SpaceX的飞船原型在测试中爆炸

A cryogenic pressure test resulted in an explosion of a SpaceX Starship prototype in Texas on Wednesday. The blast produced a huge cloud of vapor that continued to pour out of the vehicle for several minutes. The unfortunate incident was caught on camera by enthusiasts who were filming the Starship test vehicle from afar.

周三，美国太空探索技术公司(SpaceX)的一艘飞船原型在德克萨斯州进行了低温压力测试，结果发生爆炸。爆炸产生了巨大的蒸汽云，持续从车内涌出达几分钟之久。这一不幸的事件被从远处拍摄星际飞船测试车的爱好者们拍了下来。

Starship is perhaps SpaceX’s most exciting project to date. The company envisions versions of the Starship vehicle being sent to other worlds, including Mars, but first, it has to get off the ground. The prototype that blew its top was slated to begin short test flights soon, but the timeline will now have to be pushed back a bit.

“星际飞船”可能是SpaceX迄今为止最令人兴奋的项目。该公司设想将星际飞船送往其他星球，包括火星，但首先，它必须离开地面。爆炸的原型机原本计划很快进行短期试飞，但现在不得不推迟一点时间。

SpaceX hasn’t said much about the blast, issuing a brief statement indicating that the company knew it might happen:

SpaceX没有对爆炸做太多说明，只是发表了一份简短声明，表明该公司知道可能会发生爆炸:

“The purpose of today’s test was to pressurise systems to the max, so the outcome was not completely unexpected.”

“今天测试的目的是最大限度地给系统加压，所以结果并不完全出人意料。”

Boss Elon Musk went a step further in reply to some tweets on Twitter. In response to a tweet about the explosion, Musk seemed to indicate that the MK1 prototype that suffered the failure would be retired in favor of a newer model.

老板埃隆·马斯克在回复推特上的一些推文时更进一步。在回应一条关于爆炸的推文时，马斯克似乎表示，遭受了故障的MK1原型机将退役，代之以更新的型号。

This might seem like a black eye for SpaceX, but space is hard and failures in testing help ensure that the final product is as reliable as possible. SpaceX, in particular, has never been shy about its failures and seems to relish in the experimentation and iteration that comes with building high-tech spacecraft. The company even went so far as to release a blooper reel, poking fun at itself over the many dramatic failures of the Falcon 9 development process.

这对SpaceX来说可能是一个沉重打击，但太空探索是艰难的，测试的失败有助于确保最终产品尽可能可靠。特别是SpaceX，它从不羞于承认自己的失败，似乎很享受制造高科技航天器的实验和迭代。该公司甚至发布了一个花絮卷轴，拿猎鹰9号开发过程中的许多戏剧性失败来自嘲。

Today, Falcon 9 is SpaceX’s bread and butter, delivering satellites into orbit for clients around the world. Its recent track record has been excellent and while the Starship program is experiencing similar growing pains right now, there’s no reason to think the company won’t get everything ironed out in due time.

如今，猎鹰9号是SpaceX的主要收入来源，为世界各地的客户将卫星送入轨道。该公司最近的业绩一直很好，虽然星际飞船项目目前也在经历类似的成长烦恼，但没有理由认为该公司不会在适当的时候解决所有问题。