SpaceX
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不仅为NASA送航天员，
也支持“普通人”太空旅行
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk‘s rocket company SpaceX has launched four astronauts into orbit on April 27 as part of a NASA mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
4月27日，作为美国国家航空航天局（NASA）国际空间站任务的一部分，亿万富翁企业家埃隆-马斯克（Elon Musk）的火箭公司SpaceX将四名宇航员送入太空。
Kathy Lueders, NASA’s space operations mission chief, said the crew was likely “one of the most diversified” in the history of the US space agency to travel together to space.
美国宇航局的太空作业任务负责人凯西-卢德斯（Kathy Lueders）说，在美国宇航局的历史上，这批宇航员很可能是一起前往太空的 "最多样化的人员"之一。
Less than two days before this launch, Elon Musk’s company just finished a flight chartered by millionaires. SpaceX launched an American, a Canadian and an Israeli who run investment, real estate and other companies accompanied by a former NASA astronaut to the International Space Station on April 8 for more than a week’s stay. They’re paying $55 million apiece for the rocket ride and accommodations, all meals included.
在这次发射不到两天之前，马斯克的公司刚刚完成了一次由百万富翁包租的飞行。SpaceX于4月8日将经营投资、房地产等公司的一个美国人、一个加拿大人和一个以色列人送进太空，并由一名前NASA宇航员陪同前往国际空间站完成超过一周的太空旅行。他们每人支付5,500万美元的火箭乘坐费和住宿费，也包括所有膳食。
It’s SpaceX’s first private charter flight to the orbiting lab after two years of carrying astronauts there for NASA as NASA joins Russia in hosting guests at the world’s most expensive tourist destination after years of opposition. SpaceX has now launched five crews for NASA and two private trips in just under two years.
这是SpaceX公司在为NASA运送宇航员两年后，首次向轨道实验室进行私人包机飞行，开始与俄罗斯一起在这个最昂贵的旅游目的地接待客人。但在此之前NASA多年反对私人太空旅行。不到两年的时间里，SpaceX现在已经为NASA发射了5个机组人员，并筹划两次私人旅行。
你了解SpaceX吗
Q
What Is SpaceX and When Was It Founded?
A
As per Britannica, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, also known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace corporation that was established in 2002 and has helped in ushering in the commercial spaceflight era.
根据大英百科全书，太空探索技术公司，也被称为SpaceX，是一家成立于2002年的美国航空航天公司，开创了商业航天时代。
SpaceX was the first private company to launch and dock a crewed spacecraft with the International Space Station (ISS), as well as successfully launch and return a spacecraft from Earth orbit. It also focuses on the development of reusable rockets.
SpaceX是第一家发射载人航天器并与国际空间站对接的公司，成功发射航天器并从地球轨道返回。他还专注于开发可重复使用的火箭。
Q
Who Founded SpaceX?
A
Elon Musk, a South African-born businessman and entrepreneur, has decided to venture into a privately funded space company.
埃隆-马斯克（Elon Musk），一位出生于南非的商人和企业家，冒险成立了一家私人投资的太空公司。
According to Space.com, Musk had originally planned to send a greenhouse to Mars, which he dubbed the Mars Oasis. His goal was to raise public awareness about exploration in space while simultaneously providing a science base on Mars.
据Space新闻网站报道，马斯克最初计划是将一个温室送往火星，他称其为 "火星绿洲"。他的目标是提高公众对太空探索的认知，同时在火星上提供一个科学基地。
However, the cost proved to be too exorbitant, so Musk founded SpaceX, which is based in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne, California.
然而，事实证明成本太高，所以马斯克成立了SpaceX公司，该公司总部设在美国加州洛杉矶郊区的霍桑。
Q
Is SpaceX Profitable?
A
Because the company is privately held, it's difficult to say how much its profit or if it is making any profits at all. However, analysts believed that SpaceX must be profitable by now.
因为该公司是私人持有的，所以很难说它是否有任何利润，利润又是多少。然而，分析人士认为SpaceX现在一定是盈利的。
Time.com noted that it has $4.2 billion in NASA contracts alone, and its recent success in breaking into the defense contract business-ending the military's monopoly on United Launch Alliance.
《时代周刊》指出，它仅在美国宇航局的合同中就有42亿美元，而且它最近成功打入国防合同业务--结束了军方对联合发射联盟的垄断。
All of this is on top of its contracts for private satellite launches, which total 60 launches worth $7 billion in total.
所有这些都是在它的私人卫星发射合同之上，总共有60次发射，总价值70亿美元。
Q
Who Are SpaceX's Main Competitors?
A
SpaceX has a lot of competitors and Inverse.com listed some of them.
SpaceX有很多竞争对手，Inverse新闻网站列出了其中的一些。
Blue Origin, the rocket company established by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has yet to launch anything (or anyone) into orbit, but it has the money and influence to compete with SpaceX.
亚马逊创始人杰夫-贝索斯（Jeff Bezos）成立的火箭公司蓝色起源（Blue Origin）尚未将任何东西（或任何人）送入轨道，但它有足够的资金和影响力与SpaceX竞争。
Q
What Are Musk's Ultimate Goals?
A
Time.com said Musk's most ambitious goal is to send people to Mars. He claims that he can fly human passengers there for as cheap as $500,000 per seat, but he may be exaggerating in this case. The principles of economics may be even more difficult to break than the laws of physics, and neither has been cracked to the point where a Mars expedition is feasible.
《时代周刊》提及，马斯克最雄心勃勃的目标是把人送到火星。他声称，他可以以每个座位50万美元的便宜价格将人类乘客送去那里，但他可能是夸大其词了一点。经济学原理可能比物理学定律更难打破，而且两者都还没有发展的能够让人去火星探险的程度。
要不把太空任务交给马斯克？
Lord Martin Rees said technical improvements and more sophisticated artificial intelligence meant robotic missions were becoming ever more capable of exploration, and even construction, in space, making it unnecessary for space agencies to front far-flung human missions.
英国马丁-里斯（Martin Rees）勋爵说，技术的改进和更复杂的人工智的出现意味着机器人的太空探索能力在日益提升，甚至建设能力也越来越强，使得国家航天机构没有必要再为难以实现的的载人航天事业提供支持。
His comments prompted a robust defense from some experts, who stressed that government-backed spacefaring is a way to project soft power and provided huge inspiration, adding that the private sector could turn space into the “wild west”.
他的评论引起了一些专家的强烈反对，他们强调政府支持的航天事业是投射软实力的一种方式，也提供了很多灵感，并说私营航空企业可能将太空变成 "狂野的西部"。
wild west：
The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, includes the geography, history, folklore, and culture in the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial settlements in the early 17th century and ended with the admission of the last few western territories as states in 1912 (except Alaska, which was not admitted into the Union until 1959).
美国边境，也被称为旧西部或狂野西部。其内涵为从 17 世纪早期到 1912 年之间，在美国进行北美大陆扩张前，最后几个被接纳为州（阿拉斯加除外，直到 1959 年才加入联邦）的西部欧洲殖民地区的地理、历史、民俗和文化。
The cost is considerable because humans are fragile. The US president, Joe Biden, has requested $26bn for NASA in 2023, with $7.5bn earmarked for the Artemis program which aims to put the first woman and the first person of color on the moon as early as 2025.
人类是脆弱的，航空事业的代价也是相当大的。美国总统拜登要求在2023年为美国国家航空航天局拨款260亿美元，其中75亿美元专门用于Artemis计划，该计划旨在最早于2025年将第一位女性和第一位有色人种送上月球。
重点词汇
consortium: a group of people, countries, companies, etc. who are working together on a particular project财团，联盟，联营企业
A group called the Unicode Consortium works on choosing emojis.
dub: to give something or someone a name that describes them in some way称作
The body, thousands of years old, was found in the Alps and dubbed ‘The Iceman’.
exorbitant: an exorbitant price, rate, demand etc is much higher than is reasonable or usual（价格、要求等）过分的，离谱的
He claims his bank is forcing him to pay exorbitant charges.
原文链接：
https://apnews.com/article/space-launches-elon-musk-spacex-exploration-science-de770890369d48f9b8be33b99b5d30f0
https://apnews.com/article/spacex-nasa-axiom-space-launch-f184f3c36fa10a969c7faadd6e25a4d2
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/27/elon-musk-spacex-launches-latest-crew-of-astronauts-to-iss
https://www.itechpost.com/articles/110360/20220428/5-facts-about-elon-musk-s-space-x.htm
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/apr/30/leave-space-missions-to-billionaires-and-robots-says-astronomer-royal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_frontier
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