WASHINGTON — SpaceX could attempt to land a Starship booster as soon as the vehicle’s fifth flight as Elon Musk outlined plans to increase both the flight rate and the performance of the launch vehicle.

華盛頓——馬斯克 (Elon Musk) 概述了提高運載火箭飛行速度和性能的計劃，SpaceX 可能會在飛船第五次飛行後嘗試著陸星艦助推器。

SpaceX posted on social media April 6 the video of an undated, but apparently recent, presentation the company’s founder and chief executive gave at its Starbase facility at Boca Chica, Texas. The presentation focused on the Starship vehicle built and launched there.

4 月6 日，SpaceX 在社交媒體上發布了一段視頻，該視頻未註明日期，但顯然是最近該公司創始人兼首席執行官在德克薩斯州博卡奇卡的Starbase 設施上發表的演講。演講的重點是在那裡建造和發射的星艦飛船。

Musk said that the fourth Starship/Super Heavy launch is planned “in about a month or so.” That is consistent with comments by SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell at the Satellite 2024 conference March 19, where she said that flight was scheduled for early May, pending an updated Federal Aviation Administration launch license. If the company holds to that schedule, the launch would take place less than two months after the vehicle’s third flight.

馬斯克表示，第四次星艦/超重型發射計畫「大約一個月左右」。這與SpaceX 總裁 Gwynne Shotwell 在3 月19 日舉行的Satellite 2024 會議上的評論一致，她在會上表示，此次飛行計劃於5 月初進行，等待聯邦航空管理局更新的發射許可證。如果該公司堅持這一時間表，發射將在車輛第三次飛行後不到兩個月的時間內進行。

The goal of the fourth flight is for the Starship upper stage to get through the “high heating regime” of reentry and make a “controlled splat” into the ocean, he said. On the third flight, Starship broke up during reentry.

他說，第四次飛行的目標是讓星艦上級通過再入的“高熱狀態”，並“受控地拍擊”進入海洋。在第三次飛行中，星艦在重返大氣層時解體。

Musk said SpaceX also wants to bring the Super Heavy booster back intact on the next flight, having it land “on essentially a virtual tower” in the Gulf of Mexico. That would allow the company to proceed with an attempt to bring the booster back to Starbase for a landing.

馬斯克表示，SpaceX 還希望在下次飛行中將超重型助推器完好無損地帶回來，讓它降落在墨西哥灣的「實質上是一個虛擬塔上」。這將使該公司能夠繼續嘗試將​​助推器帶回 Starbase 進行著陸。

“If the landing on the virtual tower works, then we will actually try on Flight 5 to come back and land on the tower,” he said. “That is very much a success-oriented schedule, but it is in the realm of possibility.”

「如果在虛擬塔上著陸成功，那麼我們實際上將嘗試使用 5 號航班返回並在塔上著陸，」他說。 “這在很大程度上是一個以成功為導向的時間表，但它是可能的。”

Musk said he was optimistic that SpaceX would be able this year to land a booster back on the tower, using a pair of giant arms dubbed “Mechazilla” to cradle the booster. “The odds of us actually being able to catch the booster with the Mechazilla arms this year,” he said, “is probably 80 to 90%.”

馬斯克表示，他對 SpaceX 今年能夠使用一對被稱為「Mechazilla」的巨型手臂來支撐助推器，將助推器送回塔樓感到樂觀。 “今年我們實際上能夠用機械手臂抓住助推器的幾率，”他說，“可能是 80% 到 90%。”

Recovering the Starship upper stage, or ship, will take longer. Musk said he wanted to have at least two consecutive successful controlled splashdowns of Starship in the ocean before attempting a landing at Starbase. “We do not want to rain debris over Mexico or the U.S.,” he said. “My guess is probably next year when we will be able to reuse Starship.”

恢復星艦上層或太空船將需要更長的時間。馬斯克表示，他希望在嘗試登陸 Starbase 之前，星艦至少能在海洋中連續兩次成功受控濺落。 「我們不想讓碎片落在墨西哥或美國上空，」他說。 “我的猜測可能是明年我們就可以重複使用星艦了。”

SpaceX is working to accelerate production of Starship vehicles to support higher flight rates. Before the March launch, company officials said they had four pairs of ships and boosters at Starbase for upcoming launches. Musk said in the presentation the company would build “roughly six” more vehicles this year.

SpaceX 正在努力加快 Starship 飛行器的生產，以支援更高的飛行速度。在 3 月發射之前，該公司官員表​​示，他們在 Starbase 擁有四對太空船和助推器，用於即將到來的發射。馬斯克在演講中表示，該公司今年將再生產「約六輛」汽車。

“That production rate will increase a lot next year. That’s why we’re building the giant factory” planned for Starbase, he said.

“明年的生產力將會大幅提高。這就是我們計劃為 Starbase 建造巨型工廠的原因，他說。

He noted that, along with the increased production of Starship vehicles, the company was building a second launch tower at Starbase and expected to have its first launch tower at Cape Canaveral, Florida, operational by the middle of next year. “What we should probably expect is that we do the development launches here, test anything new here, build the rockets,” he said at Starbase, “and then probably most of the operational launches would be from the Cape.”

他指出，隨著星艦飛行器產量的增加，該公司正在 Starbase 建造第二座發射塔，並預計在佛羅裡達州卡納維拉爾角的第一座發射塔將於明年年中投入營運。 “我們可能應該期望的是，我們在這裡進行開發發射，在這裡測試任何新的東西，建造火箭，”他在 Starbase 說，“然後可能大部分操作發射都將從海角進行。”

With the increased production rate will come increased payload capacity. Musk outlined improvements to the Raptor engine that will increase its thrust from 230 to 280 metric tons-force, and “ultimately” to more than 330 metric tons-force of thrust.

隨著生產率的提高，有效負載能力也會隨之提高。馬斯克概述了對猛禽引擎的改進，將其推力從 230 噸力增加到 280 噸力，「最終」增加到超過 330 噸力。

The engine improvements would support a “Starship 2” that also features a slightly longer booster and ship. That will be able to place more than 100 metric tons into orbit in a fully reusable configuration, Musk said. A future “Starship 3,” about 25 meters taller than Starship 2, would be able to place more than 200 metric tons into orbit in a fully reusable mode. He did not disclose when either Starship version would enter service.

引擎的改進將支援“星艦 2”，該星艦還具有稍長的助推器和飛船。馬斯克表示，這將能夠以完全可重複使用的配置將超過 100 噸的物體送入軌道。未來的「星艦 3」比星艦 2 高約 25 米，能夠以完全可重複使用的模式將超過 200 噸的物體送入軌道。他沒有透露任何一個星艦版本何時投入使用。

Musk claimed that the future Starship 3 would cost less to launch than SpaceX’s original rocket, the Falcon 1 small launch vehicle, which had a price of about $10 million, because of full reusability. He estimated the Starship cost per launch could fall to as low as $2 million to $3 million.

馬斯克聲稱，由於完全可重複使用，未來的 Starship 3 的發射成本將低於 SpaceX 最初的火箭——獵鷹 1 號小型運載火箭，後者的價格約為 1000 萬美元。他估計 Starship 每次發射的成本可能會降至 200 萬至 300 萬美元。

“These are sort of unthinkable numbers,” he said. “Nobody ever thought this was possible. But we’re not breaking any physics to achieve this.”

「這些數字有點難以想像，」他說。 「沒有人認為這是可能的。但我們不會為了實現這一目標而破壞任何物理原理。”