WASHINGTON — NASA says SpaceX is on track to demonstrate in-space refueling of Starship next year, a critical technology for returning humans to the lunar surface using that vehicle.

华盛顿——美国国家航空航天局 (NASA) 表示，SpaceX 有望在明年演示星际飞船的太空加油，这是使用该飞船将人类送回月球表面的一项关键技术。

Speaking to the NASA Advisory Council’s Human Exploration and Operations Committee April 26, Amit Kshatriya, NASA deputy associate administrator for the Moon to Mars Program, said SpaceX achieved one step towards refueling of Starship with a demonstration on the latest Starship test flight March 14.

4 月 26 日，NASA 月球到火星计划副副局长阿米特·刹帝利 (Amit Kshatriya) 在 NASA 咨询委员会人类探索和运营委员会发表讲话时表示，SpaceX 在 3 月 14 日进行的最新一次 Starship 试飞演示中，在 Starship 加油方面迈出了一步。

During that flight, SpaceX performed an in-flight propellant transfer demonstration under a NASA Tipping Point contract awarded in 2020. SpaceX planned to transfer at least 10 metric tons of liquid oxygen from a header tank to the main tank within the Starship upper stage while in space.

在那次飞行中，SpaceX 根据 2020 年授予的 NASA Tipping Point 合同进行了飞行中推进剂转移演示。SpaceX 计划在飞行期间将至少 10 吨液氧从主罐转移到 Starship 上级内的主罐。空间。

While SpaceX said the day of the flight that it performed the demonstration, neither the company nor NASA provided any updates since then. At the advisory committee meeting, though, Kshatriya said the test appeared to go well.

虽然 SpaceX 表示在飞行当天进行了演示，但此后该公司和 NASA 都没有提供任何更新。不过，刹帝利在咨询委员会会议上表示，测试似乎进展顺利。

“On Flight 3, they did an intertank transfer of cryogens, which was successful by all accounts,” he said, adding that analysis of the test is ongoing.

“在 3 号航班上，他们进行了冷冻剂的罐间转移，从各方面来看都是成功的，”他说，并补充说测试分析正在进行中。

The next major milestone is a demonstration planned for 2025 where two Starships will dock in orbit, with one transferring propellants to the other. Plans for that have passed a flight system review, according to a slide he presented at the meeting, examining the overall mission architecture and key subsystems, among other topics.

下一个重要里程碑是计划于 2025 年进行演示，届时两艘星际飞船将在轨道上停靠，其中一艘向另一艘传送推进剂。根据他在会议上展示的一张幻灯片，该计划已经通过了飞行系统审查，审查了总体任务架构和关键子系统等主题。

In that mission, a “target” Starship will launch first and go into orbit, followed three to four weeks later by a “chaser” Starship. The two vehicles will dock with the chaser transferring propellants to the target. After the demonstration, the two Starships will undock and deorbit.

在该任务中，一艘“目标”星舰将首先发射并进入轨道，三到四个星期后，一艘“追击者”星舰将紧随其后。两辆车将与追踪器对接，将推进剂传输到目标。演示结束后，两艘星舰将脱离对接并脱离轨道。

Kshatriya said SpaceX has some work ahead of that test, including understanding the slosh of propellants in the tanks as Starship maneuvers as well as the amount of “settling thrust” needed once the vehicles are docked to ensure propellant flows between them.

Kshatriya 表示，SpaceX 在这次测试之前已经做了一些工作，包括了解 Starship 机动时储罐中推进剂的晃动，以及车辆对接后确保推进剂在它们之间流动所需的“稳定推力”量。

A slide from Kshatriya’s presentation showing plans for the Starship propellant transfer demo.

刹帝利演示文稿中的幻灯片显示了星舰推进剂转移演示计划。

“The point of their flight test program before we do this is to make sure they fully understand the slosh dynamics, fully understand how the ullage is being maintained, what the settling thrust needs to be,” he said. “We’ve gone through it with them in terms of their plan for this. It’s a good plan.”

他说：“在我们这样做之前，他们的飞行测试计划的目的是确保他们充分了解晃动动力学，充分了解如何保持损耗，以及需要多少稳定推力。” “我们已经与他们一起讨论了他们的计划。这是一个好计划。”

Propellant transfer technology is essential to SpaceX’s plans for Starship missions beyond low Earth orbit, including the Human Landing System (HLS) version of Starship that will be used to land astronauts on the moon starting with the Artemis 3 mission, currently scheduled for no earlier than September 2026. Multiple Starship launches will transfer propellant into a depot in low Earth orbit that will then be used to fuel the HLS Starship, sending it to the moon.

推进剂传输技术对于 SpaceX 近地轨道以外的星舰任务计划至关重要，其中包括人类着陆系统 (HLS) 版本的星舰，该版本将用于从阿耳忒弥斯 3 号任务开始将宇航员送上月球，目前计划不早于2026 年 9 月。多次星舰发射将把推进剂转移到近地轨道的一个仓库中，然后用该燃料为 HLS 星舰提供燃料，将其送往月球。

The exact number of refueling launches has been the subject of controversy, with estimates going as high as nearly 20. Kshatriya did not give a number of launches in his presentation, suggesting more work needs to be done to better understand the refueling process.

加油发射的确切数量一直存在争议，估计高达近 20 次。刹帝利在演讲中没有给出发射次数，这表明需要做更多的工作来更好地了解加油过程。

He said the company is working to understand factors like boiloff of propellants and leakage, as well as how much propellant can be effectively transferred from a Starship. “All of that is stuff that they know is in front of them, but all of that is stuff that’s in the plan to go characterize,” he said. “That will then derive the answer.”

他表示，该公司正在努力了解推进剂沸腾和泄漏等因素，以及可以从星际飞船中有效转移多少推进剂。 “所有这些都是他们知道就在他们面前的东西，但所有这些都是计划中要描述的东西，”他说。 “然后就会得出答案。”

The in-space propellant transfer test will be followed by an uncrewed demonstration mission of the HLS Starship, including fueling the vehicle and sending it to the moon for a landing. That mission will also feature an “ascent demo” not originally included in the plan, he said, to prove Starship can lift off the lunar surface.

在太空推进剂转移测试之后，HLS 星舰将进行无人演示任务，包括为飞行器加油并将其送往月球着陆。他说，该任务还将进行最初未包含在计划中的“上升演示”，以证明星舰可以从月球表面升空。

“Full & rapid reusability of booster & ship and orbital refilling of ship are the 2 fundamental technologies we aim to solve by the end of next year,” Elon Musk, chief executive of SpaceX, posted on social media April 26, responding to another post about Kshatriya’s presentation. “Those are the critical pieces necessary to make life multiplanetary.”

SpaceX 首席执行官埃隆·马斯克 4 月 26 日在社交媒体上回应另一则帖子时表示：“助推器和飞船的完全快速重复使用以及飞船的轨道再填充是我们计划在明年年底前解决的两项基本技术。”关于刹帝利的演讲。 “这些是实现多行星生命所必需的关键部分。”