SpaceX describes surgical intervention before launch of latest crew mission
SpaceX describes surgical intervention before launch of latest crew mission
SpaceX 在最新载人任务发射前披露“外科手术式”维修
A four-person crew rocketed into orbit Thursday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, heading for a six-month expedition on the International Space Station. Riding a Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft, the four crew members departed from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral at 11:10 am EDT (15:10 UTC) Thursday. Nine minutes later, they were in orbit to begin closing in on the space station for docking Thursday evening.
周四，四名宇航员搭乘火箭从佛罗里达州卡纳维拉尔角太空军基地升空，前往国际空间站执行为期六个月的考察任务。这四名机组成员乘坐“猎鹰 9 号”火箭和“龙”飞船，于美国东部时间周四上午 11:10（协调世界时 15:10）从卡纳维拉尔角的 40 号航天发射复合体出发。九分钟后，飞船进入轨道，开始向空间站靠拢，并计划于周四晚间进行对接。
The launch was delayed from mid-September to replace a balky valve in the Dragon spacecraft’s propulsion system, a task that involved cutting into a propellant line inside the ship to swap out a faulty component.
此次发射从 9 月中旬推迟，目的是更换“龙”飞船推进系统中一个运行不稳定的阀门。这项任务涉及切开飞船内部的推进剂管线，以更换故障部件。
Jessica Watkins, a 38-year-old geologist turned astronaut, leads the four-person crew sent into orbit Thursday, becoming the first Black woman to command a spacecraft. Watkins is the only veteran astronaut on the mission—designated Crew-13—after spending 170 days in orbit on a long-duration spaceflight in 2022. Pilot Luke Delaney, a Marine Corps veteran, was seated next to Watkins for the Dragon spacecraft’s ascent into orbit.
38 岁的地质学家转行宇航员杰西卡·沃特金斯（Jessica Watkins）率领这支四人小组于周四进入轨道，她也因此成为首位指挥航天器的黑人女性。沃特金斯是本次代号为“Crew-13”任务中唯一的资深宇航员，她曾在 2022 年执行过一次为期 170 天的长期太空飞行。飞行员卢克·德莱尼（Luke Delaney）是一位海军陆战队退伍军人，在“龙”飞船上升进入轨道时，他坐在沃特金斯身旁。
Two international crew members rounded out the Crew-13 team: Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk, a former pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force, and Sergey Teteryatnikov, a Russian cosmonaut who served as a naval engineer before his selection to the Roscosmos Cosmonaut Corps in 2021. Kutryk and his wife Heather are expecting their third child later this year.
另外两名国际机组成员完善了“Crew-13”团队：加拿大宇航员约书亚·库特里克（Joshua Kutryk），他曾是加拿大皇家空军飞行员；以及谢尔盖·特特里亚特尼科夫（Sergey Teteryatnikov），他是一名俄罗斯宇航员，在 2021 年入选俄罗斯国家航天集团宇航员队伍前曾担任海军工程师。库特里克和他的妻子希瑟（Heather）今年晚些时候将迎来他们的第三个孩子。
It’s rare, but astronauts have been off the planet for their child’s birth before. Most recently, NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, set to command the Artemis III mission next year, was flying aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis in 2009 when his wife gave birth to their daughter, Abigail Mae, in Houston. “Leaving these three (plus one on the way) is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But that has always been the nature of exploration,” Kutryk wrote on X.
这种情况虽然罕见，但此前已有宇航员在孩子出生时身处地球之外。最近的一次是美国国家航空航天局（NASA）宇航员兰迪·布雷斯尼克（Randy Bresnik），他将于明年指挥“阿尔忒弥斯 3 号”任务。2009 年，当他的妻子在休斯顿生下女儿阿比盖尔·梅（Abigail Mae）时，他正乘坐“亚特兰蒂斯号”航天飞机在太空中飞行。“离开这三个孩子（还有一个即将出生）是我做过最艰难的事。但这就是探索的本质，”库特里克在 X 上写道。
Watkins and her crewmates were on course to reach the International Space Station (ISS) about eight hours after launch, the fastest-ever launch-to-docking transit to the ISS by a US spacecraft.
沃特金斯和她的机组成员预计在发射后约八小时抵达国际空间站（ISS），这是美国航天器有史以来从发射到对接国际空间站最快的航程。
“What an epic ride. What an epic ride it was,” Delaney radioed mission control soon after reaching orbit. “Today, we proudly continue the streak of humans living and working in orbit, building on the legacies of yesterday to pave the way for the future of space exploration.”
“多么史诗般的旅程。这真是一次史诗般的旅程，”德莱尼在进入轨道后不久向任务控制中心报告。“今天，我们自豪地延续了人类在轨道上生活和工作的记录，在昨天的遗产基础上，为未来太空探索铺平道路。”
The ISS has been permanently staffed since 2000, with crews flying to and from the orbiting outpost on NASA’s Space Shuttles, Russian Soyuz spacecraft, and most recently, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. NASA and its international partners plan to keep the space station operating through at least 2030. SpaceX’s plans to retire the Crew Dragon vehicle around 2030 have prompted NASA to work more closely with Boeing to bring its troubled Starliner crew capsule into service.
自 2000 年以来，国际空间站一直保持常驻人员，机组人员通过 NASA 的航天飞机、俄罗斯的“联盟号”飞船，以及最近的 SpaceX“载人龙”飞船往返于这个轨道前哨站。NASA 及其国际合作伙伴计划让空间站至少运行到 2030 年。SpaceX 计划在 2030 年左右退役“载人龙”飞船，这促使 NASA 与波音公司加强合作，以使其陷入困境的“星际客机”（Starliner）载人舱投入使用。
Thursday’s flight was the 13th crew rotation mission launched by SpaceX under a multibillion-dollar contract with NASA, and SpaceX’s 21st human spaceflight overall, including test flights and fully commercial missions. The company’s success with the Crew Dragon spacecraft restored the country’s ability to launch astronauts into orbit after a nine-year gap following the Space Shuttle retirement in 2011, ending NASA’s sole reliance on Russia for crew transportation.
周四的飞行是 SpaceX 根据与 NASA 签订的数十亿美元合同发射的第 13 次乘组轮换任务，也是 SpaceX 总计第 21 次载人航天飞行（包括测试飞行和完全商业任务）。该公司在“载人龙”飞船上的成功，使美国在 2011 年航天飞机退役后时隔九年恢复了将宇航员送入轨道的能力，结束了 NASA 在载人运输方面对俄罗斯的单一依赖。
NASA’s other commercial crew provider, Boeing, has repeatedly stumbled on a series of test flights with its Starliner spacecraft. SpaceX’s plans to retire Crew Dragon and the Falcon 9 rocket mean the fleets are now well beyond halfway through their operational life.
NASA 的另一家商业载人航天供应商波音公司，在“星际客机”飞船的一系列测试飞行中屡屡受挫。SpaceX 计划退役“载人龙”飞船和“猎鹰 9 号”火箭，这意味着这些机队的服役寿命已过半。
SpaceX has nine more Crew Dragon flights in its backlog, including three additional crew missions to the ISS that NASA recently secured in a $946 million contract extension, bringing NASA’s total contract for 17 SpaceX crew missions to $5.92 billion. That figure is a drop in the bucket next to SpaceX’s projected revenues from its ever-growing Starlink broadband service, the Starship/Super Heavy rocket, and orbital data centers. SpaceX, now a publicly traded company, is prioritizing its most lucrative lines of business, and flights to the ISS aren’t among them.
SpaceX 手头还有 9 次“载人龙”飞船的飞行任务，其中包括 NASA 最近以 9.46 亿美元合同延期锁定的 3 次额外国际空间站载人任务，这使得 NASA 与 SpaceX 签订的 17 次载人任务合同总额达到 59.2 亿美元。与 SpaceX 从不断增长的“星链”（Starlink）宽带服务、星舰/超重型火箭以及轨道数据中心获得的预期收入相比，这个数字只是九牛一毛。作为一家上市公司，SpaceX 正在优先发展其最赚钱的业务，而前往国际空间站的飞行并不在其中。
Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceX’s vice president of build and flight reliability, declined to say in a prelaunch press conference Wednesday if there is a “hard cutoff” for when the company will no longer offer Crew Dragon flights to NASA. The recent contract extension may be the last. “We were just awarded Crew flights 15, 16, and 17, so I think our real focus is to make sure we get the most out of those flights,” Gerstenmaier said. “So we’re working really super hard to make sure that our vehicles are ready, things are ready to go fly, and we’ll keep moving forward.”
SpaceX 负责制造和飞行可靠性的副总裁比尔·格斯滕迈尔（Bill Gerstenmaier）在周三的发射前新闻发布会上拒绝透露公司是否有一个停止向 NASA 提供“载人龙”飞船服务的“硬性截止日期”。最近的合同延期可能是最后一次。“我们刚刚获得了第 15、16 和 17 次载人飞行任务，所以我认为我们真正的重点是确保从这些飞行中获得最大收益，”格斯滕迈尔说。“因此，我们正在非常努力地工作，以确保我们的航天器准备就绪，一切准备就绪可以飞行，我们将继续前进。”
Notably, SpaceX is winding down Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 at the top of their game. Gerstenmaier pointed to the valve replacement inside the Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-13 mission as evidence of SpaceX’s commitment.
值得注意的是，SpaceX 正在其巅峰时期逐步淘汰“载人龙”飞船和“猎鹰 9 号”火箭。格斯滕迈尔指出，为“Crew-13”任务更换“载人龙”飞船内部阀门的行为，正是 SpaceX 尽职尽责的证明。