[0x06] Making Life Multi-planetary

Vehicle Evolution | 火箭晋级之路

FALCON 1 | 猎鹰 1

Falcon 1 is where we started out. a lot of people really only heard of SpaceX relatively recently, so they may think Falcon 9 and Dragon just instantly appeared and that's how it always was - but it wasn't.

猎鹰1是太子。许多人最近（relatively recently）才认识SpaceX，所以他们可能会认为猎鹰9和龙飞船是从石头里蹦出来的（instantly appeared）而且一直用到现在（that's how it always was）——事实并非如此。

We started off with just a few people who really didn't know how to make rockets. And the reason that I ended up being the chief engineer or chief designer, was not because I wanted to, it's because I couldn't hire anyone. Nobody good would join, I ended up being that by default.

我们一开始的时候只有几个人，而且都不懂得怎么造火箭。我之所以最后成为了总工程师和总设计师，不是因为我想做，而是我实在请不到任何人。没有一个高手愿意加盟，最后我只能硬着头皮自己上了。

And I messed up the first three launches, the first three launches failed. Fortunately the fourth launch-which was the last money that we had for Falcon 1-the fourth launch worked or that would have been it for SpaceX. But fate liked us that day
So the fourth launch worked and it's interesting - today is the ninth anniversary of that launch.

我连续搞砸了前三次发射，幸运的是第四次发射——我们剩下的最后一笔钱都投入了这次发射——成功了，否则诸君今天就看不到SpaceX了（or that would have been it for SpaceX）。但是那天命运女神终于眷顾了我们，所以第四次发射成功了。而且有趣的是，今天正好是那次发射的9周年纪念日。

I didnt realize that until I was told that just earlier today but this is a very emotional day, actually Falcon 1 was quite a small rocket. When we were doing Falcon 1 we were really trying to figure out, What is the smallest useful payload that we could get to orbit? We thought, okay, something that could launch around half a ton to low earth orbit. And that is how we sized Falcon 1, but it is really quite small compared to Falcon 9.

我一直没注意直到今天早些时候有人提醒我。无论如何今天是一个激动人心的（emotional）日子。实际上猎鹰1个头非常小。研制猎鹰1时，我们一直在想法子弄明白，可以送上轨道的最小有效负载是多少。我们想，好吧，那就发射大约半吨货物到近地低轨道吧。这正是我们给猎鹰1设计的尺寸，但相对于猎鹰9，它真是太小了。

Falcon 9 | 猎鹰 9

Falcon 9, particularly when you factor in payload, is roughly on the order of thirty times more payload than Falcon 1. And Falcon 9 has reuse of the primary booster, which is the most expensive part of the rocket. Hopefully, Falcon 9 will soon have reuse of the fairing, the big nose cone at the front. We think we can probably get to somewhere between 70 and 80 percent reusability with the Falcon 9 system.

如果你要计算载荷量（factor in payload），猎鹰9大约（be roughly on the order of）是猎鹰1载荷量的30多倍。猎鹰9还复用了一级助推器（primary booster），这块正是整个火箭最贵的部分。猎鹰9很快有望（hopefully）可以复用整流罩（fairing），也就是火箭头的大鼻子圆锥体（cone）。我想我们很可能最终能复用整个猎鹰9的70%-80%。

Falcon Heavy | 重型猎鹰

Hopefully, towards the end this year we will be launching Falcon Heavy. Falcon Heavy ended up being a much more complex program than we thought.

今年年底（towards the end of this year）我们有望发射重型猎鹰。我们构想重型猎鹰最终将升级为一个复合项目。

It sounds like Falcon Heavy should be easy because it's two Falcon 9 first stages strapped onto a center first stage as boosters. It is actually not easy. We had to redesign almost everything except the upper stage in order to take the increased loads. Falcon Heavy ended up being much more a new vehicle than we realized, so took us a lot longer to get it done, but the boosters have all now been tested and they are on their way to Cape Canaveral. And we are now beginning serious development of BFR.

人们感觉重型猎鹰的研制应该比较轻松，因为它的助推器只是两枚猎鹰9的一级火箭绑在一个中心一级火箭上作为助推器组。事实上真没这么简单，除了上层火箭，我们必须重新设计几乎所有组件以承担更大的载荷（increased loads）。重型猎鹰最终变身为一个我们未曾预料到的新型火箭（end up being much more a new vehicle than we realized），所以我们花了好一阵子才把它造出来。但是助推器已经全部通过测试，正在运往卡纳维拉尔角。我们目前正在紧锣密鼓地研制BFR。