SpaceX will try to put Starship in orbit for the first time on September 22

SpaceX 将于 9 月 22 日首次尝试将星舰送入轨道

SpaceX is ready to perform the 14th test flight of its Starship mega-rocket, and now the company will finally try to put the upper stage into Earth’s orbit for the first time, the company announced Tuesday. The test launch is scheduled for September 22, with a 75-minute launch window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT. SpaceX 周二宣布，公司已准备好对其星舰（Starship）巨型火箭进行第 14 次试飞，并将首次尝试将其上面级送入地球轨道。此次试飞定于 9 月 22 日进行，发射窗口为 75 分钟，于中部时间上午 7:15 开启。

During the test launch, SpaceX plans to deploy the first batch of third-generation Starlinks into its network of 10,000 internet satellites. The company expects to launch 26 V3 satellites into orbit in this test flight. If successful, this will be the first Starship launch to generate revenue for SpaceX’s launch division (even if that revenue is coming from another division of the company). 在本次试飞中，SpaceX 计划将其第三代星链（Starlink）卫星的首批产品部署到其由 1 万颗互联网卫星组成的网络中。公司预计在此次试飞中将 26 颗 V3 卫星送入轨道。如果成功，这将是星舰首次为 SpaceX 的发射部门创造收入（尽管这些收入来自公司内部的另一个部门）。

This will be the second Starship test launch since SpaceX became a publicly traded company in the largest IPO in history in June. The first came in July, when SpaceX successfully deployed V3 Starlink satellites for the first time — though those were only meant to test Starship’s deployment capability and burned up in Earth’s atmosphere after roughly 20 minutes. 这是 SpaceX 自 6 月份通过史上最大规模 IPO 上市以来的第二次星舰试飞。第一次试飞发生在 7 月，当时 SpaceX 首次成功部署了 V3 星链卫星——尽管那次任务仅旨在测试星舰的部署能力，卫星在约 20 分钟后便在大气层中烧毁。

Getting Starship’s upper stage into orbit around Earth would represent a major milestone for SpaceX. The company has spent billions of dollars on the program and is now looking to retire its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets in favor of Starship. Founder and CEO Elon Musk has said that will happen once Starship is flying “reliably several times per week” to save “scarce SpaceX engineering and production resources.” 将星舰上面级送入地球轨道对 SpaceX 而言将是一个重要的里程碑。该公司已在该项目上投入了数十亿美元，目前正计划让猎鹰 9 号（Falcon 9）和猎鹰重型（Falcon Heavy）火箭退役，转而使用星舰。创始人兼首席执行官埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）曾表示，一旦星舰能够“每周可靠地飞行数次”，这一目标就会实现，从而节省“稀缺的 SpaceX 工程和生产资源”。

SpaceX needs Starship to reliably reach orbit, return to Earth, and get quickly reused to fulfill the massive launch cadence promises that it made during the IPO process. Starship’s 14th test flight will only test the first part of that equation, though. Musk recently walked back previous claims that SpaceX might try to use its launch tower to catch the Starship upper stage during this flight, saying an explosion would be too big a setback for the company at this point. SpaceX 需要星舰能够可靠地进入轨道、返回地球并实现快速重复使用，以兑现其在 IPO 过程中承诺的巨大发射频率。不过，星舰的第 14 次试飞仅会测试这一目标的第一部分。马斯克最近收回了之前的说法，即 SpaceX 可能会在此次飞行中尝试使用发射塔回收星舰上面级，他表示在现阶段，发生爆炸对公司来说打击太大。

SpaceX also won’t try to catch the Super Heavy booster this time. The company has struggled with the booster during its last few test flights and has made multiple changes to try to prevent failures. Yet the booster still struggled to properly relight its engines after separating from the Starship upper stage on Flight 13 in July. For this mission, SpaceX said Tuesday that it made another round of “several modifications” to the booster’s hardware and software to “address issues seen on the previous flight.” SpaceX 此番也不会尝试回收超重型（Super Heavy）助推器。在过去几次试飞中，该公司在助推器方面遇到了困难，并进行了多次改进以防止故障。然而，在 7 月份的第 13 次飞行中，助推器在与星舰上面级分离后，仍难以正常重新点火。针对本次任务，SpaceX 周二表示，已对助推器的硬件和软件进行了新一轮的“多项修改”，以“解决在上次飞行中发现的问题”。

SpaceX had far more success with the upper stage of Starship on Flight 13. While it did not reach orbit, it had a smooth flight through a simulated landing in the Indian Ocean. The upper stage didn’t even explode when it tipped over into the water, allowing SpaceX to spend the last few months capturing and slowly towing it back to its Texas headquarters. SpaceX said Tuesday that it has made additional changes to the Starship heat shield based on what it learned from studying the recovered upper stage from Flight 13. 在第 13 次飞行中，SpaceX 在星舰上面级方面取得了更大的成功。虽然它没有进入轨道，但它顺利完成了飞行并模拟降落在印度洋。上面级在倾覆入水时甚至没有发生爆炸，这使得 SpaceX 在过去几个月里能够将其打捞并缓慢拖回德克萨斯州的总部。SpaceX 周二表示，根据对第 13 次飞行回收的上面级进行研究所得出的经验，公司已对星舰的隔热罩进行了额外的改进。