VOA慢速英语:Test of Big Space Rocket Set for Late 2012

An American space company says a powerful new rocket should be ready for a test launch by the end of next year. The company is Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX. Its new rocket is called the Falcon Heavy.
一家美国航天公司称，一种强大的新型火箭将在明年年底准备进行试射。这是一家空间探索技术公司或称为SpaceX。该公司的新型火箭被称为“重型猎鹰（Falcon Heavy）”。

Company officials say it will be able to transport satellites or spacecraft weighing up to fifty-three metric tons into orbit. Fifty-three metric tons is one hundred seventeen thousand pounds. That load weight is double the capacity of NASA space shuttles. The space agency is retiring its shuttles after thirty years.
公司官员称，该火箭能够将重达53公吨的卫星或宇宙飞船送入轨道。53公吨等于11.7万磅。该负重是美国宇航局航天飞机的两倍。美国宇航局的航天飞机在服役30年后即将退役。

Elon Musk is the chief executive officer of SpaceX.
艾龙．马斯科（Elon Musk）是SpaceX公司的首席执行官。

ELON MUSK: "One hundred seventeen thousand pounds is more than a fully loaded Boeing 737 with one hundred thirty-six passengers, luggage and fuel in orbit. So that is really, really humongous. It's more payload capability than any vehicle in history, apart from the Saturn Five."
马斯科：“11.7万磅比一架满载136名乘客,行李和燃料飞行的波音737飞机还重。所以该火箭的负重能力巨大无比.除了土星5号火箭以外,它比史上任何火箭的有效负载能力都大。”

NASA used Saturn Five rockets during its Apollo and Skylab programs in the nineteen sixties and seventies. A Saturn Five launched the Apollo 11 mission that landed the first humans on the moon in nineteen sixty-nine.
在二十世纪六七十年代,美国宇航局在阿波罗计划和天空实验室计划中曾使用过土星5号火箭。1969年，一艘土星5号火箭发射了阿波罗11号任务，人类首次登陆月球。

The rockets were removed from service in nineteen seventy-three. But they remain the most powerful ever built.
火星5号在1973年退役，但他们仍是有史以来建造的最强大的火箭。

Elon Musk says the Falcon Heavy will be the second most powerful rocket ever. He says it was designed to do more than carry satellites and other equipment into space. He says the rocket was designed to meet NASA's ratings for human flight safety. So it could someday be used to carry astronauts and other travelers into space.
马斯科表示，重型猎鹰将成为有史以来第二强大的火箭。他说，这种火箭的设计不只是用于携带卫星或其它设备进入太空，还是为满足美国宇航局人类飞行的安全评级而设计。所以，有一天它将被用于运送宇航员和其它旅客进入太空。

Mr. Musk says the Falcon Heavy could also be used for missions like carrying a robotic lander to collect samples from Mars.
马斯科先生说，重型猎鹰也能用于像运送机器人登录火星采集样本的任务。

ELON MUSK: "It has so much capability, so much more capability than any other vehicle, that I think we can start to contemplate missions like a Mars sample return, which requires a tremendous amount of lift capability because you've got to send a lander to Mars that still has enough propellant to return to Earth."
马斯科：“它具备许多超越其它任何工具的能力。因此我认为我们可以开始考虑像火星样本回收这类需要强大运载能力的任务。因为你发射一个登陆器到火星后，还需要有足够的推进剂返来回地球。”

The first launch is planned from the company's launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. A launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, is expected in late twenty-thirteen or fourteen.
首次发射计划将在该公司位于加州范登堡空军基地的发射场进行。 在佛州卡纳维拉尔角的发射计划预计将于2013年底或2014年进行。

In time, SpaceX hopes to launch ten Falcon Heavy rockets a year. It says the rocket should reduce launch costs to about two thousand dollars a kilogram. That is about one-tenth the cost of carrying loads into orbit on a space shuttle.
随着时间的推移，SpaceX公司希望每年发射10艘重型猎鹰火箭。该公司称这种火箭可以将发射费用降低到大约2000美元每公斤，这大概是使用航天飞机将负载物送入轨道的费用的十分之一。

SpaceX already has a billion-and-a-half-dollar deal with NASA to use a smaller rocket to transport cargo to the International Space Station. The rocket is the Falcon 9, and the deal is for after the two last shuttles -- Endeavour and Atlantis -- are retired this year.
SpaceX已经与美国宇航局达成一项用一种较小火箭向国际空间站运送货物的15亿美元的协议。这种火箭叫猎鹰9号,该协议是为今年退役的最后两架航天飞机奋进号和亚特兰蒂斯号做准备。