SpaceX衛星運載火箭回收失敗
SpaceX announced a successful satellite launch on Sunday — but failed an attempted sea-landing of a rocket booster, missing a goal that has repeatedly eluded the grasp of the Los Angeles-based rocket company.
總部位於舊金山的火箭公司SpaceX上週日宣佈成功發射一顆衛星，但未能在海上成功回收火箭推進器，沒有完成該公司多次未能完成的目標。
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been focused on mastering the art of returning booster rockets on Earth after a launch, in the hope this will enable the company to lower costs by re-using these rockets.
艾倫氠斯科(Elon Musk)旗下的SpaceX一直關注於在火箭發射後在地球上回收火箭推進器的技術，希望能夠通過火箭再利用令該公司降低成本。
Sunday’s launch from Vandenberg Air Force base in California put a climate-change monitoring satellite, the Jason-3, in orbit around the North and South Poles. The satellite, sponsored by US and European agencies, will be used to monitor sea levels.
上週日該公司從加州凡登堡空軍基地發射火箭，成功將一枚監測氣候變化的衛星“Jason-3”送入南北極附近的軌道上。這枚衛星由歐美機構贊助，將用於監測海平面。
However the return of the booster was less successful. Images showed the rocket lying on its side on the sea dock after apparently falling over during landing. The rocket tipped over after one of its four landing legs failed to lock, said founder Elon Musk in a Tweet.
然而，火箭推進器的返回卻不那麼成功。圖像顯示，火箭在着陸過程中明顯傾倒，一側撞在海上回收平臺上。艾倫氠斯科在Tweet上發文稱，火箭是在4個着陸架中的其中一個未能鎖定後傾倒的。
Although SpaceX had its first successful landing of a reusable booster on land just last month, sea landings have proven to be more challenging. Sunday’s mishap follows two failed sea landings last year.
就在上月，SpaceX曾首次成功將一枚火箭推進器在地面着陸，但事實證明，海上着陸更具挑戰性。在上週日火箭着陸失敗前，該公司去年曾兩次海上着陸失敗。
Mastering the sea landings is important because it would give a company such as SpaceX greater flexibility in terms of where to land its rockets.
掌握海上着陸的技術很重要，因爲這將令SpaceX等公司在將火箭在何處着陸方面獲得更多靈活性。
The company has suffered bigger setbacks before this, such as when a rocket exploded in mid-air last June.
SpaceX此前曾遭受更嚴重挫折，例如，去年6月一枚火箭在空中爆炸。
SpaceX recently won a six-year cargo contract worth as much as $14bn from Nasa, along with Sierra Nevada and Orbital. SpaceX has also won a contract to help Nasa deliver astronauts to the International Space Station, along with Boeing.
SpaceX與波音(Boeing)贏得一項合約，將幫助美國國家航空航天局(NASA)將宇航員送入國際空間站(International Space Station)。
