“滞留”太空一个月，美宇航员发声：我有一种很好的感觉……

因推进器故障和氦气泄漏问题，搭乘“星际客机”飞船抵达国际空间站的两名美国宇航员已在太空停留一月有余。据美媒7月10日报道，两名宇航员当天在太空中举行“滞留”以来首次简报会，称仍对安全返程充满信心，并不抱怨在空间站多待了几周。

The two NASA astronauts who flew in Boeing's Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station last month said Wednesday that they have no concerns the capsule will be able to fly them home safely, even as their return has been postponed indefinitely while NASA and Boeing struggle to determine what caused a series of thruster failures and helium leaks.

据报道，58岁的苏妮·威廉姆斯（Suni Williams）通过电话与媒体连线说：“我有一种很好的感觉，这艘飞船会带我们回家，没有问题。”她此行的搭档、61岁的巴里·威尔莫尔（Barry Wilmore）也表示：“我们绝对有信心，就像你们听过的那句格言，失败不是一个选项。”

In a short press briefing from the space station, Barry “Butch” Wilmore, a veteran of two previous spaceflights said that “we're absolutely confident” in the return trip and that despite the issues on the way to the station, Starliner was “truly impressive”. “Failure is not an option,” Wilmore said.

Sunita Williams, who is also on her third spaceflight, said she has “a real good feeling in my heart that the spacecraft will bring us home, no problem.”

7月10日，威廉姆斯（左）和威尔莫尔（右）在国际空间站接受媒体提问

威廉姆斯称，二人在太空中“很开心”。“布奇和我以前都来过这里，所以（待在轨道实验室）感觉就像回家一样。四处漂浮的感觉很好，在太空中与国际空间站团队一起工作的感觉很好，我们不会抱怨在这里多待了几个星期。”

Williams said being on the orbiting laboratory “feels like coming back home. It feels good to float around. It feels good to be in space and work up here with the International Space Station team. So yeah, it’s great to be up here. I'm not complaining that we’re here for a couple extra weeks.”

据了解，按照原计划，巴里·威尔莫尔和苏尼·威廉姆斯本应在国际空间站停留大约一周时间，执行测试“星际客机”性能等任务，并于6月14日脱离国际空间站返回地球。但由于遭遇氦气泄漏及部分推进器故障等问题，他们的返程日期一拖再拖，甚至被无限期推迟。NASA称两名宇航员很安全，国际空间站补给充足。

The pair were initially expected to spend one week aboard the ISS evaluating the spacecraft and its systems and return June 14. However, Starliner's mechanical issues left the astronauts stuck onboard the ISS with no set return date.

NASA has insisted Wilmore and Williams are safe while they remain onboard the ISS with the Expedition 71 crew. The agency has said the ISS has plenty of supplies in orbit, and the station's schedule is relatively open through mid-August.

威尔莫尔在简报会上回忆道，6月6日他手动控制飞船接近空间站时，他“能感觉到推力下降了，当时我们还不知道是什么原因”，但体验仍然“令人印象深刻”。

According to Wilmore, as he took over manual control of the autonomous spacecraft as it approached the station June 6, he “could tell that the thrust was degraded,” he said. “At the time, we didn't know why, obviously. The failures had just happened. You could tell it was degraded, but it was still impressive.”

路透社说，在与空间站对接之前，“星际客机”的28个推进器中有5个出现故障（后4个恢复工作），1个推进器阀门没有正常关闭，用于推进器加压的氦气也出现了5次泄漏。

本周，NASA和波音的工程专家据悉正在美国新墨西哥州的白沙导弹靶场对“星际客机”推进器故障进行地面复现，以查明为何某些推进器出现了过热、停止工作等问题。与此同时，在位于亚拉巴马州的NASA马歇尔航天中心，专家也已着手调查“星际客机”的推进系统为何会出现氦气泄漏。

NASA and Boeing are continuing to conduct ground tests to see if they can figure out why five of the spacecraft's “reaction control thrusters,” which are used to position the vehicle, stopped working during the approach to the station. Four of the five thrusters ultimately came back online and worked properly, allowing Starliner to successfully dock. NASA has said it won't attempt to use the fifth thruster on the return trip. The spacecraft is outfitted with a total of 28 such thrusters on the service module, which is used to provide power and much of the vehicle's propulsion.

另据路透社10日报道，NASA商业载人项目经理史蒂夫·斯蒂克（Steve Stich）在当晚另一场媒体电话会上表示，新墨西哥州推进器测试的结果“与期望的不太一样”。

斯蒂克称，他希望推进器的地面测试能在本周完成。根据他的说法，如果所有测试都表明推进器没有出现重大问题，那么“星际客机”最早可以在7月底返回。但他补充：“但我们会一步一步跟踪数据，然后在正确的时间找出正确的脱离对接机会。”斯蒂克早前曾表示，测试可能需要持续“几周”时间。

In a separate briefing Wednesday, Steve Stich, who oversees NASA's commercial crew program, said that if all the testing reveals no major issues with the thrusters, the crew could return as early as the end of July. “But we'll just follow the data each step at a time, and then at the right time, figure out when the right undock opportunity is,” he said.

NASA表示，“星际客机”的电池寿命为45天，这意味着该飞船最多在国际空间站上停留45天（到7月21日），但如果使用备用系统，则可停留90天。理论上说，飞船停靠空间站时一直保持充电状态，电池在90天后的运行状态应该不受影响，但有媒体表示这在很大程度上取决于锂离子电池的健康状况，该问题在过去曾引起过担忧。

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