SpaceX火箭發射失敗爆炸解體 SpaceX Rocket Disintegrates After Launching

An unmanned cargo ship destined for the International Space Station blew up minutes after launching from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Sunday morning, NASA said, raising questions about how the agency and its partners will continue keeping the station supplied.

美國國家航空航天局(NASA)表示，週日上午，在從佛羅里達州的卡納維拉爾角空軍基地發射數分鐘後，一艘前往國際空間站的無人駕駛貨運飛船發生了爆炸。這對該機構及其合作伙伴將如何爲空間站提供補給提出了疑問。

The countdown had proceeded without a hitch or worries about weather, and the 208-foot-tall rocket lifted off at 10:21 a.m. Eastern time. But 2 minutes, 19 seconds later, just as George Diller, the commentator of NASA's television broadcast, said, “Data coming back shows vehicle on course, on track,” a cloud of white smoke emerged from the rocket's midsection, and then a rain of pieces started falling toward the Atlantic Ocean more than 20 miles below.

倒計時進行得很順利，天氣方面也沒有任何問題，208英尺（約合63.4米）高的火箭在美國東部時間上午10時21分升空。但是2分鐘19秒後，正當NASA的電視直播評論員喬治·迪勒(George Diller)表示“傳送回來的數據顯示，飛船按計劃在軌道上飛行”時，一團白色煙霧從火箭的中段冒出，然後雨點一般的碎片開始向20多英里之下的大西洋墜落。

Elon Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX, reported on Twitter, “Falcon 9 experienced a problem shortly before first stage shutdown.” About an hour later, he added some preliminary analysis: “There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank. Data suggests counterintuitive cause.”

SpaceX公司的首席執行官埃隆·馬斯克(Elon Musk)在Twitter上表示：“‘獵鷹9號’在第一級燃料耗盡之前不久遇到了問題。”大約一個小時後，他又做了一些初步的分析：“火箭上一級的液氧罐有超壓現象。數據表明，出現了有悖常理的原因。

The more than 4,000 pounds of payload included a docking adapter needed for future crew capsules being developed by Boeing and SpaceX, student experiments and a camera to record meteors streaking into the earth's atmosphere.

這艘飛船4000多磅的有效載荷中包括波音(Boeing)和SpaceX共同研發的供未來的船員艙使用的一個對接接合器、一些學生實驗用具，以及準備記錄流星進入地球大氣層狀況的一臺攝像機。

It was first failure in 19 launchings of the Falcon 9 rocket built by Space Exploration Technologies of Hawthorne, California, better known as SpaceX.

這是位於加利福尼亞州霍桑的太空探索技術公司(Space Exploration Technologies Corporation)——更多地被簡稱爲SpaceX——製造的“獵鷹9號”火箭19次發射歷史上的首次失敗。

Until now, SpaceX has had a charmed record with the Falcon 9, avoiding the “infant mortality” that usually afflicts new rocket designs.

迄今爲止，SpaceX的“獵鷹9號”火箭保持了驕人的記錄，避免了通常會困擾新火箭設計的“早期故障期”。

This episode follows the failures of two other cargo rockets. In October, an Antares rocket, built by Orbital ATK, exploded on the launching pad in Virginia. In April, a Russian Progress rocket spun out of control, unable to reach the space station.

在此次事故發生之前，還有另外兩枚運載火箭發射失敗。去年10月，Orbital ATK製造的安塔爾(Antares)火箭在弗吉尼亞州的發射臺上爆炸。今年4月，俄羅斯“進步號”(Progress)火箭失去控制，無法到達空間站。

The three astronauts on the space station — Scott J. Kelly of NASA and two Russians, Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko — are not in any immediate danger, with sufficient supplies to last until October, Michael T. Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager, said during a news conference on Friday.

NASA空間站項目的負責人邁克爾·T·蘇弗雷迪尼(Michael T. Suffredini)在週五的新聞發佈會上表示，空間站的三名宇航員——NASA的斯科特·J·凱利(Scott J. Kelly)及兩名俄羅斯人根納季·帕達爾卡(Gennady Padalka)和米哈伊爾·科爾尼延科(Mikhail Kornienko)——暫時沒有危險，他們的供給足以支撐到10月。