贝佐斯拓展太空事业 斥2亿美元建火箭基地

Blue Origin, a secretive rocket company started by Jeffrey P. Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon, made a splashy public announcement on Tuesday, saying it will build rockets and send them to orbit from Florida.蓝色起源(Blue Origin)是一家行事高调的火箭公司，由亚马逊首席执行官杰弗里·P·贝佐斯(Jeffrey P. Bezos)创建。本周二，它公布了一则引人瞩目的公告，回应将修建火箭，并在佛罗里达州把它们送到轨道。Blue Origin has leased Launch Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the historic starting point for 145 launchings including those of NASA’s Pioneer 10, the first spacecraft to visit Jupiter, and Surveyor 1, the first craft to land softly on the moon.蓝色起源已租给了卡纳维拉尔角空军基地的36号升空设施(Launch Complex 36)。

这个具备历史意义的升空中心展开过145次升空，还包括美国航空航天局(NASA)第一艘拜访木星的飞船“先驱者10号”(Pioneer 10)，以及第一艘在月球上硬着落的飞船“测量员1号”(Surveyor 1)都是在这里升空的。But Launch Complex 36 has sat idle for a decade. “Too long,” Mr. Bezos said. “We can’t wait to fix that.”但是它早已闲置了十年之幸。

“太久了，”贝佐斯说道。“我们迫不及待地修葺一下。”Blue Origin will also open a factory nearby. “We’re not just launching from here,” Mr. Bezos said. “We’re building here.”蓝色起源还将在附近开办一家工厂。“我们不只是在这里升空火箭，”贝佐斯说道。

“我们还要在这里修建火箭。”The company will invest $200 million and create 330 jobs, officials said.该公司将投资2亿美元，建构330个就业机会，官员说道。

It is the latest effort to revive Florida’s Space Coast, which was economically battered after NASA stopped flying the space shuttles in 2011. Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, the rocket company started by Elon Musk, and the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, already use nearby launching pads at Cape Canaveral.这是大力发展佛罗里达太空海岸的近期希望，NASA在2011年停航航天飞机，让该地经济遭到重创。埃隆·马斯克(Elon Musk)创立的火箭公司太空探寻技术公司（Space Exploration Technologies Corporation，全称SpaceX），以及波音(Boeing)和洛克希德·马丁(Lockheed Martin)合资正式成立的牵头升空联盟公司(United Launch Alliance)，早已在卡纳维拉尔角用于了附近的发射台。In the past, Blue Origin, based in Kent, Wash., south of Seattle, has sometimes waited days or months to mention successes or failures. Mr. Bezos provided brief updates on Blue Origin’s website.蓝色起源总部设于西雅图以南的华盛顿州肯特市，以前它有时不会于隔年几天或几个月，才公布顺利或告终的消息。

贝佐斯不会在蓝色起源的网站简要地讲解近期情况。But even now, exactly what Blue Origin plans to launch from Cape Canaveral remains somewhat mysterious.但即使到现在，蓝色起源计划从卡纳维拉尔角升空升空的火箭究竟是什么样的，也仍然有些谜样。The rocket, still unnamed, will be large enough to reach orbit, and it will debut later this decade, Mr. Bezos said. But he did not give specifics about which markets he is aiming for. “We’re building a vehicle for humans,” Mr. Bezos said in a telephone interview. “That’s my personal passion.”这枚火箭仍未命名，体量大到不足以转入轨道，它将在2010年代的晚些时候亮相，贝佐斯说道。

但他没提及它明确针对哪个市场。“我们正在为人类打造出一艘运载工具，”贝佐斯在电话专访中说道。“我本人回应很有热情。”But such a rocket “can clearly lift payloads of all kinds,” he said.但是，这样的火箭“似乎限于于各类载荷”，他说道。

The first stage of the rocket is to be fully reusable — landing vertically back on Earth — unlike most rockets today, which crash back to Earth after one flight.这种火箭的第一级可以几乎重复使用，它不会横向迫降到地球上。如今的大多数火箭都与它有所不同，用于一次后就不会失事到地球上。

That approach is similar to SpaceX’s attempts to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a floating platform, a first step to refurbishing and reflying it. Blue Origin had patented the barge landing idea, but SpaceX successfully challenged the patent, and Blue Origin has since given up on the claim.这种方式与SpaceX企图让猎鹰9号(Falcon 9)的一级火箭在浮动平台上降落的作法类似于，降落是对火箭展开装修、再度飞行中的第一步。蓝色起源对驳船降落的设想申请人了专利，但SpaceX顺利地挑战了这一专利权，随后蓝色起源退出了专利。Blue Origin lost another skirmish with SpaceX last year in the bidding to take over one of two launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center that NASA used for the space shuttles. After that setback, Blue Origin looked at options in five states before deciding on Launch Complex 36.去年，蓝色起源与SpaceX竞标NASA在肯尼迪航天中心(Kennedy Space Center)用作升空航天飞机的两个发射台之一，蓝色起源最后败给。经历这一挫折后，蓝色起源考虑到了坐落于五个州的发射台，最后顺位了36号升空设施。

In April, Blue Origin completed the first test flight of its New Shepard spacecraft, accelerating past three times the speed of sound to reach an altitude of 307,000 feet above a testing site in West Texas. The capsule, without any passengers, separated and parachuted gently to the ground. The booster, designed to land back on the ground, crashed because of a malfunction in the hydraulic system. New Shepard, which is to take tourists on suborbital jaunts, will continue to launch from Texas.今年4月，蓝色起源已完成了“新的谢帕德号”(New Shepard)飞行器的首次首飞，在德克萨斯州西部的一处测试场地，以多达三倍音素的速度升到30.7万英尺（大约9.3万米）的高度。当时未配备乘客的太空舱最后分离出来，用力迫降到地面。

由于液压系统经常出现故障，原本应当返回地面的助推器失事。配备游客积极开展亚轨道之旅的新的谢帕德号将不会之后从德克萨斯州升空。At the end of his remarks on Tuesday, Mr. Bezos looked to the future. “I don’t know how long this will take,” Mr. Bezos said, “but one day I look forward to having a press conference with you guys in space.”周二，贝佐斯的评论以对未来的未来发展而收尾。

“我不告诉必须多长时间，”贝佐斯说道。“但我期望有一天能在太空与你们开会新闻发布会。

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