5,000 mph jet ready for test flight
时速5000英里的喷气式飞机准备试飞

☆ mph miles per hour 时速

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Ability to fly at 7 times speed of sound could boost space flight
速度达7倍音速，可进行宇宙飞行

☆ space flight  宇宙飞行

By Michael Coren CNN Thursday, March 25, 2004 Posted: 1637 GMT (0037 HKT)

(CNN) -- Fifty-seven years after combat pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier, NASA will make a second attempt Saturday at flying an aircraft at 5,000 mph -- about seven times Mach 1, the speed of sound.
57年前，战斗机飞行员Chuck Yeager首次突破了音障。现在，NASA(美国国家航空和宇宙航行局) 将于周六进行时速5000英里的喷气式飞机的第二次试飞，这个速度大约为音速的7倍----7马赫。

☆ Mach 马赫

The space agency's dogged pursuit of extreme speed, officials hope, will ultimately make space flight easier to accomplish.
太空署一直以来都在追求官方希望的极限速度，这将使太空飞行变得极其容易。

dogged  顽固的，顽强的

NASA will roll out the X-43A, capable of reaching speeds more than Mach 7, in a test flight over the Pacific Ocean. The Hyper-X, as it is called, could also give rise to commercial planes that zip passengers between London and New York in less than two hours.
NASA will计划批量生产X-43A，该飞机在一次飞越太平洋试验中速度超过了7马赫。而Hyper-X，如它的名字一样，可生产用于商业飞行。其在伦敦到纽约之间载客飞行仅需两个小时。

☆ zip 在此有快速运送乘客之义。

"It's relatively simple in its concept," said Griff Corpening, chief engineer for the X-43A program. "It's incredibly challenging in its execution.... [That is] where 40 plus years of research comes in."
 X-43A计划总工程师，Griff Corpening说：“从概念上理解很简单，而完成它则是难以值信的挑战…，也就是说，我们用了40多年才达到目标。”

☆ chief engineer 总工程师

The $250-million Hyper-X program has already attracted the interest of the Air Force and private aerospace companies such as Boeing.
耗费25亿美元Hyper-X计划已经引起了空军及私人航空公司，如波音公司的兴趣。

 But dreams of civilian spin-offs are at least 20 years away, said NASA officials, who are betting the program will first lead to a more durable, cheaper workhorse for the space fleet.
NASA称，其至少要在20年后才能用于民用飞行。他认为，该计划首先将导致更持久、更便宜的推进器的出现，以用于宇宙飞行器。

☆ workhorse 此处指飞行推进器

And the future of the program could be hindered by budget cuts as NASA attempts to establish a moon base and launch a manned Mars expedition under an initative by the Bush Administration.

The diminutive, 12-foot-long X-43A test craft will ride atop a Pegasus booster rocket launched from a converted B-52 bomber off southern California. The flight will test aspects of a design to allow planes to overcome the pull of Earth's gravity by reaching 25,000 mph, also known as escape velocity.

During the test, the 49-foot-long booster rocket will propel the X-43A to about 3,700 mph before the experimental plane detaches from the rocket and flies under its own power using a hydrogen-powered "scramjet" engine, the first such test of the technology.