SpaceX cleared to fly Starship again after booster failure in May
SpaceX cleared to fly Starship again after booster failure in May
SpaceX 在 5 月助推器故障后获准再次发射星舰 (Starship)
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has cleared SpaceX to fly Starship prototypes again, after the company identified the probable cause of the failure of the rocket system’s booster stage during a flight in May. SpaceX said over the weekend that the next flight of Starship could happen as soon as this Thursday, July 16. It would be the second-ever launch of the third version, or V3, of Starship. 美国联邦航空管理局 (FAA) 已批准 SpaceX 再次进行星舰原型机的飞行测试。此前，SpaceX 已查明该火箭系统助推器在 5 月份飞行中发生故障的可能原因。SpaceX 在周末表示，星舰的下一次飞行最早可能于本周四（7 月 16 日）进行。这将是星舰第三代版本 (V3) 的第二次发射。
SpaceX also said that this Starship will carry the first third-generation Starlink satellites to space. Previously, Starship had only carried dummy versions of the larger, more powerful internet satellites. This is SpaceX’s second test flight of its Starship system, and its first as a public company, testing the market’s appetite for the company’s “fly, fail, fix” approach to rocket development that often ends in fireballs — or, as CEO Elon Musk calls the explosions: “rapid unscheduled disassembly.” SpaceX 还表示，此次星舰将搭载首批第三代星链 (Starlink) 卫星进入太空。此前，星舰仅搭载过更大、更强大的互联网卫星的模拟版本。这是 SpaceX 星舰系统的第二次测试飞行，也是该公司上市后的首次测试，旨在检验市场对其“飞行、失败、修复”火箭开发模式的接受度——这种模式往往以火球告终，或者用首席执行官埃隆·马斯克的话来说，这些爆炸被称为“快速非计划拆解”。
SpaceX completed its IPO and publicly listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange on June 12, making it one of the 10 most valuable companies in the world and raising nearly $86 billion, a record. SpaceX 于 6 月 12 日完成首次公开募股 (IPO) 并在纳斯达克证券交易所上市，成为全球市值最高的 10 家公司之一，并筹集了近 860 亿美元，创下历史纪录。
SpaceX’s first test launch of the V3 Starship on May 22 was largely successful. The company’s Super Heavy booster lifted the 407-foot rocket into space before the upper stage section separated and deployed 20 satellite simulators along with two modified Starlinks that recorded footage of the Starship exterior. The new third-generation booster was supposed to return to Earth and perform a simulated landing in the Gulf of Mexico. But its engines didn’t properly re-ignite, and it instead plummeted into the water below. SpaceX 于 5 月 22 日进行的 V3 星舰首次测试发射总体上是成功的。该公司的“超重型”助推器将 407 英尺高的火箭送入太空，随后上面级分离并部署了 20 个卫星模拟器，以及两颗用于拍摄星舰外部画面的改进型星链卫星。这款全新的第三代助推器原计划返回地球并在墨西哥湾进行模拟着陆，但其发动机未能正常重新点火，最终坠入海中。
The problem happened at that moment of booster separation, according to SpaceX and the FAA. SpaceX said in a post published over the weekend that “slight differences in engine startup on the ship” caused the Booster to turn 90 degrees in the wrong direction. SpaceX said it has modified this engine startup sequence to allow the booster to “more reliably flip in the desired direction” and that the booster has been modified to “improve re-light reliability.” 据 SpaceX 和 FAA 称，问题发生在助推器分离的那一刻。SpaceX 在周末发布的一篇文章中表示，“飞船发动机启动时的细微差异”导致助推器向错误方向旋转了 90 度。SpaceX 表示已修改了发动机启动程序，以使助推器能够“更可靠地向预定方向翻转”，并对助推器进行了改进以“提高重新点火的可靠性”。
The FAA said in a statement Monday that the most probable root causes of the Super Heavy booster failure were “heat effects on propulsion system components during the [rocket’s] ascent and erroneous engine alarm system settings.” SpaceX said in its post that it has made changes to Starship’s engine alarm and abort systems that should reduce the chance of a similar failure in the future. FAA 在周一的一份声明中表示，超重型助推器故障最可能的根本原因是“火箭上升过程中推进系统组件受到的热效应，以及发动机报警系统设置错误”。SpaceX 在文中表示，已对星舰的发动机报警和中止系统进行了更改，这将降低未来发生类似故障的可能性。
While the first upper stage of Starship V3 was able to successfully deploy its test payload in May and simulate a landing in the Gulf — a milestone SpaceX had struggled to reach before — it also did so while losing one of the three Raptor engines that are meant to be used in the vacuum of space. SpaceX said over the weekend that it has made “[s]everal hardware and operational modifications” to prevent this from happening again. 虽然 V3 星舰的第一个上面级在 5 月份成功部署了测试载荷并模拟了在墨西哥湾的着陆（这是 SpaceX 之前一直难以实现的里程碑），但它在执行过程中损失了三台旨在用于太空真空环境的猛禽发动机中的一台。SpaceX 在周末表示，已进行“多项硬件和操作改进”，以防止此类情况再次发生。
This next Starship test flight will see the company launch the first of its V3 Starlink satellites to space, which are supposed to increase the satellite network’s capacity and user speeds. SpaceX is planning to deploy 20 of these new satellites during the launch. They are designed to connect with the larger Starlink constellation “via high-capacity lasers” and then burn up in the atmosphere roughly 20 minutes after they are deployed, according to SpaceX. Six of them will be equipped with cameras to photograph the exterior of Starship. 在下一次星舰测试飞行中，该公司将发射首批 V3 星链卫星，旨在提高卫星网络的容量和用户速度。SpaceX 计划在发射期间部署 20 颗此类新卫星。据 SpaceX 称，它们被设计为“通过高容量激光”与更大的星链星座连接，并在部署约 20 分钟后在大气层中烧毁。其中六颗卫星将配备摄像头，用于拍摄星舰的外部情况。
The V3 versions of both Starship and Starlink are crucial to SpaceX’s future. Starlink was the only profitable part of SpaceX’s business in the run-up to its IPO, and SpaceX needs Starship to become a fully reusable rocket system to even attempt its galaxy-brained plans for space-based data centers and interplanetary travel. 星舰和星链的 V3 版本对 SpaceX 的未来至关重要。在 IPO 前夕，星链是 SpaceX 业务中唯一盈利的部分；SpaceX 需要星舰成为完全可重复使用的火箭系统，才能尝试其宏大的太空数据中心和行星际旅行计划。