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.

华盛顿——埃隆·马斯克 (Elon Musk) 概述了提高运载火箭飞行速度和性能的计划，SpaceX 可能会在飞船第五次飞行后尝试着陆星舰助推器。

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 在社交媒体上发布了一段视频，该视频未注明日期，但显然是最近该公司创始人兼首席执行官在德克萨斯州博卡奇卡的 Starbase 设施上发表的演讲。演讲的重点是在那里建造和发射的星舰飞船。

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.

马斯克表示，第四次星舰/超重型发射计划“大约一个月左右”。这与 SpaceX 总裁格温·肖特韦尔 (Gwynne Shotwell) 在 3 月 19 日举行的 Satellite 2024 会议上的评论一致，她在会上表示，此次飞行计划于 5 月初进行，等待联邦航空管理局更新的发射许可证。如果该公司坚持这一时间表，发射将在车辆第三次飞行后不到两个月的时间内进行。

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.

他说，第四次飞行的目标是让星舰上级通过再入的“高热状态”，并“受控地拍击”进入海洋。在第三次飞行中，星舰在重返大气层时解体。

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.

马斯克表示，SpaceX 还希望在下次飞行中将超重型助推器完好无损地带回来，让它降落在墨西哥湾的“实质上是一个虚拟塔上”。这将使该公司能够继续尝试将助推器带回 Starbase 进行着陆。

“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.”

“如果在虚拟塔上着陆成功，那么我们实际上将尝试使用 5 号航班返回并在塔上着陆，”他说。 “这在很大程度上是一个以成功为导向的时间表，但它是有可能的。”

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%.”

马斯克表示，他对 SpaceX 今年能够使用一对被称为“Mechazilla”的巨型手臂来支撑助推器，将助推器送回塔楼感到乐观。 “今年我们实际上能够用机械臂抓住助推器的几率，”他说，“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.”

恢复星舰上层或飞船将需要更长的时间。马斯克表示，他希望在尝试着陆 Starbase 之前，星舰至少能在海洋中连续两次成功受控溅落。 “我们不想让碎片落在墨西哥或美国上空，”他说。 “我的猜测可能是明年我们就可以重复使用星舰了。”

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 飞行器的生产，以支持更高的飞行速度。在 3 月份发射之前，公司官员表示，他们在 Starbase 拥有四对飞船和助推器，用于即将到来的发射。马斯克在演讲中表示，该公司今年将再生产“大约六辆”汽车。

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

“明年的生产率将会大幅提高。这就是我们计划为 Starbase 建造巨型工厂的原因，他说。

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，随着星舰飞行器产量的增加，该公司正在 Starbase 建造第二座发射塔，并预计在佛罗里达州卡纳维拉尔角的第一座发射塔将于明年年中投入运营。 “我们可能应该期望的是，我们在这里进行开发发射，在这里测试任何新的东西，建造火箭，”他在 Starbase 说，“然后可能大部分操作发射都将从海角进行。”

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.

随着生产率的提高，有效负载能力也会随之提高。马斯克概述了对猛禽发动机的改进，将其推力从 230 吨力增加到 280 吨力，“最终”增加到超过 330 吨力。

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.

发动机的改进将支持“星舰 2”，该星舰还具有稍长的助推器和飞船。马斯克表示，这将能够以完全可重复使用的配置将超过 100 吨的物体送入轨道。未来的“星舰 3”比星舰 2 高约 25 米，能够以完全可重复使用的模式将超过 200 吨的物体送入轨道。他没有透露任何一个星舰版本何时投入使用。

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.

马斯克声称，由于完全可重复使用，未来的 Starship 3 的发射成本将低于 SpaceX 最初的火箭——猎鹰 1 号小型运载火箭，后者的价格约为 1000 万美元。他估计 Starship 每次发射的成本可能会降至 200 万至 300 万美元。

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

“这些数字有点难以想象，”他说。 “没有人认为这是可能的。但我们不会为了实现这一目标而破坏任何物理原理。”