received a medal for his heroic feat.他因其英雄业绩而获得一枚勋章。

8 unison   

n.步调一致，行动一致

参考例句：

• The governments acted in unison to combat terrorism.这些国家的政府一致行动对付恐怖主义。
• My feelings are in unison with yours.我的感情与你的感情是一致的。

9 Saturn   

n.农神，土星

参考例句：

• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings.天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。
• These comparisons suggested that Saturn is made of lighter materials.这些比较告诉我们，土星由较轻的物质构成。

10 dwelling   

n.住宅，住所，寓所

参考例句：

• Those two men are dwelling with us.那两个人跟我们住在一起。
• He occupies a three-story dwelling place on the Park Street.他在派克街上有一幢3层楼的寓所。

11 reliability   

n.可靠性，确实性

参考例句：

• We mustn't presume too much upon the reliability of such sources.我们不应过分指望这类消息来源的可靠性。
• I can assure you of the reliability of the information.我向你保证这消息可靠。

12 reiterates   

反复地说，重申( reiterate的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The Chinese government reiterates that the question of Taiwan is China's internal affair. 中国政府重申，台湾问题是中国的内政。 来自汉英非文学 - 汉英文件
• Wang Jianzhou reiterates a fact and a viewpoint in Davos. 王建宙在达沃斯重申一个事实和一个观点。

13 musk   

n.麝香, 能发出麝香的各种各样的植物，香猫

参考例句：

• Musk is used for perfume and stimulant.麝香可以用作香料和兴奋剂。
• She scented her clothes with musk.她用麝香使衣服充满了香味。

14 setback   

n.退步，挫折，挫败

参考例句：

• Since that time there has never been any setback in his career.从那时起他在事业上一直没有遇到周折。
• She views every minor setback as a disaster.她把每个较小的挫折都看成重大灾难。