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Doorway into Space
进入太空的门户
Isaac Asimov
艾萨克·阿西莫夫
The space shuttle （航天飞机）is our doorway into space. It is the first true spaceship.
航天飞机是我们进入太空的门户。它是第一艘名副其实的宇宙飞船。
Human beings have gone into space before. They have been doing it for years in throwaway vessels. People would go into space, and then the ship, with the people aboard, would drop back to Earth by parachute （降落伞）. The people would be picked up, but the ship would be scrapped （废弃）.
人类先前已进入了太空。多年来，他们一直是乘坐用后随即抛弃的飞行器进入太空的。人们进入太空，然后，载人的宇宙飞船再借助降落伞坠回地球。人是被接了回来，而飞船则被丢弃了。
The Shuttle, however, goes up like a spaceship and comes down like an airplane. There it is, ready to be used again.
然而，航天飞机像宇宙飞船一样升空，随后像飞机一样降落。它就停在那里，随时准备再次使用。
The Shuttle won't be going to any other worlds. It will just go into orbit around the Earth and then return. That is why it is called a Shuttle. It goes and returns. But when it goes, it carries a great many things in its roomy storage space. It can carry satellites of all kinds. When it gets into orbit it releases the satellites. When the Shuttle returns, the satellites stay in orbit. You don't have to supply each satellite with a separate throwaway rocket engine.
航天飞机不会去任何其他星球，只进入地球轨道，然后返回。这就是它为什么被称作“航天飞机”的缘故。它能往返飞行，不过去的时候，它宽敞的货物舱里满载大量货物。它能装载各种各样的卫星。进入轨道后，就将卫星卸下。航天飞机返回时，卫星就留在轨道上。你用不着给每个卫星提供各自的分离式火箭发动机。
More importantly, the Shuttle can carry parts of large structures and park them in orbit. Eventually, there will be a great many structures, all near each other, all circling the Earth.
更重要的是，航天飞机能携带大型建筑结构的部件，并把它们停放在轨道上。最终会有许许多多的建筑构件，相互挨得很近，全都围绕地球运行。
Astronauts （宇航员）can go up and, in their spacesuits, leave the Shuttle and put all the structures together. Finally, they will have one big, complicated structure, something that would be far too big to have launched all in one piece.
宇航员可以随机升空，穿着宇航服离开航天飞机，将所有的建筑构件拼装起来。到最后，他们就拥有了一座庞大而复杂的建筑物，那玩意儿实在太大，不可能作为整体一并发射出去。
