SpaceX's towering Starship Flight 3 rocket and Super Heavy booster atop the launch pad at night in a fueling test at the company's Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas. (Image credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX's next Starship to fly has passed a critical fueling test, setting the stage for a highly anticipated third launch attempt of the world's biggest rocket. 

在夜間，SpaceX 高聳的 Starship Flight 3 火箭和超重型助推器在發射台頂部，在該公司位於德克薩斯州博卡奇卡的 Starbase 設施進行加油測試。 （圖片來源：SpaceX）SpaceX 的下一艘星際飛船已經通過了關鍵的加油測試，為備受期待的世界最大火箭的第三次發射嘗試奠定了基礎。

The gleaming, stainless-steel Starship rocket and its Super Heavy booster, which together stand 400 feet tall (122 meters), were filled with more than 10 million pounds of liquid methane and liquid oxygen propellant during the recent launch dress rehearsal, which was performed at SpaceX's Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach in southern Texas. 

這艘閃閃發光的不銹鋼星艦火箭及其超重型助推器總共高 400 英尺（122 公尺），在最近的發射彩排中填充了超過 1000 萬磅的液態甲烷和液態氧推進劑。位於德克薩斯州南部博卡奇卡海灘附近的SpaceX Starbase 設施。

"Starship Flight 3 preparing for launch," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter), sharing SpaceX's photos of the fueling test on March 4. SpaceX shared the series of stunning photos of the fueling test in a separate X post.

“Starship Flight 3 正在準備發射”，SpaceX 首席執行官埃隆·馬斯克(Elon Musk) 在X（以前稱為Twitter）上的一篇帖子中寫道，分享了SpaceX 3 月4 日的加油測試照片.SpaceX 在單獨的X 上分享了一系列令人驚嘆的加油測試照片郵政。

SpaceX's Starship and Super Heavy booster are designed to be the world's most powerful rocket and fully reusable, capable of hauling up to 165 tons (150 metric tons) into orbit. NASA has picked Starship to eventually land its next astronauts on the moon as the Artemis 3 lunar lander in 2026.  But first, SpaceX has to successfully launch a Starship on at least a near-orbital flight, something its first two test flights, in April and November of 2023, failed to do.

SpaceX 的 Starship 和 Super Heavy 助推器旨在成為世界上最強大的火箭，並且完全可重複使用，能夠將最多 165 噸（150 公噸）的物體拖入軌道。 NASA 已選擇Starship 最終在2026 年將其下一批太空人作為Artemis 3 月球登陸器送上月球。但首先，SpaceX 必須在至少一次近軌道飛行中成功發射Starship，這是其4 月的前兩次試飛2023 年 11 月，未能做到。

In a recent interview, Elon Musk said SpaceX's third Starship test flight could launch in early March, but the company is still awaiting a license from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the upcoming flight. 

在最近的一次採訪中，馬斯克表示 SpaceX 的第三次 Starship 試飛可能會在 3 月初發射，但該公司仍在等待美國聯邦航空管理局 (FAA) 為即將進行的飛行頒發許可證。

Last week, FAA officials closed a mishap investigation into SpaceX's Starship Flight 2 test, which launched a Starship and Super Heavy booster on Nov. 18. That mission ended in two explosions, first of the Super Heavy booster 3.5 minutes after liftoff and then of the Starship vehicle itself eight minutes into the flight, at a maximum altitude of 91 miles (148 kilometers). 

上週，美國聯邦航空局官員結束了對SpaceX 星艦飛行2 號測試的事故調查，該測試於11 月18 日發射了一艘星艦和超重型助推器。該任務以兩次爆炸告終，第一次是超重型助推器在升空3.5 分鐘後爆炸，第二次是超重型助推器在升空後3.5 分鐘發生爆炸。星艦飛行器本身在飛行8 分鐘後，最高高度為91英里（148 公里）。

The FAA investigation identified 17 corrective actions for SpaceX to tackle before its next Starship launch. Those actions include 10 fixes on the 165-foot-tall (50 m) Starship vehicle and seven on the Super Heavy booster. 

FAA 調查確定了 SpaceX 在下一次 Starship 發射之前需要採取的 17 項糾正措施。這些行動包括對 165 英尺（50 m）高的 Starship 飛行器進行 10 項修復，對超重型助推器進行 7 項修復。

In a statement released on Feb. 26, SpaceX wrote that the Flight 2 Super Heavy booster exploded over the Gulf of Mexico after one of its 33 Raptor engines "failed energetically" after stage separation, likely due to a blocked filter in an liquid oxygen line, leading to a cascade failure. 

SpaceX 在2 月26 日發布的聲明中寫道，Flight 2 Super Heavy 助推器在墨西哥灣上空爆炸，原因是其33 個Raptor 發動機中的一個在級分離後“嚴重失效”，原因很可能是液氧管線中的過濾器堵塞，導致級聯故障。

"SpaceX has since implemented hardware changes inside future booster oxidizer tanks to improve propellant filtration capabilities and refined operations to increase reliability," SpaceX wrote in the statement.

SpaceX 在聲明中寫道：“自那以後，SpaceX 對未來的助推器氧化劑罐進行了硬體改造，以提高推進劑過濾能力，並改進操作以提高可靠性。”

The Flight 2 Starship vehicle, meanwhile, likely failed after a leak in its aft section occurred during a planned venting of liquid oxygen, which led to a "combustion event and subsequent fires that led to a loss of communication between the spacecraft’s flight computers."

同時，Flight 2 Starship 飛船很可能在計劃的液態氧排放過程中發生尾部洩漏，導致「燃燒事件和隨後的火災，導致太空船飛行電腦之間的通訊中斷」。

"SpaceX has implemented hardware changes on upcoming Starship vehicles to improve leak reduction, fire protection, and refined operations associated with the propellant vent to increase reliability," SpaceX wrote in its statement. "The previously planned move from a hydraulic steering system for the vehicle's Raptor engines to an entirely electric system also removes potential sources of flammability."

SpaceX 在聲明中寫道：“SpaceX 已經對即將推出的星際飛船進行了硬體改造，以減少洩漏、防火，並改進與推進劑排氣口相關的操作，以提高可靠性。” “先前計劃將車輛猛禽引擎的液壓轉向系統改為全電動系統，這也消除了潛在的易燃源。”

SpaceX rolled its Flight 3 Starship and Super Heavy booster vehicles out to its Starbase launch pad separately in early February. The company attached Starship atop the Super Heavy booster in a stacked configuration for flight on Feb. 13.

SpaceX 於 2 月初將其 Flight 3 Starship 和 Super Heavy 助推器運送到了 Starbase 發射台。該公司將 Starship 以堆疊配置安裝在超重型助推器頂部，以便於 2 月 13 日進行飛行。