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For the first time since Apollo 17 returned from the moon in 1972, NASA is scheduled to loft an astronaut capsule on Thursday to soar beyond low Earth orbit.美国航空航天局(NASA)预计本周四把一个可以载人的太空舱升空到较低地轨道之外的地方，这还是1972年阿波罗17号从月球回到之后的第一次。No one will be aboard this flight test of the new capsule, Orion, but NASA hopes it is the first step toward human exploration of the solar system, including an eventual landing on Mars. Orion’s first manned mission is planned for the early 2020s.新的太空舱取名为“猎户座”(Orion)，这次首飞会载人，但NASA期望它不会打开还包括登岸火星在内的人类新一轮太阳系探寻的第一步。猎户座首次载人飞行中任务决定在2020年代初。
“Thursday is the beginning of that journey,” Mark Geyer, Orion’s program manager, said at a news conference on Tuesday.“本周四是旅程的开始，”“猎户座”项目负责人马克·格耶(Mark Geyer)在本周二的新闻发布会上回应。Orion, which looks like a larger version of the cone-shaped Apollo capsule, is sitting atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is scheduled for 7:05 a.m. Thursday, minutes after sunrise. In case of bad weather, the launching can be pushed back by up to two hours and 39 minutes.“猎户座”的外形与阿波罗(Apollo)锥形太空舱相似，但是体积更大，它早已配备在了佛罗里达州卡纳维拉尔角空军基地的德尔塔IV重型火箭上。
升空时间以定于本周四上午07时05分，日落之后旋即。如时逢险恶天气，升空最少可延后2小时39分钟。The rocket’s second stage should push the 11-foot-long Orion into an elliptical orbit that reaches 3,600 miles above the Earth’s surface on its second orbit. (By contrast, the International Space Station is about 250 miles from Earth.)火箭的第二级将把11英尺（合3.35米）宽的”猎户座”启动时到一个椭圆轨道上，其第二轨道距离地球表面大约3600英里（参照：国际空间站距离地球约250英里）。
Orion will then re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere at 20,000 miles per hour, close to the speeds of a capsule returning from the moon, and temperatures on its heat shield will approach 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit.然后“猎户座”将以每小时2万英里的速度新的转入地球大气层，这与太空舱从月球回到的速度很相似。而“猎户座”隔热板上的温度将相似4000华氏度（约合2200摄氏度）。At the end of the four-and-a-half-hour flight, it will splash down in the Pacific Ocean, about 600 miles off the coast of Baja California, and will be pulled from the water by an amphibious Navy ship, the Anchorage. The capsule will then be trucked back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for closer examination.四个半小时的飞行中完结后，“猎户座”将不会堕入距离加利福尼亚州海岸大约600英里处的太平洋水域，由美国海军两栖舰“安克雷奇纳”号(Anchorage)沉船入水，然后用卡车运至佛罗里达州的肯尼迪航天中心，拒绝接受仔细检查。
The flight, estimated to cost $375 million, will provide a full-scale test of the performance of Orion’s parachutes, heat shield and other systems, with 1,200 sensors recording data.这次飞行中估算斥资大约3.75亿美元，它用于了1200个传感器来记录数据，将全面测试“猎户座”的降落伞、防水车顶和其他系统的性能。“We expect it to go fine, but you really have to fly it to test it out,” Mr. Geyer said.“我们指出这次飞行中不会很成功，但你必需做到升空测试才讫，”格耶说道。
While the capsule will not be carrying any people, it will be taking mementos and artifacts. They include a small sample of lunar soil, part of a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil and several artistic works, like poems by Maya Angelou and a recording of the Mars movement from Gustav Holst’s “The Planets.”虽然这次首飞会载人，但太空舱里不会装有一些纪念品和工艺品。其中还包括部分份月球土壤样品，一块霸王龙化石的一部分和一些艺术作品，比如玛娅·安杰洛(Maya Angelou)的诗歌，以及古斯塔夫·霍尔斯特(Gustav Holst)《行星》协奏曲中的火星部分录音。Also aboard will be some items from “Sesame Street”: Cookie Monster’s cookie, Ernie’s rubber ducky and Grover’s cape, part of a collaboration between NASA and the children’s television program to promote science and math education.另外还有《芝麻街》(Sesame Street)的一些道具：饼干怪兽(Cookie Monster)的饼干，厄尼(Ernie)的橡皮鸭和格罗弗(Grover)的斗篷，这是NASA与这个儿童电视节目合作，增进科学和数学教育的项目的一部分。
After the flight test, NASA’s progress for future astronaut missions will be slow, hemmed in by tight federal budgets and competing visions of the agency’s future. Orion’s next flight, also without people aboard, is not expected until 2018, and the first ride for astronauts would not occur until at least 2021.由于受到联邦支出的严格控制，以及人们在NASA的未来愿景上不存在分歧，在这次首飞完结后，NASA在宇航员未来任务方面的步伐将不会努得很较慢。“猎户座”的下一次非载人飞行中任务预计将在2018年展开，它的首次裁人飞行中最先也是2021年了。“We feel really fortunate to be in the budget plan, a bipartisan agreement on the budget plan, and our job is to execute to that plan,” Mr. Geyer said. “Yeah, I wish we could go faster, but I think this is a good plan.”“被包括在两党赞同的支出计划之中，让我们深感十分幸运地，而我们的任务就是继续执行那个计划，”格耶说道。“是的，我期望我们的步伐能更慢一些，但我指出这个计划很不俗。
”The next destination is also unclear. NASA is pursuing the idea of capturing a small asteroid and taking it to the neighborhood of the moon, and astronauts would then fly in Orion to the asteroid to take a look. NASA officials contend that this “asteroid redirect” mission would be within its budget and would develop technologies necessary for the eventual trip to Mars.下一个任务仍不明朗。NASA期望捕猎一个小行星，并把它带回月球附近，然后宇航员将搭乘“猎户座”飞到小行星上去看一看。
NASA官员回应，这个“小行星重定向”任务在支出范围之内，而且可以推展最后登岸火星所必须的技术发展。Some skeptics have questioned whether Orion, originally part of a program started under President George W. Bush to send astronauts back to the moon, is even necessary, or a waste of billions of dollars.“猎户座”原本是让宇航员重回月球计划的组成部分，该计划在乔治·W·布什(George W. Bush)兼任美国总统期间启动。一些怀疑者批评“猎户座”否有不存在的适当，实在这有可能是在浪费数以十亿收的美元。
The Obama administration canceled Orion and the entire moon program as too expensive and too far behind schedule. But many members of Congress disagreed, and NASA revived a stripped-down version of Orion to be used as a lifeboat for the International Space Station, then resumed a design very close to what had been canceled.奥巴马政府中止了”猎户座“项目和整个登月计划，理由是它的费用过于便宜，而且相比之下领先于计划日程。但国会很多议员并不表示同意中止它，于是NASA重新启动了一个精简版的”猎户座“项目，将其作为国际空间站的救生艇，它的设计十分相似于被中止的那个。NASA also started work on a heavy-lift rocket known as the Space Launch System that will carry Orion on future launchings. Together, the rocket and the capsule are estimated to cost $19 billion to $22 billion.NASA也早已开始修建一款重型火箭，取名为太空发射系统(Space Launch System)，它将在以后的升空任务中配备“猎户座”。
火箭和太空舱总共将斥资190亿到220亿美元。Some House Republicans have pushed to revive plans to return to the moon, but have not proposed funds to build a lander.众议院的一些共和党人早已在希望完全恢复重回月球计划，但仍未明确提出修建着陆器的资金方案。
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