2026年3月10日 17:01 UTC / 路透社
作者：乔伊·鲁莱特
- 节点运行失败
SpaceX logo is seen in this illustration taken, March 10, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
- 摘要
- 公司
- 美国国家航空航天局（NASA）监督机构预计SpaceX星舰开发将进一步延误
- 星舰太空加油是登月前的重大挑战
- NASA仍在研究加快登月舱开发的计划
华盛顿，3月10日（路透社） – 美国国家航空航天局（NASA）监察长周二表示，自2021年NASA选定SpaceX的星舰作为载人登月舱以来，该火箭已累计出现至少两年的开发延误，在实现登月前仍需更多时间克服剩余障碍。与此同时，NASA正在研究加快该项目进展的计划。
NASA正与多家公司合作推进其耗资数十亿美元的阿尔忒弥斯计划，目的是重启常规载人登月任务，并力争在中国于2030年左右将航天员送上月球表面之前完成任务。
不过，作为该计划首个将NASA航天员送抵月球表面的登月舱，SpaceX星舰开发的延误正逐步推迟原定于2024年的登月目标——尽管当时的官员对2024年的目标持怀疑态度。
监察长在周二的报告中指出，星舰要成为载人登月舱，最具挑战性的步骤之一是火箭必须在前往月球的途中在太空中进行自我加油。这一既危险又精细的过程从未在如此规模上尝试过。
为了让一艘星舰将航天员送上月球，SpaceX首先需要向地球轨道发射11艘以上的星舰作为加油加油机。其中一艘将作为推进剂储存站，需要10艘以上的星舰为其加注足够的燃料，然后再转移至登月星舰。
星舰高度超过15层楼，由约1200吨液态甲烷和液态氧燃料驱动，这两种高度易燃易爆的推进剂必须保持在低温环境下（即低于-238°F/-150°C）。
在近地轨道——这一空间区域政治和商业价值极高、卫星交通日益密集——将星舰对接并小心地进行至少10次超低温推进剂转移，对一家已将轨道火箭着陆和向国际空间站运送航天员常态化的公司而言，仍是最具风险的挑战之一。
NASA官员正在监督SpaceX的星舰开发
Delays with SpaceX’s Starship risk NASA moon landing timeline, watchdog says
March 10, 2026 5:01 PM UTC / Reuters
By Joey Roulette
节点运行失败
SpaceX logo is seen in this illustration taken, March 10, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
- Summary
- Companies
- NASA watchdog expects more delays in SpaceX’s Starship development
- Starship in-space refueling a major challenge before moon landing
- NASA still studying plans to speed up moon lander development
WASHINGTON, March 10 (Reuters) – SpaceX’s Starship has accumulated at least two years of development delays since NASA picked the rocket as an astronaut moon lander in 2021, and is expected to require more time to clear remaining hurdles before landing on the moon, NASA’s inspector general said Tuesday as the agency studies plans to speed up the program.
NASA has been working with an array of companies, most prominently Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, in its multibillion-dollar Artemis program to kickstart routine astronaut missions to the moon, pressed to do so before China sends its own crews to the lunar surface by around 2030.
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But mounting delays in SpaceX’s development of Starship, tapped as the program’s first lander to deliver NASA astronauts to the lunar surface, have gradually pushed back what was originally a 2024 target moon landing – though officials at the time treated 2024 with skepticism.
Among the most challenging steps in Starship’s path to become an astronaut-rated lunar lander, the inspector general said in its Tuesday report, is the rocket’s requirement to refuel itself in space before journeying the rest of the way to the moon, a risky and delicate process that has never been attempted at such a scale.
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For one Starship to land a crew of astronauts on the moon, SpaceX will first need to launch over 11 other Starships into Earth’s orbit that will act as refueling tankers. One of those Starships will be a propellant storage depot requiring more than 10 Starships to fill with enough fuel that will be transferred to the moon-landing Starship.
Taller than a 15-story building, Starship is fueled by roughly 1,200 metric tons of liquid methane and liquid oxygen, two highly explosive propellants that must be kept at cryogenic temperatures, or temperatures below −238 °F (−150 °C).
Docking Starships together and carefully transferring super-cooled propellants at least 10 times in low-Earth orbit, a politically and commercially vital region of space with a soaring level of satellite traffic, would be among the riskiest challenges for a company that has routinized orbital rocket landings and astronaut launches to the International Space Station.
NASA officials overseeing SpaceX’s Starship development
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