TO CHANNEL ONE of Elon Musk’s favourite science-fiction authors, SpaceX is a product of infinite improbability(无限不可能性). When Mr Musk began, few would have predicted that a startup could design a liquid-fuelled rocket(液体燃料火箭) and put it in orbit. Nor that an engineer would be able to get a rocket’s booster(助推器) to return to Earth, land upright(垂直地) on its own tail and be re-used. And no one has yet recovered a rocket’s second stage, which must withstand 1,500°C or so during atmospheric re-entry.(而且至今没有人能够回收火箭的第二级，该级在大气层再入时必须承受约1500°C的高温。)
对埃隆·马斯克最喜欢的科幻作家之一而言，SpaceX是无限不可能性的产物。马斯克开始时，几乎没人能预测一家初创公司能设计出液体燃料火箭并将其送入轨道，也没人能预测一个工程师能让火箭助推器返回地球、垂直着陆并重复使用。至今也没有人回收过火箭的第二级，它在大气层再入时必须承受约1500°C的高温。
Having pulled off the first unlikely feat(壮举，功绩) in 2008, six short years after its founding, and the second in 2015, SpaceX will try to use a launch due on May 21st to show that it can carry off(成功完成（困难的事）) the third, too. If the test fails by the time you read this, SpaceX will try again—and again, until it succeeds or runs out of money(资金耗尽).
SpaceX在成立仅六年后，于2008年实现了第一个不可能壮举，2015年实现了第二个。它将在5月21日尝试用一次发射来展示它也能完成第三个。如果你读到此处时测试已经失败，SpaceX会一次又一次地尝试，直到成功或资金耗尽。
Success will be vital if Mr Musk is to realise his vision of dominating artificial intelligence, apparently by using space-based computers launched by SpaceX to satisfy AI’s ravenous(贪婪的，极饿的) hunger for data-processing. To pay for his dream, on May 20th the company filed the prospectus(招股说明书) that has started the countdown clock for an initial public offering(首次公开募股 (IPO)) next month worth about $75bn. This will be the biggest listing in history.
成功对马斯克实现其主导人工智能的愿景至关重要，他显然计划使用SpaceX发射的太空计算机来满足AI对数据处理贪婪的渴求。为了支付他的梦想，5月20日公司提交了招股说明书，为下个月约750亿美元的首次公开募股开启了倒计时。这将是历史上最大的上市。
Don’t panic
别慌