According to NASA, Starship‘s third flight test will feature a major demonstration needed for the overall success of landing humans on the Moon with the Artemis program. In a meeting, slides showed Starship Flight 3 being the first mission to demonstrate in-orbit propellent transfer. However, the schedule is still up in the air.

据美国宇航局称，星舰的第三次飞行测试将进行一次重大演示，以确保通过阿耳忒弥斯计划将人类成功登陆月球。在一次会议上，幻灯片显示 Starship Flight 3 是第一个演示在轨推进剂转移的任务。然而，时间表仍然悬而未决。

Starship Flight 3 could be big for Artemis

In a meeting on Monday, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which is conducting a study of NASA’s critical workforce, infrastructure, and technology, met with several NASA officials to go over the agency’s Moon to Mars program, including Artemis.

星舰 3 号航班对阿耳忒弥斯来说意义重大 在周一的一次会议上，美国国家科学、工程和医学院正在对 NASA 的关键劳动力、基础设施和技术进行研究，会见了几位 NASA 官员，讨论了该机构的月球任务火星计划，包括阿尔忒弥斯。

Lakiesha Hawkins, NASA’s Deputy Assistant Associate Administrator for the agency’s Moon to Mars program, gave an update across all of the in-space hardware it is developing. This ranged from the xEVA suits by Axiom and Collins, to Gateway, Orion, and the Human Landing System.

美国宇航局负责月球到火星计划的副助理副局长拉基莎·霍金斯介绍了其正在开发的所有太空硬件的最新情况。其中包括 Axiom 和 Collins 的 xEVA 套装、Gateway、Orion 和人类着陆系统。

The update shared brief updates for where each HLS providers are in their development of their respective landers. For Blue Origin, who just recent received their contract, the company has already delivered its mock up to the agency. For SpaceX it looks like the company will complete the first tank-to-tank transfer of cryogenic propellent in orbit on Flight 3.

该更新分享了每个 HLS 提供商在各自着陆器开发中的最新进展。对于最近刚刚收到合同的蓝色起源来说，该公司已经向该机构交付了模型。对于 SpaceX 来说，该公司似乎将在 Flight 3 上完成首次在轨低温推进剂的罐对罐转移。

While Russia regularly refuels the ISS with hypergolic propellents, these can be stored at pretty much any temperatures for months or years on end. Cryogenic propellents, which are much more efficient, usually can’t last for more than a few hours in space before they boil off.

虽然俄罗斯定期使用自燃推进剂为国际空间站补充燃料，但这些推进剂几乎可以在任何温度下储存数月或数年。低温推进剂的效率要高得多，但通常在太空中只能维持几个小时才会沸腾。

For both of NASA’s HLS landers, they will need to develop technologies to extend the lifespan of their propellents, SpaceX with methane and oxygen and Blue Origin with hydrogen and oxygen, as well as transferring it between spacecraft in orbit.

对于 NASA 的 HLS 着陆器，他们需要开发技术来延长其推进剂的使用寿命，SpaceX 使用甲烷和氧气，蓝色起源则使用氢气和氧气，以及在轨道上的航天器之间传输推进剂。

While Starship Flight 3 won’t feature any vehicle-to-vehicle refueling, it will begin the journey to that with a tank-to-tank transfer of liquid oxygen. How we expect this to happen is once in its coast phase, SpaceX will move 10 metric tons of propellent from the Starship upper stage’s main tank to its header tank located at the nose of the vehicle.

虽然 Starship Flight 3 不具备任何车辆间加油功能，但它将通过罐间液氧转移开始这一旅程。我们预计，一旦进入海岸阶段，SpaceX 将把 10 吨推进剂从 Starship 上级的主油箱转移到位于飞行器前端的主油箱。

While small compared to the 15 or so tanker spacecraft needed to refuel an entire Starship HLS lander, this test is a big step forward in developing a required technology for NASA’s Artemis 3 landing. Without it, there is no chance of completing any landings in the agency’s timelines.

虽然与为整个 Starship HLS 着陆器加油所需的 15 艘左右加油飞船相比，这次测试规模较小，但在开发 NASA Artemis 3 着陆所需技术方面迈出了一大步。如果没有它，就没有机会在该机构的时间表内完成任何着陆。

The timeline however is still fluid

Just like the propellents that have to be stored at hundreds of degrees below zero, Starship’s third flight schedule is very fluid.

然而，时间线仍然不稳定，就像推进剂必须在零下数百度的温度下储存一样，星舰的第三次飞行时间表也非常不稳定。

Elon Musk has said that it wants hardware ready to fly sometime this month, however we haven’t seen any stages begin testing at the launch site just yet. Work though is moving forward on a lot of the final V1 Starship upper stages in Starbase’s high bay. The company is also working through refurbishment work at the launch site after November’s flight.

埃隆·马斯克表示，希望硬件在本月某个时候准备好飞行，但我们还没有看到任何阶段在发射场开始测试。不过，位于 Starbase 高湾的最后 V1 星舰上层的大部分工作正在取得进展。 11 月飞行后，该公司还在发射场进行翻新工作。

SpaceX will have to wait once again for the FAA to close out its mishap investigation into Starship’s second flight before moving forward with a third. A NASA spokesperson has shared with the media that the tank-to-tank test is only a possibility, and could be pushed to a later flight.

SpaceX 将不得不再次等待美国联邦航空局结束对 Starship 第二次飞行的事故调查，然后才能进行第三次飞行。美国宇航局发言人向媒体表示，坦克间测试只是一种可能性，可能会推迟到稍后的飞行。

Right now, SpaceX’s primary mission is to get Starship through its flight profile, which ends with a splash down off the coast of Hawaii. Flight 2 saw major improvements and met the company’s milestones of a clean stage separation and improved reliability of the Raptor engines in flight. But both stages still exploded shortly after showing those improvements.

目前，SpaceX 的主要任务是让 Starship 完成其飞行剖面，最终在夏威夷海岸溅落。 Flight 2 取得了重大改进，并达到了公司的里程碑，即干净的级分离和飞行中猛禽发动机可靠性的提高。但在展示这些改进后不久，这两个阶段仍然出现爆炸式增长。

While there is plenty of forward movement on Starship’s development, NASA has the goal to land astronauts on the Moon’s surface with Artemis 3 in 2026. A date that is unlikely to be met due to several programs being behind schedule, including Starship.

虽然 Starship 的开发取得了很多进展，但 NASA 的目标是在 2026 年利用 Artemis 3 将宇航员送上月球表面。由于包括 Starship 在内的多个项目都落后于计划，这一日期不太可能实现。