A crowd in South Texas watches the second-ever test flight of SpaceX's giant Starship vehicle on Nov. 18, 2023. (Image credit: SpaceX)

Space fans could be in for a holiday treat.

2023 年 11 月 18 日，德克萨斯州南部的一群人观看 SpaceX 巨型星际飞船的第二次试飞。（图片来源：SpaceX）太空迷们可以享受一场节日盛宴。

SpaceX's third Starship vehicle "should be ready to fly in 3 to 4 weeks," company founder and CEO Elon Musk said via X (formerly known as Twitter) on Sunday (Nov. 19).

周日（11 月 19 日），SpaceX 公司创始人兼首席执行官埃隆·马斯克通过 X（以前称为 Twitter）表示，SpaceX 的第三艘星际飞船“应该在 3 到 4 周内准备好飞行”。

That would place technical readiness before Christmas — but there's no guarantee Starship will be cleared for liftoff by then. SpaceX still needs to secure a launch license from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is overseeing an investigation into what happened Saturday (Nov. 18) during Starship's second-ever test flight.

这将在圣诞节前做好技术准备，但不能保证到那时星际飞船就能顺利升空。 SpaceX 仍需要获得美国联邦航空管理局 (FAA) 的发射许可证，该管理局正在监督对周六（11 月 18 日）Starship 第二次试飞期间发生的事件进行调查。

Related: SpaceX's 2nd Starship launch test looks amazing in these stunning photos and videos

相关：SpaceX 的第二艘星际飞船发射测试在这些令人惊叹的照片和视频中看起来令人惊叹

Saturday's mission, which lifted off from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas, aimed to send Starship's upper stage most of the way around Earth, wrapping up with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii 90 minutes after launch. 

周六的任务从 SpaceX 位于德克萨斯州南部的 Starbase 发射升空，旨在将 Starship 的上级送入地球大部分轨道，并在发射 90 分钟后在夏威夷附近的太平洋溅落。

But the flight ended about eight minutes in, with a "rapid unscheduled disassembly" of the craft. That wasn't the only explosion of the day; Starship's huge Super Heavy first stage was supposed to come back to Earth for a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico about seven minutes after liftoff, but it broke apart high in the sky just after separating from the upper stage.

但飞行大约八分钟后就结束了，飞行器“迅速、意外地解体”。这并不是当天唯一的爆炸；星舰巨大的超重型第一级本应在升空后约七分钟返回地球并在墨西哥湾溅落，但在与上级分离后，它在高空解体。

Starship did notch some important milestones on flight number two, however, and chief among them was successful stage separation, which did not occur on the vehicle's first test flight this past April. That debut flight ended just four minutes after launch, with a commanded detonation of the tumbling Starship vehicle.

然而，星际飞船在第二次飞行中取得了一些重要的里程碑，其中最主要的是成功的级分离，而在今年四月的首次试飞中并没有发生这种情况。首次飞行在发射后仅四分钟就结束了，翻滚的星舰飞行器受指令爆炸。

In addition, a handful of Super Heavy's 33 Raptor engines conked out early during the April flight, whereas all of them appeared to burn for the proper duration on Saturday. Starbase's orbital launch mount also seemed to emerge unscathed this weekend, whereas the April launch blasted out a big crater beneath it.

此外，Super Heavy 的 33 台猛禽发动机在 4 月份的飞行中早些时候就熄火了，而周六所有发动机似乎都燃烧了适当的时间。 Starbase 的轨道发射架在本周末似乎也毫发无伤，而四月份的发射却在其下方炸出了一个大坑。

Shortly after the April 20 flight, Musk said SpaceX would be ready to launch Starship again in just six to eight weeks. 

4 月 20 日的飞行后不久，马斯克表示 SpaceX 将在短短六到八周内准备好再次发射 Starship。

It ended up taking much longer than that for the vehicle to get off the ground, of course. The FAA didn't grant a launch license until Nov. 15, after it had wrapped up an investigation into the explosion and conducted a safety review as well as an environmental assessment.

当然，最终车辆离开地面所需的时间比这要长得多。美国联邦航空局 (FAA) 直到 11 月 15 日才发放发射许可证，此前该机构已经完成了对爆炸的调查并进行了安全审查和环境评估。

It's unclear when the agency's investigation into Saturday's flight will end; it just got underway, after all. But, given the progress SpaceX made with flight two compared to flight one, it would be surprising if there's another seven-month gap between Starship liftoffs.

目前尚不清楚该机构对周六航班的调查何时结束；毕竟一切才刚刚开始。但是，考虑到 SpaceX 在第二次飞行中所取得的进展与第一次飞行相比，如果 Starship 升空之间再有七个月的差距，那将是令人惊讶的。

SpaceX certainly seems to be gearing up for an increased test-flight cadence. "There are three ships in final production in the [Starbase] high bay (as can be seen from the highway)," Musk said in the Sunday X post.

SpaceX 似乎正在为加快试飞节奏做准备。 “[Starbase]高湾区有三艘飞船正在进行最终生产（从高速公路上可以看到），”马斯克在 Sunday X 帖子中说道。