SpaceX, the aerospace company founded by Elon Musk, launched a top-secret spy satellite for the US Department of Defense early last Monday morning.
上周一清晨，埃隆·马斯克创立的航天公司SpaceX为美国国防部发射了一颗高度机密的侦察卫星。
The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the NROL-76 satellite, lifted off at 7:15 am from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.当地时间7时15分，二级火箭猎鹰9号搭载卫星NROL-76，从佛罗里达州肯尼迪航天中心的39A发射复合体发射升空。About 10 minutes later, the rocket's first stage landed at SpaceX's Landing Zone 1.大约10分钟之后，该火箭的第一级在SpaceX公司的着陆一区安全着陆。This launch has great symbolic significance for SpaceX, since it's the company's first mission for the Pentagon.
由于这是SpaceX为五角大楼执行的首个任务，此次发射对该公司具有重要的象征意义。For years, the market for launching US military payloads was dominated by the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing.多年来，发射美国军方卫星的市场一直由洛克希德马丁和波音的合资公司美国联合发射联盟主导。But SpaceX broke the monopoly in 2015, when the US Air Force certified its Falcon 9 rocket to launch national security space missions.不过2015年，美国空军批准猎鹰9号火箭执行国家安全太空发射任务时，SpaceX打破了这一垄断。Since then, the California-based company has also won two contracts to launch Global Positioning System satellites for the US Air Force.自那之后，这家位于加利福尼亚的公司已经拿下了两笔为美国空军发射全球定位系统卫星的合同。