A towering new rocket has taken flight, carrying what could be the first commercial lander to touch down on the moon — and the first lunar landing mission to launch from the United States since 1972.

一枚高耸的新型火箭已经升空，搭载的可能是第一个登陆月球的商业着陆器，也是自 1972 年以来美国发射的首次登月任务。

The Vulcan Centaur rocket, a never-before-flown model developed by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, roared to life at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 2:18 a.m. ET Monday. The launch vehicle is blaring toward space, expending its fuel as it attempts to rip away from Earth’s gravity and send the lunar lander, called Peregrine, tucked inside on its way to the moon.

火神半人马座火箭是由波音公司和洛克希德·马丁公司的合资企业联合发射联盟开发的一种前所未有的型号，于美国东部时间周一凌晨 2 点 18 分在佛罗里达州卡纳维拉尔角太空部队站轰鸣升空。运载火箭向太空呼啸而过，在试图摆脱地球引力并将名为“游隼”的月球着陆器送向月球的过程中消耗了燃料。

At around 3 a.m. ET, the Peregrine spacecraft is expected to separate from the rocket and begin its slow journey to the lunar surface. If all goes according to plan, the lander could touch down on the moon on February 23.

美国东部时间凌晨 3 点左右，游隼号宇宙飞船预计将与火箭分离，并开始缓慢前往月球表面的旅程。如果一切按计划进行，着陆器可能于 2 月 23 日登陆月球。

What’s on board

Pittsburgh-based company Astrobotic Technology developed the Peregrine lander — named after the falcon that is the fastest-flying bird in the world — under a contract with NASA.

总部位于匹兹堡的 Astrobotic Technology 公司根据与 NASA 的合同开发了 Peregrine 着陆器，该着陆器以世界上飞行速度最快的鸟类猎鹰命名。

The space agency paid Astrobotic $108 million to develop Peregrine and fly NASA’s science experiments to the lunar surface.

航天局向 Astrobotic 支付了 1.08 亿美元来开发 Peregrine，并将 NASA 的科学实验飞行到月球表面。

But the space agency is just one customer among many for this mission.

但航天局只是此次任务的众多客户之一。

Of the 20 payloads that Peregrine will carry to the moon, five are NASA science instruments. The other 15 come from a range of customers.

Peregrine 将携带到月球的 20 个有效载荷中，有 5 个是 NASA 科学仪器。另外 15 个来自不同的客户。

Some are additional science payloads from nations such as Mexico, while others include a robotics experiment from a private UK-based company and trinkets or mementos that the German shipping company DHL put together.

其中一些是来自墨西哥等国家的额外科学有效载荷，而另一些则包括英国一家私营公司的机器人实验以及德国航运公司 DHL 整理的小饰品或纪念品。

Peregrine is also carrying human remains on behalf of two commercial space burial companies — Elysium Space and Celestis — a move that’s sparked opposition from Navajo Nation, the largest group of Native Americans in the United States. The group contends that allowing the remains to touch down on the lunar surface would be an affront to many Indigenous cultures, which regard the moon as sacred. Celestis offers to carry ashes to the moon for prices starting at more than $10,000, according to the company’s website.

Peregrine 还代表 Elysium Space 和 Celestis 两家商业太空埋葬公司运送人类遗骸，此举引发了美国最大的美洲原住民群体纳瓦霍族的反对。该组织认为，允许遗骸降落在月球表面将是对许多将月球视为神圣的土著文化的侮辱。据该公司网站称，Celestis 提供将骨灰运送到月球的服务，起价超过 10,000 美元。

The five NASA-sponsored experiments include two instruments to monitor the radiation environment, “helping us better prepare to send crewed missions back to the moon,” said Paul Niles, NASA’s project scientist for the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, the arm of NASA that provided funding for Peregrine, during a Thursday news briefing. Other instruments will analyze the makeup of the lunar soil, looking for water and hydroxyl molecules. NASA will also study the moon’s super-thin atmosphere.

美国宇航局资助的五项实验包括两台监测辐射环境的仪器，“帮助我们更好地准备将载人任务送回月球”，美国宇航局商业月球有效载荷服务项目的项目科学家保罗·奈尔斯说，该项目是美国宇航局的下属机构。在周四的新闻发布会上，为 Peregrine 提供了资金。其他仪器将分析月球土壤的组成，寻找水和羟基分子。美国宇航局还将研究月球的超稀薄大气层。

Once on the moon’s surface, Peregrine is expected to operate for up to 10 days before its landing site is plunged into darkness — making it too cold to go on.

一旦到达月球表面，“游隼”号预计将运行长达 10 天，然后其着陆点就会陷入黑暗，因为天气太冷而无法继续飞行。

Also on board the Vulcan Centaur rocket, packed separately from the Peregrine lander, is another payload from the space burial company Celestis.

与游隼着陆器分开包装的火神半人马火箭上还有来自太空埋葬公司 Celestis 的另一个有效载荷。

The object, on a mission dubbed the Enterprise Flight, contains 265 capsules with human remains as well as DNA samples from former US presidents John F. Kennedy, George Washington and Dwight Eisenhower.

该物体执行一项名为“企业飞行”的任务，其中包含 265 个太空舱，里面装有人类遗骸以及美国前总统约翰·F·肯尼迪、乔治·华盛顿和德怀特·艾森豪威尔的 DNA 样本。

The remains also include “the creator and several cast members of the original Star Trek television series, as well as an Apollo-era astronaut, together with people from all walks of life, interests, and vocations,” according to the company’s website.

据该公司网站称，遗骸中还包括“原版《星际迷航》电视剧的创作者和几位演员，以及一名阿波罗时代的宇航员，以及来自各行各业、兴趣和职业的人们”。

The Apollo astronaut whose remains are aboard the Enterprise Flight is Philip Chapman, who was selected for the astronaut corps in 1967 but never flew to space. He died in 2021.

遗体安置在企业号航班上的阿波罗宇航员是菲利普·查普曼 (Philip Chapman)，他于 1967 年被选入宇航员队伍，但从未飞向太空。他于 2021 年去世。

A new rocket

The excitement of an impending lunar landing attempt aside, the launch of ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket was an event in its own right.

新型火箭 除了即将到来的登月尝试带来的兴奋之外，ULA 的 Vulcan Centaur 火箭的发射本身就是一件大事。

The rocket is one of the most highly anticipated new vehicles to take flight in years. If the rocket’s mission is successful, it could be a game-changer for ULA and the broader launch industry.

该火箭是多年来最受期待的新型飞行器之一。如果火箭的任务成功，它可能会改变 ULA 和更广泛的发射行业的游戏规则。

ULA was formed in 2006 in response to the US military’s need to keep both Boeing’s Delta and Lockheed Martin’s Atlas rockets operational. But the launch industry looks far different today than it did nearly two decades ago, and in the meantime SpaceX has emerged as a dominant force that undercuts ULA on price.

ULA 成立于 2006 年，是为了满足美国军方保持波音 Delta 火箭和洛克希德马丁公司 Atlas 火箭运行的需要。但今天的发射行业与近二十年前相比有很大不同，与此同时，SpaceX 已成为在价格上削弱 ULA 的主导力量。

ULA and its CEO, Tory Bruno, envision Vulcan Centaur will replace its Atlas and Delta rockets. Vulcan Centaur already has about 70 missions lined up, according to Bruno.

ULA 及其首席执行官 Tory Bruno 预计 Vulcan Centaur 将取代其 Atlas 和 Delta 火箭。据布鲁诺称，Vulcan Centaur 已经安排了大约 70 项任务。

ULA has a pristine launch record with practically no failed missions. Vulcan Centaur builds on the success of ULA’s Atlas rockets by using essentially the same upper stage — the portion of the rocket that powers a spacecraft to orbital speeds after the initial liftoff.

ULA 拥有原始的发射记录，几乎没有失败的任务。 Vulcan Centaur 建立在 ULA Atlas 火箭成功的基础上，使用了基本相同的上级——火箭的一部分，为航天器在初始升空后达到轨道速度提供动力。

But a major change was made to the rocket’s first stage, the bottom portion that gives it the initial burst of power off the launchpad.

但火箭的第一级发生了重大变化，即底部部分，为它提供了发射台上最初的爆发力。

Vulcan Centaur was propelled by two side boosters as well as two US-made rocket engines — which the Jeff Bezos-funded company Blue Origin developed — at the base of its first-stage booster, replacing Russian-made engines that powered the Atlas rockets. ULA’s reliance on Russian engines became politically unpopular as tensions between the United States and Russia have grown in recent years.

火神半人马座由两个侧面助推器以及两个美国制造的火箭发动机（由杰夫·贝佐斯资助的蓝色起源公司开发）在其第一级助推器的底部驱动，取代了为阿特拉斯火箭提供动力的俄罗斯制造的发动机。近年来，随着美国和俄罗斯之间的紧张关系加剧，ULA 对俄罗斯发动机的依赖在政治上变得不受欢迎。

Vulcan Centaur’s debut was already years overdue, though it’s common in the aerospace industry for companies to blow past deadlines.

Vulcan Centaur 的首次亮相已经晚了好几年了，尽管在航空航天行业，公司逾期的情况很常见。

ULA encountered lengthy delays awaiting Blue Origin’s new engines. And a Vulcan Centaur upper stage was inadvertently destroyed on a test stand last year.

ULA 在等待蓝色起源的新引擎时遇到了长时间的延误。去年，火神半人马座上级在试验台上被无意摧毁。

Despite those setbacks, Bruno said in November that development of Vulcan Centaur has been one of the “more orderly and well-executed development programs that I’ve worked on in my very long career in the aerospace industry.”

尽管遇到了这些挫折，布鲁诺在 11 月表示，火神半人马座的开发一直是“我在航空航天业漫长的职业生涯中所从事的更有序、执行得更好的开发项目之一”。

In the moments after liftoff, the rocket appeared to be operating as intended.

在升空后的那一刻，火箭似乎正在按预期运行。