60 分鐘內飛往任何城市的航班？馬斯克仍然認為這是可能的

SpaceX chief Elon Musk has repeated his desire to use the world’s most powerful rocket for lightning-fast international passenger flights between major cities.

SpaceX 執行長 Elon Musk 重申了他希望使用世界上最強大的火箭在主要城市之間進行閃電般的國際客運航班的願望。

Speaking recently at a special event at SpaceX’s Boca Chica launch facility in Texas, Musk said there was a “pretty good chance” that the Starship — comprising the first-stage Super Heavy rocket and second stage Starship spacecraft — would one day offer “Earth-to-Earth transport” as well.

最近，馬斯克在德州SpaceX 博卡奇卡發射設施舉行的特別活動上發表演說時表示，由第一級超重型火箭和第二級星艦飛船組成的星艦很有可能有一天會提供「地球-到地球的運輸」。

Explaining the technology required, he added in his own inimitable way that “the fastest way to get from here to the other side of Earth is an intercontinental ballistic missile, but just make sure you delete the nuke and add the landing part.”

在解釋所需的技術時，他以自己獨特的方式補充道，“從這裡到地球另一邊的最快方法是洲際彈道導彈，但要確保刪除核武器並添加著陸部分。”

It’s not the first time the SpaceX CEO has spoken of his dream of using the Starship vehicle for a new kind of passenger service. An early mention of the plan came seven years ago when Musk said that the “cost per seat should be about the same as full fare economy in an aircraft.”

這並不是這位 SpaceX 執行長第一次談到他利用 Starship 飛船提供新型客運服務的夢想。七年前，馬斯克就很早就提到了該計劃，當時他表示「每個座位的成本應該與飛機的全票價經濟艙大致相同」。

SpaceX even released a video (below) showing the envisaged passenger experience and explaining how people would be able to “fly to most places on Earth in under 30 minutes and anywhere in under 60.” Proposed routes included New York to Shanghai in 39 minutes, London to Dubai or New York in 29 minutes, and Los Angeles to Toronto in 24 minutes.

SpaceX 甚至發布了一段影片（如下），展示了設想的乘客體驗，並解釋了人們如何能夠「在 30 分鐘內飛到地球上的大多數地方，並在 60 分鐘內飛到任何地方」。擬議的航線包括紐約到上海 39 分鐘、倫敦到杜拜或紐約 29 分鐘、洛杉磯到多倫多 24 分鐘。

Of course, a passenger service using the Starship — it if ever happens — will be many years away. After all, SpaceX is still working on achieving a successful test flight with the rocket after two failed attempts to reach orbit last year. A third test flight could take place next month.

當然，使用星艦提供客運服務——如果真的發生的話——還需要很多年的時間。畢竟，在去年兩次嘗試進入軌道失敗後，SpaceX 仍在努力實現火箭的成功試飛。第三次試飛可能會在下個月進行。

Ahead of passenger flights, SpaceX plans to use the Starship for transporting crew and cargo to the moon as NASA seeks to establish a permanent human presence there, and also for the first crewed flights to Mars.

在客運飛行之前，SpaceX 計劃使用 Starship 將船員和貨物運送到月球，因為 NASA 尋求在月球上建立永久的人類存在，並且還計劃使用 Starship 進行首次載人飛往火星的飛行。