貝佐斯拓展太空事業 斥2億美元建火箭基地
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.
藍色起源(Blue Origin)是一家行事低調的火箭公司，由亞馬遜首席執行官傑弗裏·P·貝佐斯(Jeffrey P. Bezos)建立。本週二，它發佈了一則引人矚目的公告，表示將建造火箭，並在佛羅里達州把它們送入軌道。
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.
藍色起源已租用了卡納維拉爾角空軍基地的36號發射設施(Launch Complex 36)。這個具有歷史意義的發射中心進行過145次發射，包括美國航空航天局(NASA)第一艘造訪木星的飛船“先驅者10號”(Pioneer 10)，以及第一艘在月球上軟着落的飛船“測量員1號”(Surveyor 1)都是在這裏發射的。
But Launch Complex 36 has sat idle for a decade. “Too long,” Mr. Bezos said. “We can’t wait to fix that.”
但是它已經閒置了十年之久。“太久了，”貝佐斯說。“我們迫不及待地修繕一下。”
Blue Origin will also open a factory nearby. “We’re not just launching from here,” Mr. Bezos said. “We’re building here.”
藍色起源還將在附近開設一家工廠。“我們不只是在這裏發射火箭，”貝佐斯說。“我們還要在這裏建造火箭。”
The company will invest $200 million and create 330 jobs, officials said.
該公司將投資2億美元，創造330個就業機會，官員說。
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.
這是振興佛羅里達太空海岸的最新努力，NASA在2011年停飛航天飛機，讓該地經濟遭受重創。埃隆·馬斯克(Elon Musk)創辦的火箭公司太空探索技術公司（Space Exploration Technologies Corporation，簡稱SpaceX），以及波音(Boeing)和洛克希德·馬丁(Lockheed Martin)合資成立的聯合發射聯盟公司(United Launch Alliance)，已經在卡納維拉爾角使用了附近的發射臺。
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.
藍色起源總部設在西雅圖以南的華盛頓州肯特市，以前它有時會隔幾天或幾個月，才發佈成功或失敗的消息。貝佐斯會在藍色起源的網站簡要地介紹最新情況。
But even now, exactly what Blue Origin plans to launch from Cape Canaveral remains somewhat mysterious.
但即使到現在，藍色起源計劃從卡納維拉爾角發射升空的火箭到底是什麼樣的，也依然有些神祕。
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.”
這枚火箭尚未命名，體量大到足以進入軌道，它將在2010年代的晚些時候亮相，貝佐斯說。但他沒有提到它具體針對哪個市場。“我們正在爲人類打造一艘運載工具，”貝佐斯在電話採訪中說。“我本人對此很有熱情。”
But such a rocket “can clearly lift payloads of all kinds,” he said.
但是，這樣的火箭“顯然適用於各類載荷”，他說。
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.
這種火箭的第一級可以完全重複使用，它會垂直降落到地球上。如今的大多數火箭都與它不同，使用一次後就會墜毀到地球上。
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.
這種方式與SpaceX試圖讓獵鷹9號(Falcon 9)的一級火箭在浮動平臺上着陸的做法類似，着陸是對火箭進行翻新、再次飛行的第一步。藍色起源對駁船着陸的設想申請了專利，但SpaceX成功地挑戰了這一專利權，隨後藍色起源放棄了專利。
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，藍色起源與SpaceX競標NASA在肯尼迪航天中心(Kennedy Space Center)用於發射航天飛機的兩個發射臺之一，藍色起源最後落敗。經歷這一挫折後，藍色起源考慮了位於五個州的發射臺，最終選中了36號發射設施。
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，藍色起源完成了“新謝帕德號”(New Shepard)飛行器的首次試飛，在德克薩斯州西部的一處測試場地，以超過三倍音素的速度升至30.7萬英尺（約9.3萬米）的高度。當時並未搭載乘客的太空艙最終分離，輕輕降落到地面。由於液壓系統出現故障，原本應該返回地面的助推器墜毀。搭載遊客開展亞軌道之旅的新謝帕德號將會繼續從德克薩斯州發射。
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.”
週二，貝佐斯的評論以對未來的展望而收尾。“我不知道需要多長時間，”貝佐斯說。“但我希望有一天能在太空與你們召開新聞發佈會。”
