SpaceX poised for quick turnaround between astronaut missions
美国太空探索技术公司准备在宇航员任务之间快速周转
Just 39 hours after SpaceX returned four private astronauts to Earth, the company’s next crew launch for NASA is set for early Wednesday from Florida, with a planetary geologist, a medical doctor, and former U.S. and Italian fighter pilots heading to the International Space Station.
就在美国太空探索技术公司将四名私人宇航员送回地球39小时后，该公司为美国宇航局进行的下一次载人发射定于周三凌晨从佛罗里达州进行，一名行星地质学家、一名医生以及前美国和意大利战斗机飞行员将前往国际空间站。
The four astronauts assigned to NASA’s Crew-4 mission had to wait a few extra days to begin their flight to the station. SpaceX and NASA delayed the launch of the Crew-4 flight to wait for the departure of another crew capsule from the station, a return which itself was pushed back a week by a scheduling constraint and weather concerns.
被分配到美国宇航局龙飞船任务的四名宇航员不得不多等几天才开始飞往空间站。美国太空探索技术公司和美国宇航局推迟了龙飞船任务的发射，以等待另一个船员从太空舱起飞，返回本身被推迟了一个星期的时间表限制和天气问题。
But SpaceX’s Dragon Endeavour capsule finally undocked from the station Sunday, clearing the docking port needed for the arrival of the Crew-4 mission. Taking advantage of a break in high winds, Dragon Endeavour and its four-man crew safely splashed down off the coast of Georgia at 1:06 p.m. EDT (1706 GMT) Monday, ending the first all-private, non-government mission to the International Space Station.
但美国太空探索技术公司的“龙奋进号”太空舱终于在周日脱离了空间站，为“船员4号”任务的抵达扫清了对接口。美国东部时间周一下午6点（格林尼治标准时间1706点），“龙奋进号”和它的四名机组人员利用大风的间歇，安全地降落在格鲁吉亚海岸，结束了第一次前往国际空间站的私人非政府任务。
The 17-day flight for Axiom Space, a Houston-based company, was the first fully commercial mission of its kind to visit the orbiting research complex. It’s a pathfinder for future private crew flights to the station, and could ultimately lead to development of a privately-owned human-tended outpost in low Earth orbit.
总部位于休斯顿的私人太空旅行公司为期17天的飞行是第一次完全商业化的访问轨道研究中心的任务。这是未来私人机组人员飞往空间站的探路者，并可能最终导致在低地球轨道上开发一个私人拥有的人类照料的前哨站。
The splashdown cleared the way for launch of the Crew-4 mission on SpaceX’s Dragon Freedom spacecraft — a new capsule in the company’s fleet — from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 3:52 a.m. EDT (0752 GMT) Wednesday. A Falcon 9 rocket powered by a thrice-flown reusable first stage booster will send the Dragon capsule into orbit.
周三美国东部时间凌晨5点52分（格林尼治标准时间7点52分），美国太空探索技术公司公司的龙自由号飞船（该公司舰队中的一个新太空舱）从美国宇航局肯尼迪航天中心的39A号发射台上发射了“船员4号”任务飞船。猎鹰9号火箭由一个三次飞行的可重复使用的第一级助推器提供动力，将把“龙”号太空舱送入轨道。
Commander Kjell Lindgren, veteran of one previous expedition on the space station, leads the four-person crew awaiting liftoff Wednesday. He will be joined by pilot Bob Hines and mission specialist Jessica Watkins, two first-time fliers from NASA’s astronaut corps. European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, a native of Italy who spent nearly 200 days in orbit in 2014 and 2015, rounds out the crew.
指挥官谢尔·林格伦是空间站上一次探险的老兵，他领导着四名宇航员等待星期三的发射。飞行员鲍勃·海因斯和任务专家杰西卡·沃特金斯将加入他的行列，他们是美国宇航局宇航员队伍中的两名首次飞行员。欧洲航天局宇航员萨曼莎·克里斯托福雷蒂是意大利人，2014年和2015年在轨道上呆了近200天。
“We are really in a golden era of space exploration,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “We’ve seen the first private astronaut mission that has successfully returned, now a 39-hour turnaround and we’re going to launch Crew-4.”
美国宇航局局长比尔·纳尔逊说：“我们真的正处于太空探索的黄金时代。”“我们已经看到了第一个成功返回的私人宇航员任务，现在是39个小时的转机，我们将发射船员4号任务。”
If the launch takes off early Wednesday, the Crew-4 astronauts are scheduled to dock at the Harmony module on the space station at 8:15 p.m. EDT Wednesday (0015 GMT Thursday).
如果发射星期三早些时候起飞，4号机组宇航员计划在美国东部时间星期三下午8点15分（格林尼治标准时间星期四0015分）停靠在空间站的和谐舱。
SpaceX and NASA engineers reviewed data from the Axiom mission and cleared the Crew-4 mission for liftoff during a launch readiness review early Tuesday.
美国太空探索技术公司和美国宇航局的工程师们审查了格言任务的数据，并在周二早些时候的发射准备审查中批准了“船员4号”任务的发射。
“It was a very clean flight overall, really no major issues,” said Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager. “The team went through all of the data, and they had a chance to review everything. They looked at the thermal protection system.”
“这是一个非常干净的飞行整体，真的没有重大问题，说：”史蒂夫斯蒂奇，美国宇航局的商业机组人员项目经理。“团队检查了所有的数据，他们有机会审查一切。他们检查了热防护系统。“
Stich said the parachutes on the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft performed well Monday, with no sign of any lagging inflation of any of the four main chutes, a phenomenon observed on several previous Dragon flights.
施蒂奇说，“龙”奋进号飞船上的降落伞星期一表现良好，没有迹象表明四个主降落伞中的任何一个会出现滞后膨胀，这是在之前的几次“龙”号飞行中观察到的现象。
The Crew-4 mission will be SpaceX’s seventh launch of astronauts, and the company’s fourth operational crew rotation flight to the space staton under a multibillion contract with NASA. The space agency announced in February it awarded three additional crew flights to SpaceX on Dragon spacecraft, a contract extension valued at nearly $900 million covering the Crew-7, Crew-8, and Crew-9 missions.
“船员4号”任务将是美国太空探索技术公司的第七次宇航员发射，也是该公司根据与美国宇航局签订的数十亿美元合同向太空站进行的第四次操作性机组轮换飞行。今年2月，美国航天局宣布，将在“龙”号航天器上向美国太空探索技术公司公司提供三次额外的载人飞行，这是一份价值近9亿美元的合同延期，涵盖了7号、8号和9号机组的任务。
NASA has a similar contract with Boeing for six operational crew missions on the Starliner spacecraft, which is still in its test phase and has not yet flown astronauts.
美国宇航局与波音公司有一份类似的合同,在星际客机飞船上执行六次操作机组人员任务,该飞船仍处于测试阶段,尚未搭载宇航员。
Stich said the final loading of cargo into the Dragon Freedom spacecraft has been completed in preparation for launch Wednesday. SpaceX’s recovery teams, U.S. military rescue forces, and the Coast Guard are ready to support the mission, he said.
施蒂奇说，“龙自由”号飞船的最后一次货物装载已经完成，为星期三的发射做准备。他说，美国太空探索技术公司的救援队、美国军事救援部队和海岸警卫队已经准备好支持这次任务。
There’s a 90% chance of acceptable weather at the Kennedy Space Center for liftoff Wednesday morning, and a low-to-moderate risk of bad conditions along the Falcon 9’s ascent corridor heading northeast over the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX monitors conditions downrange to ensure weather and sea states would be safe for a splashdown of the Dragon spacecraft in the event of an in-flight abort caused by a rocket failure.
周三上午，肯尼迪航天中心有90% 的可能性出现可接受的天气，猎鹰9号在大西洋上空向东北方向飞行的上升走廊沿线有低到中等的恶劣天气风险。美国太空探索技术公司监控着发射场的状况，以确保在火箭故障导致飞行中中止的情况下，天气和海况对“龙”号飞船的溅落是安全的。
Once the Dragon spacecraft delivers its crew to the space station, Lindgren, Hines, Cristoforetti and Watkins will receive briefings from the four astronauts they are replacing on the station.
一旦“龙”号飞船将其机组人员送往空间站,林格伦、海因斯、克里斯托福雷蒂和沃特金斯将收到他们在空间站上替换的四名宇航员的简报。
The flight plan calls for handover of at least five days between the new Crew-4 astronauts and the outgoing Crew-3 astronauts, who are tentatively scheduled to depart the station around May 4, targeting a splashdown off the coast of Florida around May 5, wrapping up their nearly six-month mission.
飞行计划要求新的4号机组宇航员和即将离任的3号机组宇航员之间至少有5天的交接时间，他们暂定于5月4日左右离开空间站，目标是5月5日左右在佛罗里达州海岸附近溅落，结束他们近6个月的任务。
Commander Raja Chari, pilot Tom Marshburn, and mission specialists Matthias Maurer and Kayla Barron launched on the Crew-3 mission last November. They will ride SpaceX’s Dragon Endurance spacecraft back to Earth, leaving the Crew-4 astronauts at the station with three Russian cosmonaut crewmates.
去年11月，指挥官拉贾·查里、飞行员汤姆·马什伯恩、任务专家马蒂亚斯·毛雷尔和凯拉·巴伦执行了3号机组任务。他们将乘坐美国太空探索技术公司的“龙耐力”飞船返回地球，将“船员4号”宇航员和三名俄罗斯宇航员留在空间站。
Lindgren and his crew will fly on the first mission of SpaceX’s fourth — and likely final — human-rated Dragon spacecraft. The crew announced last month the new capsule will be named “Freedom.”
林格伦和他的机组人员将执行美国航空公司第四艘也可能是最后一艘人类级“龙”飞船的首次飞行任务。机组人员上个月宣布，新的太空舱将被命名为“自由”。
“We want to celebrate what we see as fundamental human right, and also to celebrate what the unfettered human spirit is capable of,” Lindgren said in a pre-flight press conference. “And it’s also just kind of a reflection of how we’ve come.”
林格伦在飞行前的新闻发布会上说：“我们要庆祝我们所认为的基本人权，也要庆祝不受约束的人类精神所能做到的事情。”“这也反映了我们是如何来到这里的。”
The name also honors Freedom 7, the capsule that carried astronaut Alan Shepard to suborbital space on the first U.S. human spaceflight mission in May 1961.
这个名字也是为了纪念自由7号，1961年5月，该太空舱将宇航员艾伦·谢泼德送入亚轨道空间，完成了美国首次载人航天任务。
“To see that first launch of Freedom 7, and to see where we are today is really a remarkable thing,” Lindgren said. “So we wanted to celebrate freedom for a new generation of space fliers.”
林格伦说:“看到自由7号的首次发射,看到我们今天的位置,真的是一件了不起的事情。”“所以我们想为新一代的太空飞行员庆祝自由。”
The new Dragon Freedom spacecraft looks like the other three capsules in SpaceX’s fleet of reusable vehicles. But it comes with some upgrades, including an improvement in the voice communications system.
新的龙自由飞船看起来像美国太空探索技术公司可重复使用飞行器舰队中的其他三个太空舱。但它也有一些升级，包括语音通信系统的改进。
The astronauts also heralded an addition that would be appreciated by anyone on a long road trip.
宇航员们还预示着一个额外的,将赞赏任何人在长途旅行。
“We now have USB charging ports in this spacecraft,” Lindgren said. “This is something that goes to low Earth orbit and is going to get us to the space station, and I’m talking about USB ports.”
“我们现在在这艘飞船上有接口充电端口，”林格伦说。“这是一个进入近地轨道的东西，它将把我们带到空间站，我说的是接口端口。”
The charging ports will allow the astronauts to top up power on their tablets, which contain reference materials for the flight up to the space station.
充电口将允许宇航员在他们的平板电脑上充电,平板电脑上包含了飞往空间站的参考资料。
“It’s the little things. Next, the coffeemaker,” Lindgren joked.
“就这些小事。接下来是咖啡机，“林格伦开玩笑说。
“No wifi though!” Hines retorted.
“但是没有无线网络!”海因斯反驳道。
The crew will get internet access after arriving at the space station. Communications on-board the Dragon spacecraft goes through SpaceX’s mission control in Hawthorne, California.
机组人员到达空间站后将获得互联网接入。龙飞船上的通信通过美国太空探索技术公司位于加利福尼亚州霍桑的任务控制中心进行。
Lindgren, 49 and a father of three, was born in Taiwan and grew up in England and in the United States, then attended the U.S. Air Force Academy, where was a member of the school’s parachute team. He later earned a medical degree and became a NASA flight surgeon before his selection to join the NASA astronaut corps in 2009.
林格伦，49岁，是三个孩子的父亲，出生在台湾，在英国和美国长大，然后就读于美国空军学院，在那里是学校降落伞队的一员。他后来获得了医学学位，并成为美国宇航局飞行外科医生之前，他选择加入美国宇航局宇航员军团在2009年。
After completing his first space mission, a long-duration expedition that lasted 141 days, Lindgren was assigned as the backup to NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on SpaceX’s first Dragon test flight to carry people into orbit.
在完成了他的第一次太空任务，一次持续141天的长期探险后，林格伦被指派作为美国宇航局宇航员道格·赫尔利和鲍勃·本肯的后援，参加美国太空探索技术公司的第一次“龙”试飞，将人送入轨道。
Hines is a 47-year-old lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force gearing up for his first launch into space. He was born in North Carolina and grew up in Pennsylvania, then served as an F-15E fighter pilot and graduated from Air Force Test Pilot School. Hines continued to fly F-15s as a test pilot and deployed overseas in support of special forces operations, while also working as a test pilot for the Federal Aviation Administration.
海因斯是一名47岁的美国空军中校，正在为他的第一次太空发射做准备。他出生于北卡罗来纳州，在宾夕法尼亚州长大，后来担任F-15E战斗机飞行员，毕业于空军试飞员学校。海因斯继续作为试飞员驾驶F-15,并部署在海外支持特种部队的行动,同时还作为联邦航空管理局的试飞员工作。
NASA hired Hines as a research pilot based in Houston in 2012, and the agency selected him to become an astronaut in 2017.
美国宇航局于2012年聘请海因斯作为总部设在休斯顿的研究飞行员,该机构于2017年选择他成为宇航员。
Watkins also joined NASA’s astronaut corps in 2017. The 33-year-old scientist will become the first Black woman to live and work on the space station for a long-duration mission.
沃特金斯也在2017年加入了美国宇航局的宇航员队伍。这位33岁的科学家将成为第一位在空间站长期工作和生活的黑人女性。
“This is certainly an important milestone, I think, both for our agency and for the country,” Watkins said. “I think it’s really just a tribute to the legacy of the Black women astronauts that have come before, as well as to the exciting future ahead.”
沃特金斯说:“我认为,这当然是一个重要的里程碑,无论是对我们的机构还是对国家。”“我认为这真的只是对以前的黑人女宇航员的遗产的致敬，以及对未来令人兴奋的未来的致敬。”
She was born in Maryland and considers Lafayette, Colorado, as her hometown. She earned a doctorate in geology from UCLA, then joined the science team working on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover mission, participated in system design for the Perseverance rover and the Mars Sample Return mission.
她出生在马里兰州，并认为拉斐特，科罗拉多州，作为她的家乡。她获得了加州大学洛杉矶分校的地质学博士学位，然后加入了美国宇航局好奇号火星探测器任务的科学团队，参与了毅力号火星探测器和火星样本返回任务的系统设计。
Watkins was one of 18 astronauts NASA named in 2020 for potential future assignments to moon missions under the agency’s Artemis lunar program. She said her work at the station, among other tasks, will help develop technology and robotics for the Artemis program, along with experiments in radiation protection and human health and biological research, all areas geared toward enabling longer and farther missions into space.
沃特金斯是美国宇航局2020年提名的18名宇航员之一，他们可能在未来根据该机构的阿耳忒弥斯登月计划执行登月任务。她说,她在空间站的工作,除其他任务外,将有助于为阿耳忒弥斯计划开发技术和机器人技术,以及辐射防护、人类健康和生物研究方面的实验,所有这些领域都旨在实现更长更远的太空任务。
“As NASA pivots to the moon and Mars, that pivot point is the space station,” Hines said. “So all that technology is going to the space station, where we develop it and refine it before we pivot and send it off to the moon and eventually on to Mars.”
海因斯说:“当美国宇航局以月球和火星为支点时,这个支点就是空间站。”“因此，所有这些技术都将进入空间站，在那里我们开发和完善它，然后再将其发射到月球，最终发射到火星。”
Cristoforetti, 44, has logged more time in space — nearly 200 days — than any of her crewmates. Like Lindgren, she launched on first space mission aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket and spacecraft.
44岁的克里斯托福雷蒂在太空中的时间比她的任何一个队友都要长，将近200天。像林格伦一样，她乘坐俄罗斯联盟号火箭和宇宙飞船执行了第一次太空任务。
Born in Milan, Italy, Cristoforetti holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Technical University of Munich. She was a fighter pilot in the Italian Air Force before ESA selected her as part of its 2009 astronaut class.
克里斯托弗雷蒂出生于意大利米兰，拥有慕尼黑工业大学机械工程硕士学位。在欧空局选择她作为2009年宇航员班的一员之前,她是意大利空军的一名战斗机飞行员。
The astronauts will perform spacewalks and conduct experiments during their time on the space station. Cristoforetti may have a chance to head outside the station in a Russian spacesuit to help activate the European Robotic Arm.
宇航员在空间站期间将进行太空行走和实验。克里斯托福雷蒂可能有机会穿着俄罗斯宇航服走出空间站，帮助启动欧洲机器人手臂。
The Crew-4 mission is scheduled to end in mid-September with a re-entry and splashdown off the coast of Florida. NASA’s Crew-5 mission is set for launch to the space station in early September.
“船员4号”的任务计划于9月中旬结束，返回佛罗里达州海岸并溅落。美国宇航局的“船员5号”任务将于9月初发射到空间站。
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