Sir Richard Branson is preparing for the dawn of a new space race which will be contested by private companies and hopes within the next decade to be launching 40 spaceships twice a day, carrying six passengers at a time.
李察·布萊信爵士正準備迎接新太空競賽的黎明——這場競賽將由私人公司進行角逐。他希望在10年內，就能實現每天兩次發射40艘宇宙飛船、每艘飛船每次載客6人。
The founder of the Virgin Atlantic airline unveiled the VSS Enterprise, his first commercial spaceship, in the windswept Mojave desert in California late on Monday, and said his engineers would spend the next 12 months completing rigorous tests to make sure the craft is safe and ready to carry paying customers.
周一晚，在多風的莫哈韋沙漠，這位維珍航空(Virgin Atlantic)的創始人揭開了他第一艘商業宇宙飛船VSS Enterprise的神秘面紗。他表示，他的工程師們將在未來12個月內完成一系列嚴格測試，確保飛船安全且適宜運載付費顧客。
His Virgin Galactic company aims to have the spaceship ready for commercial flights by 2011. It has signed up more than 300 customers who will pay $200,000 for a two-hour round trip into space.
他旗下的維珍銀河(Virgin Galactic)計劃在2011年前為這艘宇宙飛船做好商業飛行的準備。該公司已與300多名顧客簽約，每位顧客將為往返兩個小時的太空旅行支付20萬美元。
"Once they're in space, they'll unbuckle their seats . . . they can look back at the earth and they can float around and they can become astronauts," said Sir Richard.
李察爵士表示：“進入太空后，他們將解開安全帶……他們可以回望地球，四處漂浮，當一回宇航員。”
The project has the backing of Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California, and Bill Richardson, New Mexico's governor.
該計劃獲得了加州州長阿諾德·施瓦辛格和新墨西哥州州長比爾·理查森的支持。
Mr Schwarzenegger told an audience of Virgin Galactic customers that the VSS Enterprise, which was designed and built in California, continued a grand tradition of aerospace innovation in the state. "Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier right here and the first space shuttles were built and landed here."
施瓦辛格向在座的維珍銀河顧客表示，在加州設計和建造的VSS Enterprise，承襲了該州航天創新的偉大傳統。“查克·耶格爾就是在這里突破音障的，第一艘航天飛機也是在這里建造和降落的。”
Mr Richardson said New Mexico had pledged 0m to invest in a "spaceport" from which the first Virgin Galactic flights will be launched and said the state was "proud to be on the ground floor of the second space age".
理查森表示，新墨西哥州已承諾出資3億美元，用于建造“太空港”，維珍銀河的首批飛航將從那里發射升空。他還表示，該州“為能率先進入第二個太空時代而感到自豪”。
Sir Richard told the Financial Times in an interview that he hoped Nasa would eventually work more closely with the private sector on commercial space travel. "Nasa has a very sexy brand name but has spent billions and billions of dollars on projects that don't need to cost billions and billions."
理查森在接受英國《金融時報》采訪時表示，他希望美國國家航空航天局能在商業太空旅行領域與私人部門展開更為緊密的合作。“Nasa擁有一個十分誘人的品牌名稱，但卻在那些無需耗費巨資的項目上幾十億、幾十億地扔錢。”
He added the organisation "should enable private companies to take on more of the things that they do . . . [but] still keep the infrastructure of Nasa to oversee these projects. I have a feeling that the Obama government may be thinking that way."
他補充稱，Nasa“應該讓私人公司從自己手中接過更多項目……但仍然保留自己的基礎結構，對這些項目進行監督。我感覺奧巴馬政府可能已經有這樣的考慮了。”
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（來源：天星教育網 編輯：Julie）
