美国私企飞船与空间站对接

 　　美国私企飞船与空间站对接

　　WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A commercial spacecraft, operated by U.S. space company Orbital Sciences Corp., docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday morning on its first official cargo¹ resupply mission to the orbiting lab.

　　The unmanned Cygnus spacecraft made its rendezvous² with the station at 6:08 a.m. EDT (1108 GMT) as the two flew 260 statute³ miles (about 418 km) over the Indian Ocean, northeast of Madagascar.

　　"Capture of Cygnus by the station crew!" Orbital Sciences said in its launch blog.

　　Cygnus was then guided to its berthing⁴ port on the Earth-facing port of the station's Harmony node where its installation was completed at 8:05 a.m. EDT (1305 GMT).

　　Cygnus was launched atop the Antares rocket, also built by Orbital Sciences, on Thursday from U.S. space agency NASA's launch range at the Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia.

　　The arrival capped the company's first contracted cargo delivery flight to the station. Orbital Sciences proved the capability⁵ of the Cygnus spacecraft during its demonstration⁶ mission back in September last year.

　　"Our first mission ... was flawlessly executed," David Thompson, president and chief executive officer of Orbital Sciences, said in a statement, adding "Our whole team has performed at a very high level for our NASA customer."

　　Under a 1.9-billion-U.S. dollar Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA, Orbital Sciences will fly at least eight cargo missions to the station, including the mission currently underway, through 2016.

　　For its first official commercial resupply mission, the spacecraft is carrying 2,780 pounds (1,260 kg) of supplies to the station, including food, spare part and science experiments.

　　Orbital Sciences said the station crew will open the Cygnus hatch either later Sunday or Monday and begin unloading cargo over the coming days.

　　Cygnus will remain at the station until mid-February when it will be unberthed from the station for a destructive re-entry over the Pacific Ocean. That departure will clear the way for the arrival of California-based SpaceX's third commercial cargo mission aboard the Dragon spacecraft, NASA said.

　　These two back-to-back resupply missions by U.S. companies " will mark a milestone⁷ in NASA's ability to deliver critical new science payloads to the only laboratory in space," the U.S. space agency added.

1 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

2 rendezvous   

n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇

参考例句：

• She made the rendezvous with only minutes to spare.她还差几分钟时才来赴约。
• I have a rendezvous with Peter at a restaurant on the harbour.我和彼得在海港的一个餐馆有个约会。

3 statute   

n.成文法，法令，法规；章程，规则，条例

参考例句：

• Protection for the consumer is laid down by statute.保障消费者利益已在法令里作了规定。
• The next section will consider this environmental statute in detail.下一部分将详细论述环境法令的问题。

4 berthing   

v.停泊( berth的现在分词 )；占铺位；边板

参考例句：

• He was berthing below with the refugees. 他和难民们一起呆在下面的铺位上。 来自辞典例句
• The berthing velocity, angle and maxi-mal displacement of wharf are monitored. 测试了船舶靠泊时的靠泊速度和角度以及码头的最大位移。 来自互联网

5 capability   

n.能力；才能；(pl)可发展的能力或特性等

参考例句：

• She has the capability to become a very fine actress.她有潜力成为杰出演员。
• Organizing a whole department is beyond his capability.组织整个部门是他能力以外的事。

6 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

7 milestone   

n.里程碑；划时代的事件

参考例句：

• The film proved to be a milestone in the history of cinema.事实证明这部影片是电影史上的一个里程碑。
• I think this is a very important milestone in the relations between our two countries.我认为这是我们两国关系中一个十分重要的里程碑。