美国有线新闻 CNN 美国民企SpaceX将发射猎鹰重型火箭搭载特斯拉超跑-英语课

时间：2018-12-20 作者：英语课 分类：CNN美国有线新闻2018年3月

英语课

RACHEL CRANE, CNN TECH CORRESPONDENT: SpaceX is about to make the ground seriously crumble 1. The new rocket, the Falcon 2 Heavy, is about to launch for the first time and this thing is big. It's lifting from the historic Kennedy Center launch pad 39A, which is where Apollo 11 launched humans to the moon, and once again, the pad will be the site of space flight history.

Once Falcon Heavy has lift off, SpaceX says it will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two.

The rocket is powered by 27 engines and SpaceX says when all engines are at full throttle 3, the rocket has 5 million pounds of thrust, which is the equivalent of 18 747s. The going cost for a launch, according to the company, $90 million. But that's just a fraction of what a launch would cost with the SLS, the heavy lift rocket that the government has been working on for years.

Now, the Falcon Heavy is basically three of the company's Falcon IX rockets, which they've been launching since 2010, strapped 4 together.

Originally, the company had thought that putting together three of these tried and true rockets would be relatively 5 easy rocket science, but it turns out it was much more complicated than Elon Musk 6 and his team had anticipated, and the launch has been delayed for several years. And even though the rocket is expected to finally take flight, Musk himself acknowledges that this first test launch has a high likelihood of failure.

So, what you're launching the rocket that everybody has been waiting years for and has a good shot of just blowing up — well, if you're Musk, master of PR, you go big and you launch your own car. Yet, the rocket's payload will be Musk's own cherry red Tesla roadster and it will be playing David Bowie's "Space Oddity" on repeat.

The intended destination: Mars orbit, that is if it doesn't blow up on ascent 7. And while sending a Tesla to space might be a silly PR stunt 8, the launch is anything but. The rocket was designed from the start to ferry people to the moon and to Mars. A successful launch would put SpaceX, a giant leap forward, towards getting to deep space. Oh, and did I mention that SpaceX is hoping to land all three first stage boosters? Yes, that's also happening.

1 crumble

vi.碎裂，崩溃；vt.弄碎，摧毁

Opposition more or less crumbled away.反对势力差不多都瓦解了。
Even if the seas go dry and rocks crumble,my will will remain firm.纵然海枯石烂，意志永不动摇。

2 falcon

n.隼，猎鹰

The falcon was twice his size with pouted feathers.鹰张开羽毛比两只鹰还大。
The boys went hunting with their falcon.男孩子们带着猎鹰出去打猎了。

3 throttle

n.节流阀，节气阀，喉咙；v.扼喉咙，使窒息，压

These government restrictions are going to throttle our trade.这些政府的限制将要扼杀我们的贸易。
High tariffs throttle trade between countries.高的关税抑制了国与国之间的贸易。

4 strapped

adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带

美国有线新闻 CNN 美国民企SpaceX将发射猎鹰重型火箭 搭载特斯拉超跑

美国有线新闻 CNN 美国民企SpaceX将发射猎鹰重型火箭搭载特斯拉超跑