Blue Origin joins 2 stages of New Glenn rocket for the 1st time (photo)

蓝色起源首次开展新格伦火箭的两级组装任务（图片）

Blue Origin's powerful new rocket is starting to come together.

蓝色起源开启了新一代重型火箭的组装任务。

The company, which was founded by Amazon's Jeff Bezos, announced on Monday (Jan. 21) that it has mated the two stages of its New Glenn heavy lifter for the first time.

1月21日，蓝色起源宣布首次完成新格伦重型运载火箭的两级组装任务。蓝色起源是由亚马逊的杰夫·贝索斯（Jeff Bezos）创办的公司。

The milestone, which occurred at Launch Complex 36 (LC-36) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, will enable Blue Origin "to exercise our tooling and stage interfaces in preparation for our first launch later this year," the company wrote on Monday in a post on X that shared a photo of the joined stages.

这一里程碑式的事件发生在佛罗里达州卡纳维拉尔角太空部队基地的36号发射复合体（LC-36），这将使 蓝色起源“在今年晚些时候 的首次发射前，对工具和阶段接口进行演练 ”，该公司周一在X上发布的一篇帖子中写道，同时分享了一张组合阶段的照片。

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The first stage involved in the linkup made the trip to LC-36 from Blue Origin's factory on Florida's Space Coast about two weeks ago, as the company explained in a previous X post.

此前，蓝色起源在X平台发布推文，解释道，大约两周前，参与这次组装的第一级火箭从该公司位于佛罗里达州太空海岸的工厂运抵LC-36。

The two-stage New Glenn will stand 322 feet (98 meters) tall and be able to haul 50 tons (45 metric tons) to low Earth orbit. That's about twice the payload capacity of SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket.

两级组装后的新格伦火箭将达到322英尺（98米）高，能够将50吨（45公吨）的载荷送入低地球轨道。这大约是SpaceX的主力火箭猎鹰9号运载能力的两倍。

Like the Falcon 9, New Glenn's first stage is designed to be reusable. The booster will be powered by seven of Blue Origin's BE-4 engines, which flew for the first time earlier this month on the debut flight of United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan Centaur rocket.

与猎鹰9号一样，新格伦火箭的第一级也是可重复使用的。助推器将由蓝色起源的七台BE-4发动机提供动力。本月初，在联合发射联盟的新型“火神半人马座”火箭的首飞任务中，这些发动机首次亮相。

That launch went well, by the way, though the payload — Astrobotic's Peregrine moon lander — suffered problems of its own in deep space and ended up crashing back to Earth.

可以说，那次发射任务很顺利。可惜的是，任务的有效载荷—Astrobotic公司的“游隼”号月球着陆器——在深空中遇到了自身的问题 ，最终坠回地球。

New Glenn has been in development for more than a decade. The heavy lifter's debut was originally targeted for 2020, but it has been pushed back multiple times.

新格伦火箭的研发已经持续了十多年。 这款重型运载火箭的首飞原本定于2020年进行，但多次遭到推迟。

The eventual first flight will loft NASA's two-spacecraft EscaPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) Mars mission. Liftoff is currently scheduled for this coming August.

最终，该火箭的首飞将把NASA的两艘太空飞船“逃逸和等离子体加速与动力学探测器”（EscaPADE）送上火星。目前计划在今年8月发射。