Blue Origin Rocket Explodes in Fiery Setback
Blue Origin Rocket Explodes in Fiery Setback
蓝色起源火箭发生爆炸，遭遇严重挫折
Blue Origin’s giant New Glenn rocket exploded on Thursday night during a hot-fire test on the launchpad, lighting up the skies around the launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida. In a post on X, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos said that all personnel had been accounted for.
蓝色起源公司（Blue Origin）的巨型“新格伦”（New Glenn）火箭周四晚在佛罗里达州卡纳维拉尔角的发射台进行热试车时发生爆炸，火光照亮了发射场周围的夜空。蓝色起源创始人杰夫·贝索斯（Jeff Bezos）在 X 平台上发文表示，所有人员均已确认安全。
“It’s too early to know the root cause, but we’re already working to find it,” Bezos wrote. “Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.”
“现在断定根本原因还为时过早，但我们已经在努力寻找答案，”贝索斯写道。“这是非常艰难的一天，但我们会重建所有需要重建的部分，并重返飞行。这一切都是值得的。”
What Is a Hot-Fire Test?
什么是热试车？
The test during which Blue Origin’s rocket—a vehicle that, at 98 meters tall, is one of the largest ever built—exploded is known as a hot-fire test, or static-fire test. Essentially, it is a standard procedure carried out on the engines of a rocket, spacecraft, or prototype in which the engines are ignited for a very short period of time and then shut down while the vehicle remains secured to the launchpad. The purpose of this test is to verify that the systems are functioning correctly before an actual launch.
蓝色起源的这枚火箭高 98 米，是有史以来建造的最大火箭之一。此次发生爆炸的测试被称为“热试车”（hot-fire test）或“静态点火测试”（static-fire test）。本质上，这是一种针对火箭、航天器或原型机发动机的标准程序，即在火箭保持固定在发射台上的状态下，短暂点燃发动机并随后关闭。该测试的目的是在正式发射前验证系统是否运行正常。
Blue Origin’s Rocket
蓝色起源的火箭
This would have been the fourth mission of the New Glenn rocket, which was slated to carry 48 satellites, destined to become part of Amazon Leo’s satellite internet network, as soon as next week. “NASA is aware of the anomaly that occurred tonight at Launch Complex 36 involving Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station,” NASA administrator Jared Isaacman wrote in a post on X. “Spaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capability is extraordinarily difficult. We will work with our partners to support a thorough investigation of this anomaly, assess near-term mission impacts, and get back to launching rockets.”
这本应是“新格伦”火箭的第四次任务，原定于下周发射，计划搭载 48 颗卫星，这些卫星将成为亚马逊 Leo 卫星互联网网络的一部分。美国国家航空航天局（NASA）局长贾里德·艾萨克曼（Jared Isaacman）在 X 上发文称：“NASA 已获悉今晚在卡纳维拉尔角太空军基地 36 号发射场发生的涉及蓝色起源‘新格伦’火箭的异常情况。航天飞行是残酷的，开发新的重型运载能力极其困难。我们将与合作伙伴共同支持对此次异常情况进行彻底调查，评估对近期任务的影响，并尽快恢复火箭发射。”
Isaacman said that NASA would provide updates on any potential impacts to the Artemis and Moon Base missions when they are available; the agency has contracted with both Blue Origin and SpaceX for various aspects of its plans for a lunar return.
艾萨克曼表示，NASA 将在有相关信息时，及时通报对“阿尔忒弥斯”（Artemis）计划和月球基地任务的任何潜在影响；该机构已与蓝色起源和 SpaceX 签署合同，以推进其重返月球计划的各个方面。
This explosion represents the latest setback for Bezos’ company. On April 19, a failure occurred during the rocket’s third flight that prompted a Federal Aviation Administration investigation. During that mission, the rocket’s first stage had successfully landed on a floating platform, but the upper, or second stage, had failed to carry its payload—AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 7 satellite—into a safe orbit. That investigation was just completed on May 22.
此次爆炸是贝索斯公司遭遇的最新挫折。4 月 19 日，该火箭在第三次飞行中发生故障，引发了美国联邦航空管理局（FAA）的调查。在那次任务中，火箭的第一级成功降落在浮动平台上，但上级（即第二级）未能将其载荷——AST SpaceMobile 公司的 BlueBird 7 卫星——送入安全轨道。该调查刚刚于 5 月 22 日结束。