SpaceX fuels up its fourth Starship megarocket on May 20, 2024 in a prelaunch test. (Image credit: SpaceX via X)

SpaceX just fueled up its giant Starship rocket, checking another box ahead of the vehicle's fourth test flight.

SpaceX 于 2024 年 5 月 20 日在发射前测试中为其第四艘 Starship 巨型火箭加注燃料。 （图片来源：SpaceX via X）SpaceX 刚刚为其巨型 Starship 火箭加满了燃料，在车辆第四次试飞前检查了另一个盒子。

The company performed a "wet dress rehearsal" with Starship at its Starbase site in South Texas today (May 20), filling both of the vehicle's stages with supercold liquid oxygen and liquid methane in a key prelaunch test.

今天（5 月 20 日），该公司在德克萨斯州南部的 Starbase 基地与 Starship 进行了一次“湿装彩排”，在一项关键的发射前测试中，在飞行器的两个阶段都充满了超冷液氧和液态甲烷。

"Launch rehearsal for Flight 4 complete," SpaceX said in a post on X today, which also shared four photos of the procedure.

SpaceX 今天在 X 上发帖称，“4 号航班的发射排练已经完成”，该帖子还分享了四张发射过程的照片。

Starship's Super Heavy first stage gets frosty white thanks to the flow of supercold propellants during a fueling test on May 20, 2024. (Image credit: SpaceX via X)

2024 年 5 月 20 日的加油测试期间，由于超冷推进剂的流动，星际飞船的超重型第一级变得霜白色。（图片来源：SpaceX via X）

SpaceX is developing Starship to help humanity settle the moon and Mars, among other ambitious tasks. And the company already has customers lined up. A few years ago, for instance, NASA selected Starship as the first crewed lander for its Artemis program of lunar exploration.

SpaceX 正在开发星际飞船，以帮助人类登陆月球和火星，以及其他雄心勃勃的任务。而且该公司已经有顾客在排队了。例如，几年前，美国宇航局选择星际飞船作为其阿耳忒弥斯月球探索计划的第一个载人着陆器。

The vehicle consists of two stainless-steel stages, both of which are designed to be fully reusable: a huge booster called Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall (50 meters) spacecraft known as Starship, or simply "Ship."

该飞行器由两个不锈钢级组成，两者都被设计为完全可重复使用：一个名为 Super Heavy 的巨大助推器和一个 165 英尺高（50 米）的航天器，称为 Starship，或简称为“Ship”。

When these two stages are stacked, Starship stands about 400 feet (122 meters) tall — higher than any rocket ever built. It's also the most powerful launcher in history, boasting about 16.7 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. That's nearly twice as much thrust as NASA's Space Launch System moon rocket.

当这两级堆叠在一起时，Starship 高度约为 400 英尺（122 米）——比有史以来建造的任何火箭都要高。它也是历史上最强大的发射器，起飞时的推力约为 1670 万磅。这几乎是美国宇航局太空发射系统月球火箭推力的两倍。

That thrust comes courtesy of Super Heavy's 33 Raptor engines. Ship, for its part, is powered by six Raptors. The engines burn liquid oxygen and liquid methane, propellants that can be sourced on Mars, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has stressed.

这种推力来自 Super Heavy 的 33 台猛禽发动机。就其本身而言，这艘船由六架猛禽提供动力。 SpaceX 创始人兼首席执行官埃隆·马斯克强调，这些发动机燃烧液氧和液态甲烷，这些推进剂可以在火星上获取。

SpaceX aims to launch Starship again in early June. (Image credit: SpaceX via X)

SpaceX 计划在 6 月初再次发射 Starship。 （图片来源：SpaceX via X）

Starship has flown three times to date, in April 2023, November 2023 and March 14 of this year. 

迄今为止，Starship 已于 2023 年 4 月、2023 年 11 月和今年 3 月 14 日进行了三次飞行。 

The debut flight didn't last long; Starship's two stages failed to separate, and SpaceX detonated the vehicle intentionally four minutes after launch. Starship achieved stage separation on flight two, which lasted twice as long. Flight three was even better, coming to an end about 50 minutes after liftoff when Ship broke apart upon reentry to Earth's atmosphere.

首飞并没有持续多久； Starship 的两级未能分离，SpaceX 在发射四分钟后故意引爆了飞船。星舰在第二次飞行中实现了阶段分离，持续时间是原来的两倍。第三次飞行甚至更好，在升空后约 50 分钟结束，飞船在重返地球大气层时解体。

The main goal of the upcoming flight four "is getting through max reentry heating," Musk said via X today.

马斯克今天通过 X 表示，即将进行的四号航班的主要目标“是通过最大的再入加热”。

SpaceX aims to launch flight four in about two weeks, he added in the X post. However, the timing may not be entirely up to the company.

他在 X 帖子中补充道，SpaceX 的目标是在大约两周内发射第四次飞行。不过，具体时间可能并不完全由公司决定。

SpaceX has applied for a Starship launch license modification from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), for example, a request that is apparently still pending. The FAA is also overseeing an investigation into what happened on Starship's third flight. 

例如，SpaceX 已向美国联邦航空管理局 (FAA) 申请修改星舰发射许可证，但该请求显然仍在等待中。美国联邦航空局还在监督对星舰第三次飞行事件的调查。