VOA慢速英语:SpaceX Is Doing Business in Space

Space Explorations Technologies, or SpaceX, may be a company to watch in the coming years. This week, SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The launch vehicle and its reusable Dragon capsule were carrying supplies for the International Space Station.
空间探索技术，即SpaceX有望在未来几年内成为一家公司。本周SpaceX在佛罗里达卡纳维拉尔角成功发射了猎鹰9号火箭。运载火箭和可重用的龙太空舱为国际太空站运动物资。
 
The countdown sounded like this.
 倒计时是这样的：

GEORGE DILLER: “Three, two, one, zero and launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, as NASA turns to the private sector to resupply the International Space Station."
 GEORGE DILLER：“3、2、1，发射SpaceX猎鹰9号火箭，美国宇航局借助私有企业为国际太空站提供供给。”

The space agency’s George Diller was right. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is turning to private companies to provide services like bringing supplies to the space station.
 航天局的George Diller说得对，国家航空和宇宙航行局正转向借助于私有公司来提供诸如向太空站运送物资等服务。

NASA official Bill Gerstenmaier spoke to reporters after the launch. He said NASA has already signed agreements with SpaceX for the company’s services.
航天局官员Bill Gerstenmaier在发射后对记者讲话，他说，航天局已与SpaceX签署了协议，接受该公司的服务。
 
BILL GERSTENMAIER: “We’ve already initiated the contract for twelve flights with SpaceX going forward under Commercial Resupply Services and those are already in place.”
 BILL GERSTENMAIER：“我们最初先与SpaceX 签署了12个航程商业补给服务的协议，目前已经就位。”

The contract is worth one point six billion dollars. Mister Gerstenmaier said the United States no longer pays Russia to carry out such operations.
 该协议价值16亿美元，Gerstenmaier先生说美国不再就此类服务向俄罗斯支付费用。

SpaceX is based in Hawthorne, California. Elon Musk started the company in two thousand two. But, it is not the first company founded the South African-born businessman.  He also started the Internet payment service, PayPal, which is now owned by online auction store, Ebay. His other company, Tesla Motors, makes electric cars.
 SpaceX坐落在加州霍桑，是Elon Musk 于2002年创办的一家公司。但这不是这位南非裔商人开创的第一家公司，他还创立了互联网支付服务贝宝，该公司目前为在线拍卖商店易趣所有。他的另一家公司特斯拉汽车公司是生产电车的。

Speaking to reporters, Mister Musk likened space travel to where Internet technology was in the nineteen nineties. At that time, businesses were just starting to think about how to sell goods and services on the World Wide Web. Today, billions of dollars in goods and services are sold online.
 在与记者讲话时，Musk先生将太空旅行与20世纪90年代的互联网科技作比较。当时，一些公司刚开始思考如何在万维网上销售商品和服务。而今天，数亿美元的商品和服务在线销售。

But after the launch, Elon Musk tried to keep his attention on the job at hand.
但是在午餐后，Elon Musk设法把注意力放在眼前的工作上。

ELON MUSK: “Well, I think right now our focus is very much on serving the International Space Station with cargo and then transitioning to crew and then advancing the state of our rocket technology…I think the critical breakthrough in rocket technology is to make full and rapidly reusable rocket.”
 ELON MUSK：“我想目前最重要的是为国际太空站提供服务，运送物资、人员，并发展火箭技术。我想火箭技术的突破点是制造完全快速可重用的火箭。”

The Dragon capsule is designed to be able to carry both astronauts and cargo. SpaceX says it has forty launches planned over the next few years and contracts worth four billion dollars. It says sixty percent of its upcoming flights are for businesses, not the government
设计的龙太空舱是用来同时运载航天员和物资的，SpaceX称未来几年计划要发射40次，签署的协议价值40亿美元。称即将进行的60%的发射为商业而不是为政府服务的。