VOA慢速英语2021--美国公司寻求发展私人空间站

Blue Origin is the latest American company to announce plans to develop a private space station. The company and its partners said this week that the station, called "Orbital Reef¹," will be operated as a "mixed use business park" in space.

Blue Origin's main partner will be Sierra Space, a part of U.S.-based defense² contractor³ Sierra Nevada Corporation. The project is also backed by Boeing, Arizona State University and other companies.

In a statement, Sierra Space said Orbital Reef aims to open up new markets in space and provide individuals and companies the chance "to establish their own address on orbit."

The company aims to begin operating Orbital Reef between 2025 and 2030. The station plans to stay in low-Earth orbit, at about 500 kilometers, which is higher than the International Space Station (ISS).

The developers say Orbital Reef will support 10 people in an area of about 830 cubic meters, nearly the size of the ISS. It will serve a range of private customers. This could include science researchers, space agencies, nations without space programs and technology and manufacturing companies.

Space tourists would also be able to visit Orbital Reef. The visitors would be able to enjoy clear views of Earth and would experience 32 sunrises and sunsets each day, Blue Origin said in an online fact document.

Brent Sherwood is Senior Vice⁴ President of Advanced Development Programs for Blue Origin. He said the past development of flight vehicles and space stations by NASA and other space agencies had prepared the way for private space stations to become a reality.

Now, Orbital Reef will seek to "expand access, lower the cost, and provide all the services and amenities⁵ needed to normalize space flight," Sherwood said.

Blue Origin has already launched a space tourism service that provides rides to the edge of space aboard its rockets and spacecraft capsule. The flights permit passengers to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and observe Earth from afar.

Lindy Elkins-Tanton is Vice President of the Interplanetary Initiative⁶ at Arizona State University. She has been involved in planning Orbital Reef. In a Blue Origin video, Elkins-Tanton said she sees the project as a kind of space "village."

"Think of it as many different organizations and people in their own parts of Orbital Reef, doing their own activities," she added.

Sherwood said that the station's developers will work hard "to make sure that Orbital Reef is not just for the entities⁷ that have had access to space so far." Instead, he said it will be designed "to be humanity's footprint" in low-Earth orbit. "And that means all the nations and companies and peoples of the world."

Sierra Space has also been developing a space plane called Dream Chaser. It has been awarded a NASA contract to perform at least seven supply missions to the ISS beginning as soon as next year, the company announced in April.

Orbital Reef is one of several private space stations planned in the coming years as the future of the aging ISS is unclear. The ISS project is set to end in 2024 unless its international partners approve new financing⁸ to keep it going.

NASA officials have signaled that a continuation of the ISS beyond 2024 is likely. But NASA also holds a contract with a company called Axiom to develop a new space station that will first be attached to the ISS before becoming free-flying.

The ISS's other main supporter, Russia, has said it is considering quitting the project as early as 2025 to build its own space station. China's space agency has already deployed⁹ a new space station and sent astronauts to visit it earlier this year.

The plans for private space stations have been welcomed by NASA, which announced this year it plans to award up to $400 million in contracts for such projects.

Last week, another private space station project was announced by a group of cooperating American companies. Space services company Nanoracks said it was teaming up with Voyager Space and Lockheed Martin to develop "the first-ever free flying commercial space station." The companies say that space station, to be called "Starlab," should be operational by 2027.

Words in This Story

address – n. the details of where a building is, including the number, road name, town, etc.

customer – n. someone who buys goods or services from a business

tourist – n. a person who travels to a place for pleasure

access – n. a way of getting near, at or to something or someone

amenity¹⁰ – n. a building, piece of equipment or service that is provided for people's comfort of enjoyment¹¹

capsule – n. the part of a spacecraft that people live in

entity¹² – n. something that exists apart from other things

1 reef   

n.礁，礁石，暗礁

参考例句：

• The ship and its crew were lost on the reef.那条船及船员都触礁遇难了。
• The ship was wrecked on a coral reef.这条船在珊瑚暗礁上撞毁了。

2 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

3 contractor   

n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌

参考例句：

• The Tokyo contractor was asked to kick $ 6000 back as commission.那个东京的承包商被要求退还6000美元作为佣金。
• The style of house the contractor builds depends partly on the lay of the land.承包商所建房屋的式样，有几分要看地势而定。

4 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

5 amenities   

n.令人愉快的事物；礼仪；礼节；便利设施；礼仪( amenity的名词复数 )；便利设施；（环境等的）舒适；（性情等的）愉快

参考例句：

• The campsite is close to all local amenities. 营地紧靠当地所有的便利设施。
• Parks and a theatre are just some of the town's local amenities. 公园和戏院只是市镇娱乐设施的一部分。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 initiative   

n.主动性，首创精神，主动权（的行动），倡议

参考例句：

• He went to see the headmaster on his own initiative.他主动去看望校长。
• His employer had described him as lacking in initiative and drive.雇主说他缺乏进取心和干劲。

7 entities   

实体对像； 实体，独立存在体，实际存在物( entity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our newspaper and our printing business form separate corporate entities. 我们的报纸和印刷业形成相对独立的企业实体。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities. 北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

8 financing   

n.筹措资金

参考例句：

• The main source of our outside financing is bank loan. 我们向外筹措资金的主要渠道是银行贷款。
• They live in a symbiosis with governments that they are financing. 他们与他们服务的政府互利共存。

9 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

10 amenity   

n.pl.生活福利设施，文娱康乐场所；（不可数）愉快，适意

参考例句：

• The amenity of his manners won him many friends.他和悦的态度替他赢得很多朋友。
• Teachers' good amenity and culture have important educational value.教师良好的礼仪修养具有重要的教育价值。

11 enjoyment   

n.乐趣；享有；享用

参考例句：

• Your company adds to the enjoyment of our visit. 有您的陪同，我们这次访问更加愉快了。
• After each joke the old man cackled his enjoyment.每逢讲完一个笑话，这老人就呵呵笑着表示他的高兴。

12 entity   

n.实体，独立存在体，实际存在物

参考例句：

• The country is no longer one political entity.这个国家不再是一个统一的政治实体了。
• As a separate legal entity,the corporation must pay taxes.作为一个独立的法律实体，公司必须纳税。