五角大楼称SpaceX火箭发射“鼓舞人心”

The Pentagon is eyeing the successful launch of Elon Musk’s Falcon Heavy rocket as a way to erode the monopoly that has held sway over US military Space launches for the last dozen years.

五角大楼正将埃隆·马斯克(Elon Musk)的猎鹰重型火箭(Falcon Heavy)成功发射视为削弱过去12年主宰美国军事太空发射的垄断力量的一条途径。

SpaceX, the billionaire tech entrepreneur’s private space company, successfully returned two of three boosters used to fire its rocket into space back to earth on Tuesday, raising the prospect of cost savings that could enable the department of defence to take on riskier, cheaper launches as it seeks to defend space assets.

这位亿万富翁科技企业家的私人太空公司SpaceX本周二成功回收了三枚火箭助推器中的两枚，带来成本节省的前景，使美国国防部能够在寻求捍卫太空资产之际从事更高风险且成本更低的发射活动。

Deputy defence secretary Patrick Shanahan, who also became the Pentagon’s lead for space last month, hailed the launch as “encouraging” and pointed to it among latest efforts from commercial companies that are disrupting the launch market.

上月成为五角大楼太空项目负责人的国防部副部长帕特里克·沙纳汗(Patrick Shanahan)称，这次发射“鼓舞人心”，并指出这是商业企业颠覆发射市场的最新努力。

“It’s pretty cool,” said Mr Shanahan, a former Boeing executive, after learning of the boosters’ safe return. A third booster was not safely recovered and crashed into the sea.

曾是波音(Boeing)高管的沙纳汗在得知助推器安全返回后表示：“这非常酷。”第三个助推器未能安全回收，而是坠入海中。

“The fact that those capabilities are being delivered creates affordability and affordability spawns new space concepts,” he said.

他说：“正在交付的那些能力创造了可负担性，而可负担性催生新的太空概念。”

An official at US Air Force Space Command, which Mr Shanahan visited this week, told the Financial Times that the Air Force “will use data” from Tuesday’s launch as part of its process to certify the Falcon Heavy, which could enable it for use by the US military.

美国空军太空司令部(US Air Force Space Command)的一位官员向英国《金融时报》表示，美国空军“将把周二的发射数据”用作其认证猎鹰重型火箭的过程的一部分，从而可能让它能为美国军方所用。沙纳汗本周走访了美国空军太空司令部。

Both the Pentagon and Nasa, which runs the US civilian space programme, have depended on a joint venture from Boeing and Lockheed Martin for rocket launch services since the pair initiated their United Launch Alliance in 2006.

五角大楼和负责美国民用航天计划的国家航空航天局(NASA)都依靠波音和洛克希德·马丁公司(Lockheed Martin)的一个合资企业提供火箭发射服务，这两家公司在2006年成立联合发射联盟(United Launch Alliance，简称ULA)。

“The real thing is [with] so much innovation going on with space; why would we want to be left out of it· The [Falcon Heavy] launch is a good example,” said Mr Shanahan, who also pointed to growing commercial efforts to launch smaller satellites.

沙纳汗表示：“关键是考虑到太空领域有如此多的创新，我们为什么要留在场外呢？此次（猎鹰重型火箭）的发射就是一个很好的例子。”他还指出，发射较小卫星的商业努力日益增多。

Air Force officials praise SpaceX among smaller new private outfits for introducing competition that is helping to bring down launch prices.

美国空军官员称赞SpaceX以及其他较小的新私人企业引入了竞争，有助于降低发射价格。

The Pentagon has so far awarded SpaceX two launch contracts with its smaller Falcon 9 launch vehicle. SpaceX is planning to launch a test payload from the Falcon Heavy as it works towards certification.

迄今为止，五角大楼授予SpaceX两份发射合同，利用该公司较小型的猎鹰9号(Falcon 9)火箭。致力于获得认证的SpaceX正计划从猎鹰重型火箭发射一个测试载荷。

“It can lift a lot of things; so you can say if you made a really big satellite you can put it on that,” said Mr Shanahan. “It’s good capability to have available.”

沙纳汗表示：“它可以运载很多东西；所以你可以说，如果你制作了一个非常大的卫星，你可以把它放在上面，这是很好的可用能力。”