Virgin Galactic's tourism spaceship climbed more than 50 miles high above California's Mojave Desert on Thursday, reaching for the first time what the company considers the boundary of space.
周四，維珍銀河公司的旅游宇宙飛船在加州莫哈韋沙漠(Mojave Desert)上空飛行了50多英里，首次到達(dá)了該公司認(rèn)為的太空邊界。
The rocket ship hit an altitude of 51 miles (82 kilometers) before beginning its gliding descent, said mission official Enrico Palermo.
此次任務(wù)的長(zhǎng)官恩瑞科·巴勒莫說，這艘火箭船在開始滑翔下降之前，曾在達(dá)到了51英里(82公里)的高度。
Thursday's supersonic flight takes Virgin Galactic closer to turning the long-delayed dream of commercial space tourism into reality.
周四的超音速飛行使維珍銀河更接近了將拖延已久的商業(yè)太空旅行夢(mèng)想變成現(xiàn)實(shí)。
The company aims to take paying customers on the six-passenger rocket, which is about the size of an executive jet.
該公司的目標(biāo)是讓付費(fèi)客戶乘坐這款六人火箭，這款火箭大約有一架商務(wù)機(jī)那么大。
Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson has said he wants to be one of the first on board.
維珍銀河創(chuàng)始人理查德·布蘭森表示，他希望到時(shí)候成為首批登機(jī)的人。
Branson greeted the two pilots after the test, declaring "Space is Virgin territory!"
布蘭森在測(cè)試結(jié)束后向兩位飛行員打招呼，宣稱“太空如今是維珍的領(lǐng)地!”
Virgin Galactic considers 50 miles (80 kilometers) the boundary of space because that is the distance used by the U.S. Air Force and other U.S. agencies.
維珍銀河公司把50英里(80公里)的高空作為太空邊界，因?yàn)檫@是美國(guó)空軍和其他美國(guó)機(jī)構(gòu)使用的距離。
That's different from a long-held view that the boundary is at 62 miles (100 kilometers).
這與人們長(zhǎng)期以來認(rèn)為的邊界是62英里(100公里)的觀點(diǎn)不同。
Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides noted that recent research favors the lower altitude.
維珍銀河首席執(zhí)行官喬治·懷特賽茲指出，最近的研究?jī)A向于采用更低的高度。
Whitesides said a review of the flight's data will last into the new year, and there will be more test flights, some with company employees as passengers.
懷特賽茲說，對(duì)航班數(shù)據(jù)的審查將持續(xù)到明年，還將有更多的試飛，其中一些試飛將由公司員工擔(dān)任乘客。
He wouldn't estimate when commercial passenger trips might begin.
他還不能估計(jì)商業(yè)旅客旅行可能何時(shí)開始。
"This is a huge step forward and once we look at the data we'll see what that pathway is," he said.
他說:“這是向前邁出的一大步，一旦我們看到數(shù)據(jù)，我們能看到前方的道路。”
At the start of the test flight, a special jet carrying the Virgin Space Ship Unity flew to an altitude near 43,000 feet (13,100 meters) before releasing the craft.
在試飛開始時(shí)，一架載有“聯(lián)合號(hào)”宇宙飛船的特殊噴氣機(jī)在釋放飛船前飛行了近43000英尺(13100米)。
The spaceship ignited its rocket engine and it quickly hurtled upward and out of sight of viewers on the ground.
宇宙飛船點(diǎn)燃了火箭引擎，它迅速向上沖去，從地面上的觀眾的視線中消失了。
The spaceship reached Mach 2.9, nearly three times the speed of sound.
飛船速度達(dá)到2.9馬赫，幾乎是音速的三倍。
The two test pilots — Mark "Forger" Stucky and former NASA astronaut Rick "CJ" Sturckow — will be awarded commercial astronaut wings, said Federal Aviation Administration official Bailey Edwards.
美國(guó)聯(lián)邦航空管理局官員貝利·愛德華茲說，兩名試飛員——馬克·斯達(dá)基和前美國(guó)宇航局宇航員里克·斯特奇——將被授予商業(yè)飛行勛章。
"It was a great flight and I can't wait to do it again," said Sturckow, who flew on the space shuttle four times.
“這是一次偉大的飛行，我迫不及待地想再來一次，”曾四次乘坐航天飛機(jī)的斯特科夫說。
Virgin Galactic's development of its spaceship took far longer than expected and endured a setback when the first experimental craft broke apart during a 2014 test flight, killing the co-pilot.
維珍銀河(Virgin Galactic)開發(fā)這艘宇宙飛船所用的時(shí)間遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)長(zhǎng)于預(yù)期，并在2014年的一次試飛中遭遇了挫折，當(dāng)時(shí)第一艘實(shí)驗(yàn)飛船解體，導(dǎo)致副駕駛喪生。
"People have literally put their lives on the line to get us here," Branson said.
布蘭森說:“他們真的是冒著生命危險(xiǎn)把我們帶到這里。”
"This day is much for them as it is for all of us."
“今天這一天對(duì)于我們和他們來說都同意重要。”
More than 600 people have committed up to $250,000 for rides that include several minutes of weightlessness and a view of the Earth far below.
超過600人已經(jīng)預(yù)付了高達(dá)25萬美元的乘坐費(fèi)用，其中包括幾分鐘的失重體驗(yàn)和腳下地球的景觀。
The spaceship will also be used for research: NASA had science experiment on the test flight.這艘宇宙飛船還將用于研究:美國(guó)國(guó)家航空航天局(NASA)在試飛中進(jìn)行了科學(xué)實(shí)驗(yàn)。
The endeavor began in 2004 when Branson announced the founding of Virgin Galactic in the heady days after the flights of SpaceShipOne, the first privately financed manned spacecraft that made three flights into space.
這一努力始于2004年，當(dāng)時(shí)布蘭森宣布成立維珍銀河，當(dāng)時(shí)正值“宇宙飛船一號(hào)”升空后的激動(dòng)人心的日子。
Funded by the late billionaire Paul G. Allen and created by maverick aerospace designer Burt Rutan, SpaceShipOne won the $10 million Ansari X Prize.
由已故億萬富翁保羅· 吉·艾倫出資、特立獨(dú)行的航空設(shè)計(jì)師伯特·魯坦創(chuàng)作的太空船一號(hào)獲得了1000萬美元的安薩里X大獎(jiǎng)。
The prize was created to kick-start private development of rocket ships that would make spaceflight available to the public.
該獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)的設(shè)立是為了啟動(dòng)私人開發(fā)火箭飛船，使公眾能夠進(jìn)行太空飛行。
When Branson licensed the SpaceShipOne technology, he envisioned a fleet carrying paying passengers by 2007, launching them from a facility in southern New Mexico called Spaceport America.
布蘭森在批準(zhǔn)“太空船一號(hào)”技術(shù)時(shí)，設(shè)想在2007年之前建成一支搭載付費(fèi)乘客的船隊(duì)，從新墨西哥州南部名為“美國(guó)航天港”的設(shè)施發(fā)射載人飛船。
But there were significant setbacks.
不過計(jì)劃遇到了很大的延誤。
Three technicians were killed in 2007 by an explosion while testing a propellant system at Scaled Composites LLC, which built SpaceShipOne and was building the first SpaceShipTwo for Virgin Galactic.
2007年，在縮尺復(fù)合材料公司測(cè)試推進(jìn)劑系統(tǒng)時(shí)發(fā)生爆炸，導(dǎo)致三名技術(shù)人員喪生。這家公司制造了太空船一號(hào)，并為維珍銀河公司(Virgin Galactic)制造了第一艘太空船二號(hào)。
Then, in 2014, SpaceShipTwo broke apart during a test flight by Scaled Composites when the co-pilot prematurely unlocked its unique "feathering" braking system and it began to deploy.
然后，在2014年，縮尺復(fù)合材料公司進(jìn)行的一次試飛中，副駕駛過早地打開了其獨(dú)特的“羽化”制動(dòng)系統(tǒng)，導(dǎo)致太空船二號(hào)解體。
The co-pilot was killed but the injured pilot managed to survive a fall from high altitude with a parachute.
副駕駛遇難，但受傷的飛行員成功設(shè)法從高空中跳傘逃生。
During descent, the craft's twin tails are designed to rotate upward to slow it down, then return to a normal flying configuration before the craft glides to a landing on a runway.
在下降過程中，飛機(jī)的雙尾翼被設(shè)計(jì)成向上旋轉(zhuǎn)以減慢速度，然后在飛機(jī)滑到跑道上著陸前恢復(fù)正常飛行狀態(tài)。
New versions of SpaceShipTwo are built by a Virgin Galactic sister company and flight testing is now in-house. Its previous test flight reached 32 miles (52 kilometers).
新版本的太空船二號(hào)是由維珍銀河的姊妹公司制造的，飛行測(cè)試現(xiàn)在是內(nèi)部進(jìn)行的。此前的試飛高度達(dá)到了32英里(52公里)。
Branson isn't alone in the space tourism business: Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is planning to take space tourists on trips, using the more traditional method of a capsule atop a rocket that blasts off from a launch pad.
布蘭森并不是唯一一個(gè)從事太空旅游的公司:杰夫·貝佐斯的藍(lán)色起源公司正計(jì)劃讓太空游客進(jìn)行太空旅行，使用的是更傳統(tǒng)的方法，即把太空艙放在火箭頂上，從發(fā)射臺(tái)發(fā)射升空。
SpaceX's Elon Musk recently announced plans to take a wealthy Japanese entrepreneur and his friends on a trip around the moon.
X空間公司的埃隆·馬斯克(Elon Musk)最近宣布，計(jì)劃帶一位富有的日本企業(yè)家和他的朋友進(jìn)行繞月旅行。
對(duì)于正在研發(fā)實(shí)驗(yàn)中的太空旅行飛船，朋友們有什么看法呢？歡迎給amber留言哦！
感謝關(guān)注
跟amber一起看世界
更多有趣的內(nèi)容
請(qǐng)戳一戳
?
聯(lián)系客服
