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SpaceX eyeing 3rd week of April for Starship orbital launch, Elon Musk says
SpaceX's huge Starship vehicle could launch on its first-ever orbital test flight by the end of next week, if all goes according to plan.
SpaceX has been gearing up for the pioneering flight for months, and the prep work has accelerated recently. Last week, for example, technicians stacked the spacebound Starship, placing its Ship 24 upper-stage prototype atop its Booster 7 first stage on the orbital launch mount at Starbase, SpaceX's South Texas facility.
Such activity implies that Starship is in the home stretch, and SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly reinforced that notion via Twitter. He did so again on Monday (April 10), stressing that launch could be less than two weeks away.
"Starship launch trending towards near the end of third week of April," Musk tweeted on Monday morning(opens in new tab).
Musk didn't give a more specific date range, but he may well be targeting April 20, which is a holiday for cannabis culture. The billionaire entrepreneur likes making 4/20 references and jokes(opens in new tab), and he gave an apparent nod to the possibility of an April 20 launch in a tweet last month(opens in new tab).
SpaceX isn't entirely in control of the schedule, however: The company is still waiting on an orbital launch license from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. So you probably shouldn't book any flights to South Texas just yet.
SpaceX is developing Starship to take people and cargo to the moon, Mars and beyond. The enormous vehicle is designed to be fully reusable, a breakthrough that Musk believes will usher in a spaceflight revolution.
Starship's Super Heavy first stage is powered by 33 of SpaceX's new Raptor engines, while the upper-stage spacecraft, known as Starship, sports six Raptors. Those 33 first-stage engines will generate about 16.5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, meaning Starship will become the most powerful rocket in history when it flies successfully for the first time.
The current record is held by NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket, which produces about 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. The SLS debuted in November 2022, launching for the first time on NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission.
Starship is also the biggest rocket ever built, standing 394 feet (120 meters) tall when fully stacked. But it's going to get even bigger, Musk revealed recently.
"Ship will probably stretch by another 10m or so," he tweeted on Saturday(opens in new tab) .
注释：
stack: v
表示"堆积；堆放"，means "make into a neat pile"，如：Please stack the materials up here. 请把材料堆在这里。
prototype: n
表示" 原型"，means "first or original example of sth that has been or will be copied or developed"，如：he strange mechanical device is the prototype of modern cars. 这个奇怪的机械装置是现代汽车的原型。
atop: adv; prep
表示" 在顶上"，means "on, to, or at the top"，如：There is a seagull perched atop the mast. 有一只海鸥停歇在桅杆上。
cannabis: n
表示" [植]大麻"，如：He was booked for possession of cannabis. 他因私藏大麻而被记录在案。
usher: v; n
1. v表示"引导；引入"，means " act as an usher"，如：I will ask Mary to usher you out. 我会让玛丽把你领出去的。
2. n表示"带位员；招待员"，means "person who shows people to their seats in theatres,"，如：The usher conducted us to our seats. 领位员带我们到座位上。
Raptor: n
表示" 猛禽；肉食鸟"，means "any of numerous carnivorous birds that hunt and kill other animals"，如：They want to know how the Raptor flies. 他们想知道猛禽是如何飞行的。
liftoff: n
表示"（火箭等）发射；起飞"，如："We await your triumphant return! Goodbye!" a technician at mission control told the astronauts minutes before the liftoff. “我们期待着你们凯旋归来，再见！”在升空前总指挥如此对宇航员说道。
中文简要说明：
上星期， SpaceX南德州太空发射场(SpaceX South Texas Launch Site)将「舰24」原型宇宙飞船(Ship 24)，安装在「助推7号」(Booster 7)超大火箭上，外界都在等待何时发射。终于，SpaceX的创办人马斯克(Elon Musk)在推特上表示，星舰系统将在下周，启动轨道试验发射。目前还没确定发射日期，一般认为是在下周末进行。
太空网(Space.com)报导， 几个月以来， SpaceX一直在为这次具有里程碑意义的飞行任务做各种准备，最近，准备工作显然加速了，「助推7号」已完成33具引擎的静态引燃，没有任何问题；接下来，「舰24」覆上隔热片，这代表它会前往太空。上星期，「舰24」与「助推7号」正式合体，整个火箭系统达到122公尺高，打破了1960年代首次登月的「农神5号」(SaturnV)火箭高度纪录(农神5号为110公尺高，包括逃生火箭塔)。
马斯克在推特上仅说「4月第3周」，没有给出更具体的日期范围，但熟悉他脾气的朋友会猜测，很可能将发射日定在4月20日，这一天是「大麻文化节」，而马斯克很喜欢拿大麻当话题，以及开玩笑。 不过，火箭系统能否发射，也不是SpaceX完全能做主，目前该司仍在等待美国联邦航空管理局颁发的轨道发射许可证。
马斯克在20年前提出相当宏伟的太空梦，当时没人看好，但是他确实一步一步将其实现。「星舰系统」是由第1级的「超大火箭」( Super Heavy)与第2级的「星舰宇宙飞船」(Starship)结合而成；「超大火箭」由 33 台猛禽发动机(Raptor engine)提供动力，2级的「「星舰宇宙飞船」则配备 6 具猛禽发动机。两级火箭都能返回、降落与重复使用，达到最佳的经济性。
虽然星舰系统已是史上最大的火箭，但马斯克最近透露，这还不是最终型态，为了安装更多的载荷，还会再延伸10公尺左右。
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