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A mission that was originally supposed to be eight days will now last eight months.
一项原本预计为期八天的任务，现在将延续为八个月。
From the newsroom of The Washington Post, this is "Post Reports." I'm Martine Powers. It's Tuesday, August 27th.
这里是《华盛顿邮报》，欢迎收听“邮报报道”。我是马丁·鲍尔斯。今天是8月27日，星期二。
The Boeing Starliner was supposed to open up another frontier for NASA.
波音星际客机本应为美国国家航空航天局开辟另一片前沿领域。
It was going to be a whole new way for NASA to get crew members up to the International Space Station, and then the Starliner ran into some serious trouble.
这将是美国国家航空航天局（NASA）将宇航员送上国际空间站的全新方式，然后星际客机遇到了一些严重的问题。
So today, we are talking about the risks to the two NASA astronauts stuck in space and what the Starliner's fate could say about the future of commercial spaceflight in the U.S.
那么今天，我们来谈谈被困在太空中的两名美国宇航局宇航员所面临的风险，以及星际客机的命运可能对美国商业航天未来意味着什么。
So, Chris, you've been reporting a lot over the last few years about the role that private companies like Boeing and SpaceX are playing in the future of spaceflight here in the U.S. So what has been the importance of these companies and their relationship with NASA over the last few years?
那么，克里斯，在过去的几年里，你一直在报道像波音和SpaceX这样的私营公司在美国航天未来中所扮演的角色。那么，这些公司及其与美国宇航局的关系在过去几年中到底有多重要呢？
There's been a real paradigm shift within NASA and the way NASA explores, and before, NASA owned and operated all of the hardware.
美国国家航空航天局内部以及其探索方式已经发生了真正的范式转变，在此之前，NASA拥有并运营所有硬件。
I mean, it always had contractors, but ultimately it was NASA's mission, right? They operated the space shuttle.
我的意思是，它一直都有承包商，但最终这是美国国家航空航天局的任务，对吧？他们操作航天飞机。
They operated the Saturn V rocket that flew astronauts to the moon. Now it's different, right?
他们操作了将宇航员送上月球的土星五号火箭。现在不同了，对吧？
They have outsourced a lot of their missions to the private sector, where, for example, SpaceX is operating the capsule and the rocket that are flying NASA's astronauts, not NASA.
他们已经将很多任务外包给了私营部门，例如，SpaceX正在运营搭载美国宇航局宇航员的太空舱和火箭，而不是美国宇航局。
Because the thought is that these private companies can do it better and faster and more efficiently for less money. Right. All of that.
因为他们认为这些私营公司可以做得更好、更快、更高效，而且成本更低。 没错。所有这些都是。
And the idea is that frees NASA up to do other things, to explore further, to do some of the harder missions.
并且这让美国国家航空航天局可以腾出手来做其他事情，进一步探索，完成一些更艰巨的任务。
But what's interesting is we're seeing that paradigm, which NASA used to initially just fly cargo and supplies to the International Space Station, and that was sort of the entry point.
但有趣的是，我们看到这种模式，美国国家航空航天局最初只是用它来向国际空间站运送货物和补给，这算是一个切入点。
And they weren't ever going to put NASA -- NASA astronauts. They weren't going to put people, human beings, on a privately run spaceship. But then that changed.
而且他们永远不会让美国国家航空航天局——美国国家航空航天局的宇航员，他们不打算把人，人类，送上私人运营的宇宙飞船。但后来情况发生了变化。
And they saw well, wait, if they can deliver cargo and supplies, maybe they can fly people.
而且他们看到，等等，如果他们可以运送货物和补给，也许他们可以载人飞行。
And now SpaceX has been doing that since 2020, and NASA is looking at that and saying, "Well, that's working."
而现在，SpaceX自2020年以来一直在这样做，美国国家航空航天局（NASA）也在关注并表示：“嗯，这是可行的。”
So let's talk about this particular mission, which is, as you say, part of that push to basically get private companies to do the work of transporting astronauts to the space station and potentially to other places.
那么，让我们来谈谈这个特殊的任务，正如你所说，这是推动私营公司承担将宇航员送往空间站以及可能送往其他地方的工作的一部分。
But this mission, I don't know if the right word is stars, but at the center of it are these two astronauts, Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore. Can you talk a little bit about them?
但是这次任务，我不知道用“明星”这个词是否恰当，但处于核心位置的是这两位宇航员，桑尼·威廉姆斯和布奇·威尔莫尔。你能谈谈他们吗？
They are veteran NASA astronauts who have been to space each twice before. They're not rookies by any sense. I mean, these are kind of the best of the best. They're both former Navy retired captains.
他们是经验丰富的美国宇航局宇航员，之前都去过太空两次。他们绝不是新手。我的意思是，他们是最优秀的人。他们都是前海军退役上尉。
Butch was a fighter test pilot, and Sunny flew helicopters, and they've been training for this flight for a long time, which you remember is a test flight.
布奇是一名战斗机试飞员，桑尼驾驶直升机，他们为这次飞行训练了很长时间，别忘了这是一次试飞。
The whole idea of this flight was the first time they were going to put human beings on the Starliner capsule, and they wanted, you know, serious, experienced astronauts to be able to do that.
这次飞行的整个想法是，他们将首次把人类送上 "星际客机 "太空舱，他们希望，你知道，严肃认真、经验丰富的宇航员能够做到这一点。
The one thing I remembered about Sunny when this started to come up was, I guess it was a few years back that she had actually ran a marathon in space. Correct? Right, on a treadmill.
我记得关于桑尼的一件事，我记得是几年前的一件事，她实际上在太空中跑了一场马拉松。对吗？ 是的，在跑步机上。
