（第９回）巨大ロケットの打ち上げにむけて準備中

Test of Big Space Rocket Set for Late 2012
巨大ロケットの打ち上げにむけて準備中

こんにちは。
今日の話題は、民間会社が打ち上げを準備している巨大ロケットについてです。
2012年の発射に向けて準備が進んでいるようです。

それでは、単語から
[Words]
satellite 人工衛星
spacecraft 宇宙船
metric ton 通常のトン（他に英トン、米トンがある）
orbit 軌道
luggage 荷物
humongous とてつもなく大きい
payload 最大積載量
capability 能力
astronaut 宇宙飛行士
robotic lander 遠隔操作の着陸調査船
propellant 推進剤
cargo 貨物


それでは、放送を聞いてみましょう。

[Sound - Web]
http://www.voanews.com/templates/mediaDisplay.html?mediaPath=http://www.voanews.com/MediaAssets2/learningenglish/dalet/se-tech-falcon-heavy-11apr11.Mp3&mediaContentID=119564549

[Sound - MP3]
http://www.voanews.com/MediaAssets2/learningenglish/dalet/se-tech-falcon-heavy-11apr11.Mp3

[Transcript]
This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.

An American space company says a powerful new rocket should be ready for
a test launch by the end of next year. The company is Space Exploration
Technologies, or SpaceX. Its new rocket is called the Falcon Heavy.

Company officials say it will be able to transport satellites or
spacecraft weighing up to fifty-three metric tons into orbit.
Fifty-three metric tons is one hundred seventeen thousand pounds. That
load weight is double the capacity of NASA space shuttles. The space
agency is retiring its shuttles after thirty years.

Elon Musk is the chief executive officer of SpaceX.

ELON MUSK: "One hundred seventeen thousand pounds is more than a fully
loaded Boeing 737 with one hundred thirty-six passengers, luggage and
fuel in orbit. So that is really, really humongous. It's more payload
capability than any vehicle in history, apart from the Saturn Five."

NASA used Saturn Five rockets during its Apollo and Skylab programs in
the nineteen sixties and seventies. A Saturn Five launched the Apollo 11
mission that landed the first humans on the moon in nineteen sixty-nine.

The rockets were removed from service in nineteen seventy-three. But
they remain the most powerful ever built.

Elon Musk says the Falcon Heavy will be the second most powerful rocket
ever. He says it was designed to do more than carry satellites and other
equipment into space. He says the rocket was designed to meet NASA's
ratings for human flight safety. So it could someday be used to carry
astronauts and other travelers into space.

Mr. Musk says the Falcon Heavy could also be used for missions like
carrying a robotic lander to collect samples from Mars.

ELON MUSK: "It has so much capability, so much more capability than any
other vehicle, that I think we can start to contemplate missions like a
Mars sample return, which requires a tremendous amount of lift

capability because you've got to send a lander to Mars that still has
enough propellant to return to Earth."

The first launch is planned from the company's launch site at Vandenberg
Air Force Base in California. A launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, is
expected in late twenty-thirteen or fourteen.

In time, SpaceX hopes to launch ten Falcon Heavy rockets a year. It says
the rocket should reduce launch costs to about two thousand dollars a
kilogram. That is about one-tenth the cost of carrying loads into orbit
on a space shuttle.

SpaceX already has a billion-and-a-half-dollar deal with NASA to use a
smaller rocket to transport cargo to the International Space Station.
The rocket is the Falcon 9, and the deal is for after the two last
shuttles -- Endeavour and Atlantis -- are retired this year.

And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, written by June
Simms and Jessica Berman. I'm Steve Ember.


どうでしたか。
それでは、記事に関しての質問です。
(Q.1) これまでで一番強力なロケットはなんですか。
(Q.2) イロン・マスクさんは安全性について何と言っていますか。
(Q.3) 会社は、年に何台のロケットを打ち上げたいと考えていますか。

(A.1) サターン５が今までで一番強力なロケットです。
(A.2) 彼はNASAの安全性基準に合うようにロケットを設計していると述べていま
す。
(A.3) 会社は、年に１０台のファルコン・ヘビーを打ち上げたいとしています。


(Q.1) What is the most powerful rocket ever?
(Q.2) What does Elon Musk say about safty?
(Q.3) How many rockets a year does the company hope to launch?

(A.1) Saturn Five is the most powerful rocket.
(A.2) He says the rocket was designed to meet NASA's ratings for human
flight safety.
(A.3) The company hopes to launch ten Falcon Heavy rockets a year.

いかがでしたでしょうか。
巨大ロケットによって、宇宙旅行の経費がぐんと安くなって、一般の人でも宇宙
にいける日が来るのでしょうか。私たちの孫の世代には宇宙旅行が当たり前になっ
ているかもしれませんね。

それでは。
また次回。
See you next time.