Update 9:00 p.m. EST: SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket for the Starlink 6-37 mission.

晚上 9:00 更新美國東部時間：SpaceX 成功發射了用於星鏈 6-37 任務的獵鷹 9 號火箭。

The second time will be the charm for SpaceX as it was able to launch its Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Sunday evening among the clouds. It launched at 8:52 p.m. EST (0152 UTC) on Sunday, Jan. 14, from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station following a Saturday night scrub.

第二次對 SpaceX 來說將是魅力所在，因為週日晚上它能夠在卡納維爾角的雲層中發射獵鷹 9 號火箭。它於晚上 8 點 52 分發射。美國東部標準時間 (0152 UTC)，1 月 14 日（星期日），在周六晚上的擦洗之後，從卡納維拉爾角太空部隊站的 40 號航天發射場 (SLC-40) 發射。

The company was launching at a rate of about every four days or so from the Cape towards the end of 2023. However, the launch cadence on the East Coast has slowed somewhat with one of the two Florida-based droneships, ‘Just Read the Instructions,’ still on the sidelines after it was damaged during a booster recovery in late December.

到2023 年底，該公司以大約每四天左右從開普敦發射一次的速度進行發射。然而，東海岸的發射節奏有所放緩，佛羅裡達州的兩艘無人機中的一艘「只需閱讀說明” ”，在 12 月底的助推器恢復過程中受損後，仍處於觀望狀態。

The first stage booster supporting Saturday evening’s launch, tail number B1073, made its 12 flight on the Starlink 6-37 mission. Its pedigree includes launching ispace’s HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lander, SpaceX’s 27th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-27) mission and seven Starlink missions.

支援週六晚上發射的第一級助推器，尾號為 B1073，已在星鏈 6-37 任務中進行了第 12 次飛行。其歷史包括發射 ispace 的 HAKUTO-R Mission 1 登陸器、SpaceX 的第 27 次商業補給服務 (CRS-27) 任務和 7 次 Starlink 任務。

A little over eight minutes after liftoff, B1073 landed on the droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas.’ This was the 57th landing on ASOG and the 264th SpaceX booster landing to date. SpaceX will also endeavor to recover the payload fairings.

升空後 8 分鐘多一點，B1073 降落在無人機「A Shortfall of Gravitas」上。這是 ASOG 上的第 57 次著陸，也是 SpaceX 迄今為止的第 264 次助推器著陸。 SpaceX 也將努力回收酬載整流罩。

Starlink driving business

The Starlink missions have been and continue to be the cornerstone of SpaceX’s business model. During a company talk published to social media, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said of the 96 Falcon flights in 2023, two-thirds were for Starlink missions. 

星鏈驅動業務星鏈任務一直並將繼續成為 SpaceX 商業模式的基石。在社群媒體上發布的公司演講中，SpaceX 創辦人馬斯克表示，在 2023 年獵鷹 96 次飛行中，三分之二用於星鏈任務。

Musk pointed to the Russian family of Soyuz rockets launching 63 in one year, which was a previous record. Using just the Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX launched 63 Starlink missions during 2023. He quipped about the rapidly increasing pace of launches, driven by the broadband internet satellites.

馬斯克指出，俄羅斯聯盟號火箭系列在一年內發射了 63 次，這是先前的記錄。 2023 年，SpaceX 僅使用獵鷹 9 號火箭就發射了 63 次星鏈任務。他打趣說，在寬頻網路衛星的推動下，發射速度正在迅速加快。

“For a while there, I’d be posting something, like, ‘Is this the launch that just happened or the one that is happening?’ because there were like three launches that happened in the space of a few days,” Musk said. “All [96] made it to obit, all landed. So, just a huge hand for the Falcon team.”

「有一段時間，我會發布一些內容，例如『這是剛剛發生的發射還是正在發生的發射？』因為幾天之內發生了三次發射，」馬斯克說。 「所有[96]都被訃告，都著陸了。所以，這對獵鷹團隊來說是一個巨大的幫助。”

Musk noted that they will continue to fly the Starlink V2 Minis until the Starship rocket can start launching the full-size Starlink V2 satellites, which Musk said may end up being called Starlink V3.

馬斯克指出，他們將繼續使用 Starlink V2 Mini 進行飛行，直到 Starship 火箭能夠開始發射全尺寸的 Starlink V2 衛星，馬斯克表示，這顆衛星最終可能會被稱為 Starlink V3。

“The biggest, single goal for Starlink from a technical standpoint is to get the mean latency below 20 milliseconds,” Musk said, adding that he ultimately wants the network to be faster than a ground-based system. Minutes later though, he noted that Starlink wasn’t intended to replace terrestrial internet.

馬斯克表示：「從技術角度來看，星鏈最大的單一目標是使平均延遲低於 20 毫秒。」他補充說，他最終希望該網路比地面系統更快。但幾分鐘後，他指出星鏈並不是要取代地面網路。

“It does really well for low-population density areas, but it is really not going to be competitive in high-density cities,” Musk said. “It’s really low-density situations, which is really where the need is.

「它在人口密度低的地區表現確實很好，但在高密度城市中確實沒有競爭力，」馬斯克說。 「這確實是低密度的情況，這正是需要的地方。

He also said that they’re working to activate Starlink service in more than half of the world by population by the end of 2024. Musk added that they are also introducing what he called a Starlink Mini user terminal “which can fit in a backpack.”

他還表示，他們正在努力在 2024 年底前在全球一半以上的人口中激活 Starlink 服務。馬斯克補充說，他們還推出了他所謂的 Starlink Mini 用戶終端，“可以裝在背包裡”。 ”

Big ambitions

SpaceX expects to far exceed its record launch year in 2023. Musk said that his goal is to reach roughly 150 launches, not including Starship launches. To achieve that, SpaceX needs to ratchet up the turnaround rate for its three launch pads.

雄心勃勃 SpaceX 預計 2023 年的發射次數將遠遠超過其創紀錄的發射次數。馬斯克表示，他的目標是達到大約 150 次發射，其中不包括星艦發射。為了實現這一目標，SpaceX 需要提高其三個發射台的周轉率。

Musk said they hope to get that rate to under 24 hours by the end of the year. However, he didn’t go into detail on what steps SpaceX will take to achieve that goal from a pad infrastructure level.

馬斯克表示，他們希望在今年年底前將這一速度控制在 24 小時以內。不過，他沒有詳細說明 SpaceX 將採取哪些步驟從發射台基礎設施層級實現這一目標。

He did however state that they’re working to double the launch qualifications for their Falcon first stage booster fleet.

不過，他確實表示，他們正在努力將獵鷹第一級助推器艦隊的發射資格提高一倍。

“We’ve done a 19th re-flight. We’re now qualifying Falcon 9 to be able to do 40 flights,” Musk said. “And then, let’s not forget fairing recovery because actually, a lot of people don’t realize we recover the fairings as well.”

「我們已經進行了第 19 次復飛。我們現在正在驗證獵鷹 9 號能夠進行 40 次飛行。」馬斯克說。 “然後，我們不要忘記整流罩的恢復，因為實際上，很多人沒有意識到我們也恢復了整流罩。”

Musk said they’ve recovered payload fairings 300 times. They hope to add two more to the number following Saturday night’s mission. 

馬斯克表示，他們已經回收有效載荷整流罩 300 次。他們希望在周六晚上的任務之後再增加兩名。