日本成功發射間諜衛星

TOKYO — Japanlaunched a new spy satellite on Friday, the country’s space agency said, as theregion grows increasingly uneasy over North Korea’s quickening missile program.

東京-日本國航天局發表聲明，日本在週五成功發射了一顆新型間諜衛星，這一地區正對朝鮮加速導彈計劃而不安加劇。

The Radar5 unit was carried into space on Japan’s mainstay H-2A rocket from a launchsite in the country’s southwest.

雷達5由日本主力火箭H-2A送入太空，發射場位於國家西南部。

It ismeant to replace an existing satellite that is coming to the end of its mission.

這顆衛星計劃用於取代軌道上快要退役的衛星。

Japanstarted putting spy satellites into orbit in 2003 after North Korea fired amid-range ballistic missile over the Japanese mainland and into the westernPacific in 1998.

在1998年，朝鮮發射了一顆中程彈道導彈，導彈飛躍日本本土落入西太平洋，之後日本開始在2003年將間諜衛星射入軌道。

Thethreat has steadily accelerated and just last week Pyongyang fired fourballistic missiles, with three landing provocatively close to Japan.

威脅在持續上升，就在上週，平壤發射了四枚彈道導彈，其中三枚掉釁地落在離日本很近的地方。

Tokyocurrently maintains three optical satellites for daytime surveillance and threeradar satellites for nighttime monitoring. Two of those are backups.

東京目前維持三顆光學衛星用於晝間監視，三顆雷達成像衛星用於夜間監視。其中兩顆爲備份

The newsatellite will succeed one of the three radar satellites that was launched in2011.

新衛星將用於取代三顆雷達成像衛星中的一顆，這顆衛星發射於2011年。

Thesatellites are officially for “information-gathering”—a euphemism forspying—but are also used to monitor damage in the wake of natural disasters.

官方聲稱，此衛星用於“信息收集”-一種從事間諜活動的委婉說法-但同時也用於監測自然災害的損毀程度。