維珍事故後 中國富人太空遊熱情未減

The deadly crash of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo in California may be raising concerns in the United States over the safety of space tourism, but so far it does not seem to have dampened the enthusiasm of would-be astronauts in China.

上週五維珍銀河(Virgin Galactic)太空船二號(SpaceShipTwo)在加利福尼亞墜毀。這次致死事故或許正在美國各地引發人們對太空旅遊的安全擔憂。然而在中國，對於那些未來的宇航員來說，這似乎迄今爲止還沒有打消他們的熱情。

“Even if my body doesn’t work, my mind will always be determined to go into space,” said Sheng Tianxing, a 41-year-old tea trader from the southeastern province of Zhejiang. In June, he put down $100,000 to reserve a seat on a rocket that promises to carry him into space for about six minutes in 2016.

“就算我的身體吃不消了，我的大腦一定還是想上太空的，”41歲來自中國東南省份浙江的茶商盛天行說。今年6月，盛天行花10萬美元爲自己定下了一個座，將在2016年搭乘太空飛船，在100公里以上的太空停留約6分鐘。

“I haven’t thought about the money issue at all. Anything can go wrong. If you worry about this, you’ll just have too many things to worry about,” said Mr. Sheng, who had just returned from a holiday in France.

“我還根本沒有考慮錢的問題。如果你擔心這個，那你就擔心不完了，”剛剛從法國度假回國的盛天行說。

Dexo Travel, a Beijing-based sales agent that sells space trips operated by XCOR Aerospace, Virgin Galactic’s only competitor in offering civilian suborbital space journeys, said that none of its clients had called to cancel a space flight since the crash last Friday, which killed one pilot and seriously injured another.

爲XCOR Aerospace公司代理中國地區太空遊票務的探索旅行公司稱，上週五墜毀事故發生，導致一死一重傷，至今還沒有一位客戶打電話要求退票。XCOR Aerospace和維珍銀河是目前世界上僅有的兩家提供亞軌道平民太空遊的公司。

Wang Luye, a travel agent at Dexo, said the company was continuing to receive inquiries about flights “as if nothing happened.”

探索旅行公司的代理王陸葉說，公司還是每天會接到電話諮詢太空遊，“就好像什麼事都沒發生過”。

(Virgin Galactic is barred by United States regulations from selling tickets to citizens of China and 21 other countries because its spacecraft are powered by rocket engines manufactured in the United States, using technology considered to have potential military applications.)

（根據美國相關法規，維珍銀河不得向包括中國在內的22個國家的公民售票。原因是維珍銀河的太空飛船使用了在美國生產的火箭發動機，而這種發動機使用的技術可能用於軍事。）

XCOR has sold 34 tickets for commercially operated space flights in China since it began offering them in the country late last year. That represents about one-tenth of all the bookings the company has received since it started taking orders in 2011. XCOR’s first flight carrying space tourists is expected to take off in late 2015.

自從去年底開始在中國售票，XCOR的商業太空遊已售出了34張票。對於從2011年開始售票的XCOR公司來說，這大概佔了它預定總量的十分之一。按照計劃，XCOR第一艘搭載遊客的太空飛船將於2015年年底起飛。

Zhang Yong, chief executive of Dexo Travel, has predicted that China, with its growing wealth, is set to become the largest market for space tourism.

探索旅行公司的總裁張勇預計，隨着財富的增加，中國在未來將成爲全球最大的太空遊市場。

Zhang Xiaoyu, a 29-year-old entrepreneur in Beijing who has booked a space flight for next year, said he compared the trips offered by Virgin Galactic and XCOR before he signed the contract, and was confident of the safety of the vehicle that will carry him aloft.

北京29歲的創業者張瀟雨已經預定了明年飛太空的船票，他說他在簽訂合同之前就比較過維珍銀河的太空遊和XCOR的太空遊，他相信飛船的安全性。

“They use different technologies,” said Mr. Zhang, whose dream is to see Earth from space by the time he is 30.

“兩家公司用的技術完全不同，”張瀟雨說。他的夢想是能在30歲的時候從太空回望地球。

XCOR’s chief executive, Jeff Greason, said in a statement Monday that XCOR’s Lynx is “a very different vehicle” from the SpaceShipTwo that crashed. He promised, though, that XCOR would continue to test and retest the vehicle and its systems.

XCOR首席執行官傑夫·格里森(Jeff Greason)在週一的一份聲明中表示，XCOR的“山貓(Lynx)”號太空飛船與墜毀的太空船二號是“非常不同的飛船”。但他承諾，XCOR將繼續對飛船及其系統進行測試、再測試。

In comments on social media, some Chinese reacted to the Virgin Galactic crash as an occasion to complain about the company’s exclusion of Chinese citizens from space flights and to praise China’s own accomplishments.

在社交媒體上，一些中國人在談及維珍銀河飛船的墜毀時，藉機抱怨這家公司拒絕爲中國公民提供太空遊，同時讚美中國在航天領域的成就。

A commenter using the name Hanhaihuangsha wrote on the microblog site Sina Weibo: “The company allows anyone who pays to board its spaceship, except for Chinese.”

在新浪微博上，一位名叫“瀚海黃沙”的用戶寫道，“這間公司前不久宣佈，除中國人以外，全世界人民都可以買票上太空玩。”

Wangkang16 wrote: “China has the most reliable space technology, which is achieved by a huge amount of money.”

王康16寫道，“中國太空技術全球最可靠，可能真是錢燒出來的。”

Meanwhile, some Chinese are intent on developing a homegrown space program for civilian use, including tourism.

與此同時，一些中國人開始一心研發本土的民用太空項目，包括太空旅遊。

“No matter how China is progressing in space, I have always had a personal interest in it,” said Hu Zhenyu, 21, a recent graduate of South China University of Technology in Guangzhou.

“不管國家在航天領域發展如何，我自己一直都是很感興趣，”今年畢業於廣州華南理工大學的胡振宇說。

Earlier this year, Mr. Hu registered China’s first private rocket company, Link Space. His immediate plan is to develop rockets for scientific research, and he hopes to launch an unmanned rocket within a year. In the long term, he said, he hopes to have the technology to carry tourists into space.

今年年初，胡振宇註冊成立了中國第一家航天系統產品研發製造的私營公司翎客航天。他近期的目標是開發用於科研的火箭，計劃能在一年內發射無人火箭。他表示，從長遠來說希望能開發出送遊客遨遊太空的技術。

Fu Song, a professor at the School of Aerospace Engineering at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said that recent successes in China’s government space program had kindled interest in the wider possibilities of space travel.

清華大學航天航空學院教授符鬆表示，中國政府近年來在航天領域屢屢成功，引發了人們對飛太空的更大信心和興趣。

“When Armstrong walked on the moon, it was a first for mankind,” Mr. Fu said. “Now everyone knows you can go to space. It’s just a question of whether you want to go.”

“阿姆斯特朗登月是人類的第一次，”符鬆說，“現在大家都知道你可以飛太空，只是願不願意去的問題。”