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2001 Space Shattle
2001年的航天飞机
Kenneth Jon Rose
肯尼思·乔恩·罗斯
When NASA built the first space shuttle and with it the first chance to carry both men and equipment inexpensively into space, it opened the doors to the eventual building and operating of commercial shuttles by private corporations that, possibly within the next generation, may be able to fly us to a space as routinely as we are flown to Europe.
自从美国国家航空和航天局制造了第一架航天飞机，并第一次带来了将人和器材以不大的代价送入太空的机会后，便为最终由私人公司制造并操作商业性航天飞机打开了大门。可能在下一代人的时间里，私人公司也许就能定期将我们送往航天站，就像现在定期送我们飞往欧洲那样。
What follows is a highly speculative look at what it may be like to shuttle through space.However, with space technology changing at the speed of light, today's blueprint will likely be made history by tomorrow's research.
下面主要是根据推测展望乘坐航天飞机遨游太空时可能出现的情景。然而，航天技术正以光速飞快发展，明天的研究很可能将今天的蓝图变为历史。
You'll need tickets first. Unlike the NASA shuttle, which launches like a rocket, the future passenger shuttles will take off the way jets do now, that is, horizontally on a runway.Ticket and reservation counters, as well as the shuttles themselves, most likely will be located at several airports around the world.
首先你需要航天票。与国家航空和航天局的航天飞机不同，未来的航天客机不是像火箭一样发射升空，而是像今天的喷气式飞机那样在跑道上水平起飞。售票和订票处，还有航天飞机，很可能设在世界上的某几个机场内。
The tickets won't be cheap, though. One round-trip fare may cost four times the amount of a flight from New York to Tokyo3,or about $4,500. This might seem a lot to pay for a flight that is going to take 30 minutes to get up and the same coming down.
但航天票不会便宜。一张来回票可能价值一张从纽约到东京机票的四倍，约为4,500美元。对一次来回各30分钟的航行来说，这个数目会显得相当可观。
