时间:2018-12-16 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2014年(十一月)


英语课

 


Virgin 1 Spaceship Crash Raises Questions 维珍宇宙飞船失事引发诸多问题


WASHINGTON— 


Plans to fly tourists to the edge of space could be delayed after Friday's crash of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo during a manned test flight.  It is the second explosion of a U.S. commercial spacecraft this week. The two disasters raise questions about the future of commercial space flights in the United States.


Television footage taken from a helicopter shows the wreckage 2 of the spacecraft scattered 3 in California's Mojave Desert.  Local authorities say the co-pilot was killed, while the pilot ejected and was hospitalized with serious injuries.


"This was a pure test.  This was not a public event.  So I will tell you from my eyes and my ears, I detected nothing that appeared abnormal.  I was briefed that the plume 4 would look different this time than it had in the past.  And it did," said Stuart Witt, chief executive of the Mojave Air and Space Port.


Virgin Galactic said the vehicle's first manned test experienced "a serious anomaly."  The company's owner, British billionaire Richard Branson, was hoping to start space tourist travel within the next few months.


"I can say that Richard Branson is on his way.  He's flying now to Mojave.  And we expect he'll be here by tomorrow morning.  Space is hard, and today was a tough day," said George Whitesides, chief executive of Virgin Galactic.


SpaceShipTwo was launched by carrier aircraft WhiteKnightTwo Friday morning from a location in the desert.  Soon after it separated from the carrier, it crashed to the ground.  


Some 800 people have reserved seats to fly into sub-orbit.


Meanwhile, officials of Orbital Sciences Corporation are investigating what caused the failure of their cargo 5 spacecraft on Tuesday on Wallops Island,Virginia.  Under a $1.9 billion contract with NASA, the company's Cygnus spacecraft, powered by an Antares rocket, was carrying more than two tons of water, food and equipment to the International Space Station.  All of it was lost in the crash.


Orbital's two earlier space flights for NASA were successful and the space flight industry refuses to let adversities stop its progress.


“It’s a setback 6, a short-term setback, but Orbital - they have still four more launches to go to the International Space Station and we anticipate those to be a huge success," said Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation 7.


It is clear, though, that Orbital Corporation will suffer financial losses.  In addition to losing a spacecraft, the company's only launch pad in Virginia has been damaged.


NASA has a contract with another private firm, California-based Space X Corporation, whose vehicle is scheduled to send cargo to the space station in December.



1 virgin
n.处女,未婚女子;adj.未经使用的;未经开发的
  • Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗?
  • There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。
2 wreckage
n.(失事飞机等的)残骸,破坏,毁坏
  • They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
  • New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。
3 scattered
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的
  • Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来,塞进文件夹里。
4 plume
n.羽毛;v.整理羽毛,骚首弄姿,用羽毛装饰
  • Her hat was adorned with a plume.她帽子上饰着羽毛。
  • He does not plume himself on these achievements.他并不因这些成就而自夸。
5 cargo
n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物
  • The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
  • A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。
6 setback
n.退步,挫折,挫败
  • Since that time there has never been any setback in his career.从那时起他在事业上一直没有遇到周折。
  • She views every minor setback as a disaster.她把每个较小的挫折都看成重大灾难。
7 federation
n.同盟,联邦,联合,联盟,联合会
  • It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
  • Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。
学英语单词
-teenth
angular motion
appointment-only
ash-greys
autocratic leader
automatic data processing systems
Ban Nong Yang
Bandwidth-on-demand
bare the metal
basilar membranae
bonnett
catalogable permanent file
cheek retractor
chloroethylaminoanthraquinones
classical-styles
closure of simplex
collective body
community residents
copius
coraebus aesopus
crummy
cystomyxoma
dispension
disproportionateness
distrbuted processing
electro-gas arc welding
excitaton source
exhibition expenditures
false myxoma
fear-stricken
fibre grease
firiming agent
fix things up
fluidized layer
forage for
fund levy
go on an outing
graphic kernel system
gravity spectrum
gravity tectonics
green cormorant
guilt-trip
heliocentric declination
heterodyne interference
high speed steel end mill
Igo
in one piece nozzle
income-expenditures
interpretation of dreams
island-dwellers
Knelston
laid lower
lead crown glass
Leo III
linen fiber
load up on sth
lyme-hound
make gains
manufacturer's rep
mechano-chemical system
medical diagnostic radiation
metallographs
Middleton Stoney
missel-bird
Mogogelo
noas
note to the accounts
number identification
off-colo(u)r product
oystered
pal(a)eohydrology
Palespotted
pasta rocket
pasteur pipet
permineralised
planetary landing
plant room
plumbaginaceous
pulsed lasers
re-taining part of the extra profit
reed sweep
Resia
ring-a-ring
screen scarifier
sewerage of separate system
site autonomy
taint-hook
take springs out from
testing of soil
tetrazoles
think no small bear of
Tolbukhinski Okrǔg
toona sureni(bl.)merr.
total color blindness
Tristars
wages fund
wooden bridge
written calculation
yeast-liked
zero-zero gel
zhishi xiebai guizhi decoction