Half-a-mile above its landing target early May 6, a SpaceX rocket booster slammed on the brakes, firing three engines to cut its speed by more than 300 mph in three seconds. 5月6日，在着陆区域上方半英里的空中，SpaceX的火箭助推器（译注：实际上是火箭第一级）启动了制动减速程序，三个引擎点火，在3秒内将速度降低了300多英里/小时。
The Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage then touched down gently in darkness on the deck of a ship in the Atlantic Ocean, completing a high-speed, 75-mile drop. 猎鹰9号的火箭第一级之后缓缓的在黑暗中降落在大西洋上的船上的平台，完成了这次自75英里高空、高速的着陆过程。
The sea landing showed SpaceX can recover boosters intact from some of its most challenging launches, but the rocket’s searing return from space took a toll. 这次海上着陆显示了SpaceX有能力在一些最有挑战性的发射程序中完好地回收助推器（实际上是火箭第一级），但是火箭在高速再入的过程中因高温受到了一些损伤。
CEO Elon Musk indicated the rocket stage may not be in shape to launch again, but will help the company assess the flight-worthiness of boosters recovered in the future. 马斯克说这个火箭第一级已经不能再用于发射了，但是可以帮助公司用于评估未来回收后第一级的飞行价值。
“Most recent rocket took max damage, due to (very) high entry velocity,” Musk said on Twitter. “Will be our life leader for ground tests to confirm others are good.” “多数最近（回收）的火箭收到了大量的伤害，因为极高的再入速度。”马斯克说，“我们的life leader（此处不确定，猜测应该是负责火箭生命状态的团队leader）会在地面测试中确认其它部分良好。”
SpaceX on Saturday moved the 14-story Falcon 9 booster — charred gray and black along most of its length — to a hangar at Kennedy Space Center’s pad 39A, where it joined two other landed stages. 周六SpaceX在肯尼迪宇航中心LC-39A发射场将14层楼高的猎鹰9号助推器（实际为第一级）——大部分已经被灼烧成黑色和灰色——移动到了一个机库，那里还有另外两个回收的火箭第一级。
"Three's company," said Musk. “三个的团体”，马斯克说。
Those first two recovered stages were missions flown to low orbits that offered more benign landing conditions. The one launched May 6 delivered a Japanese communications satellite, JCSAT-14, to an orbit more than 22,000 miles above the equator, requiring more speed. 前两个回收的第一级是执行LEO轨道任务（译注：LEO低地球轨道高度一般不超过1000公里），这种情况下会有更好的回收条件。而5月6日发射的火箭，执行的是一个日本通讯卫星JCSAT-14发射任务，轨道高度超过22000英里，需要更高的速度。
The booster was traveling more than 5,200 mph when it separated from the rocket's upper stage, compared to about 4,000 mph during the previous mission to a lower orbit, and SpaceX said it experienced five times as much heating during its re-entry through the atmosphere。 助推器（实为第一级）在与第二级分离时的速度高达5200英里/小时，而之前的LEO任务中只有4000英里/小时。SpaceX说这次第一级再入大气层时承受了最高5倍的气动加热。
With the booster coming in "faster and hotter," as Musk put it, the company had warned that a successful landing was unlikely. It landed within six feet of its target. 因为这次助推器以“更快和更热”的状态返回，如马斯克所说，公司警告说降落很可能会失败，结果却成功降落在目标点6英尺以内。
Now the question is whether tweaks to heat shielding and perhaps other systems can harden the rocket so it can withstand such severe forces in good enough condition to fly again without extensive refurbishment. Quick and easy turnarounds are the key to making reusable rockets a game-changer that dramatically lowers launch costs, SpaceX has repeatedly said. 现在的问题是，对防热盾（可能还有其它相关系统）的调整能不能够让火箭更加坚固——从而抵挡这种严峻的环境，使其保持足够良好的状态，不用大量翻新就可再次发射？快速简单的转场是让可复用火箭成为变革者的关键，因为这样才能极大的降低发射费用，SpaceX反复强调。
SpaceX hopes to re-fly its first rocket, the one it launched in April, later this year. SpaceX希望能够在今年晚些时候首飞它的第一枚回收火箭，也就是4月份发射的那枚。
The company’s next mission, targeted for May 26, will look much like the last one: A Falcon 9 aims to launch the Thaicom 8 communications satellite from Cape Canaveral and attempt another booster landing at sea. 这个公司的下一个任务，计划在5月26日，看起来很像最近的这次：一枚猎鹰9号将会从卡角发射Thaicom8通讯卫星，并且尝试下一次助推器（第一级）海上着陆。
文中有好多词语用的很不科学，感觉很别扭
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