分析Space X公司面对的最大挑战

2014-09-09 11:10:58来源：可可英语

　　All said, SpaceX is having a really good year. Overthe past several months the company has been toorbit four times (a fifth visit was scheduled for thisweek, but it was postponed). During those visits, ithas successfully placed various commercial satellitesin orbit and resupplied the International SpaceStation at NASA’s behest. The company inked newdeals with British satellite giant Inmarsat, unveiled itsnew crew-capable Dragon V2 space vehicle,successfully tested 3-D printed rocket parts during alive launch—which has the potential to reduce costs—made inroads into the lucrative national defense satellite launch market, and began testing,with some degree of success, a reusable first rocket stage that could drive down the company’slaunch costs by an order of magnitude and further solidify its role as the least expensivelaunch provider in the market.

　　所有人都觉得，Space X公司正在经历一个非常不错的年景。过去几个月来，该公司已经4次将卫星送上轨道(计划于本周进行第5次发射因故延期)。在这几次发射中，它成功将不同的商用卫星送入轨道，并按美国宇航局(NASA)的要求为国际空间站重新补给。该公司与英国卫星巨头Inmarsat公司签订了新合同，推出了全新的载人飞船龙V2号(Dragon V2)，在一次实际发射中成功测试了3D打印的火箭零部件——此举有望降低发射成本，并打入利润丰厚的国防卫星发射市场。此外，它还开始测试一款可重复使用的一级火箭，并取得了一定成功，这将显著降低公司的发射成本，并进一步巩固其作为最廉价火箭发射供应商的市场地位。

　　On Tuesday, Fortune published an article intended to cut through the hype surroundingSpaceX—in particular rumors of an astronomical $10 billion valuation—by looking at itscommercial space launch competitors and the crisis posture some have assumed as theyattempt to deal with SpaceX. Next to those competitors, which include France’s Arianespace(partially owned by Airbus), International Launch Services (a Russian-American joint ventureusing Russian launch technology), and United Launch Alliance (a Boeing-Lockheed Martin jointventure), SpaceX and its nimble, startup-like culture seem to have the upper hand.

　　上周二，《财富》杂志(Fortune)刊发了一篇文章，意在深入剖析围绕Space X公司的种种传闻——尤其是该公司犹如天文数字的100亿美元估值。这篇文章检视了该公司在商业航空发射市场的竞争对手，以及一些公司在在试图跟Space X进行交易时所表现出来的危机感。Space X对手众多，包括法国阿利安太空公司【Arianespace，空中客车公司(Airbus)持有该公司部分股份)、国际发射服务公司(InternationalLaunch Services，一家采用俄罗斯发射技术的俄美合资企业)和联c【United LaunchAlliance，波音公司(Boeing)和洛克希德马丁公司(Lockheed Martin)的合资企业)。和它们相比，Space X的初创公司文化似乎占据上风。

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