SpaceX rocket taxi returns after Roman Telescope launch | Space photo of the day for Sept. 8, 2026

罗曼望远镜发射后，SpaceX"火箭出租车"返航｜2026年9月8日每日太空照片

On Aug. 30, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched into space aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket — then, after completing their job, the rocket's boosters safely landed back on Earth. Watching the events unfold, Space.com's Chelsea Gohd caught one of these beautiful landings on camera as onlookers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center watched in awe.

8月30日，南希·格雷丝·罗曼太空望远镜搭乘SpaceX"猎鹰重型"火箭升入太空——完成任务后，火箭的助推器安全返回地球着陆。在任务进行过程中，Space.com的切尔西·戈德用镜头捕捉到了其中一次漂亮的着陆，彼时美国国家航空航天局（NASA）肯尼迪航天中心的观众们正看得惊叹不已。

The Roman Space Telescope is NASA's next great observatory, meant to revolutionize how we view the cosmos. Equipped with instruments like a coronagraph that can directly image exoplanets and a Wide-Field Instrument (WFI) that has a massively wide field of view, it's designed to work with big names like the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope and reveal our universe's intricacies on a grand scale.

罗曼太空望远镜是NASA的下一代大型观测台，旨在彻底改变我们观察宇宙的方式。它配备了可直接对系外行星成像的日冕仪，以及拥有超大视场的宽视场仪器（WFI）等设备，将与哈勃太空望远镜、詹姆斯·韦布太空望远镜等"大牌"望远镜协同工作，以恢宏的尺度揭示宇宙的复杂奥秘。

But to get to space, like any other space telescope, it needed a rocket to ferry it there. In this case, that was SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket. Falcon Heavy is about 230 feet (70 meters) tall and can lift nearly 141,000 pounds (64 metric tons) of payload to low Earth orbit. And importantly, Falcon Heavy's two boosters are reusable.

不过，和任何太空望远镜一样，要进入太空，它需要一枚火箭把它送上去。这一次，用的是SpaceX的"猎鹰重型"火箭。"猎鹰重型"高约230英尺（70米），可将近14.1万磅（64公吨）的有效载荷送入近地轨道。更重要的是，"猎鹰重型"的两枚助推器都可重复使用。

After launching a payload to space, the boosters split and each lands back on Earth in an upright position. In the image above, Gohd captured one of those boosters landing in the distance.

将有效载荷送入太空后，两枚助推器分离，各自竖直返回地球着陆。在上图中，戈德拍到了其中一枚助推器在远处着陆的画面。

Though we hear about it so often, there is something undeniably dreamlike about living in a time when a rocket can land its parts back on Earth so precisely. I was also there for the launch of the Roman Space Telescope in Florida, and it was breathtaking to watch such a huge piece of equipment navigate mid-air and straighten itself before landing. The crowd in the picture was equally astonished while the event unfolded.

尽管此类消息我们时常听到，但生活在一个火箭能把部件如此精准地送回地球的时代，仍有一种难以否认的梦幻感。我也在佛罗里达现场见证了罗曼太空望远镜的发射，看着这样一个庞然大物在空中穿行、着陆前调整姿态、稳稳立住，实在令人屏息。照片中的人群在目睹这一幕时同样惊叹不已。

My mother texted me just after she watched the Roman Space Telescope launch live online, exclaiming that the booster's landing looked just like a taxi returning to its station, getting ready for the next task. I hadn't thought about it that way before, but she was correct.

我母亲在网上看完罗曼太空望远镜的直播发射后，立刻给我发来短信，惊叹说助推器着陆的样子活像一辆出租车返回车站，准备执行下一趟任务。我此前从未这样想过，但她说得没错。

One of the boosters that participated in Roman's launch landed at Landing Zone 2 and the other hit the ground at Landing Zone 40. As NASA explained in a statement, one of these boosters carried out its very first mission while the other was on its third.

参与罗曼发射的两枚助推器中，一枚在2号着陆区着陆，另一枚在40号着陆区落地。正如NASA在一份声明中所解释的，其中一枚助推器执行的是它的首次任务，另一枚则已是第三次执行任务。

Now, the next spectacle to take our breath away will be Roman's very first images of the universe. Those are expected to drop next year.

接下来，将让我们屏息的下一场奇观，是罗曼拍下的首批宇宙图像。预计这些图像将于明年发布。