Star Trek's Captain Kirk is about to boldly go where hundreds of others have gone before, continuing a decades-long tradition of space flights for non-astronauts who are wealthy or famous or well-connected — or all of the above.
《星際迷航》中船長Kirk即將啟航無所畏懼地前往哪個曾經數百人爭相恐後踐踏過的地方 ，數十年以來，延續着哪些富可敵國、聲名顯赫之人（無宇航員的背景）遨遊太空的傳統壯舉。
As for ordinary folks without deep pockets — well, the final frontier might be opening up a just a bit, but opportunities still basically come down to contests and luck.
對於那些沒有雄厚財力的普通民眾而言，最終的疆界可能會稍稍開放一點，但是機會歸結為爭取和運氣。
Space for the few
遨遊太空只是少數人的旅行
Actor William Shatner is scheduled to blast off Wednesday morning on a quick trip to the edge of space and back, riding in the capsule developed by Blue Origin, the space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos.
（美國）男演員威廉姆斯.夏洛特計劃於周三上午發射升空，將搭乘由藍色起源研發的太空艙前往太空邊緣短暫旅行並返回，藍色起源由億萬富翁傑夫·貝索斯（Jeff Bezos）所創立。
Actor William Shatner
The 90-year-old actor, who will be the oldest person to reach space, has said he feels "terrified." Shatner's reportedly going as a guest rather than as a paying customer.
作為世界上最高齡遨遊太空之人，90歲高齡男演員（威廉姆斯.夏洛特）感到「極度恐慌」，據媒體報道稱，夏洛特此次遨遊太空作為受邀賓客，而不是自費的客戶。
"I do think it's classic marketing," says Joseph Czabovsky, an associate professor of public relations and marketing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
北卡羅來納大學基督山分校公共關係與市場營銷學助理教授Joseph Czabovsky表示：「我認為這是一種非常經典的營銷（模式）」。
Whenever a new product or service makes a splash, like the first Blue Origin flight did this summer, he says, companies have to figure out how to keep the public's attention.
Joseph Czabovsky說：「每當一種新產品或者新服務橫空出世引起轟動時，就像今年夏天藍色起源飛行器發射升空一樣，公司必須想盡辦法如何吸引公眾的眼球」。
"William Shatner makes sense in that here's a celebrity that made their claim to fame on traveling in space," says Czabovsky. "It's like a one-time, kind of kitschy branding opportunity."
Czabovsky說：「威廉姆斯.夏洛特意識到遨遊太空可以使他成為聲名鵲起的名人，這機會就像一次性、庸俗的品牌推廣一樣」。
But even though a celebrity like Shatner can generate headlines, says Czabovsky, this kind of marketing stunt does run the risk of reinforcing the perception that spaceflight is just for the privileged few.
「即使像夏洛特這樣的名人也可以成為頭條新聞」，Czabovsky說：「這種營銷噱頭冒着極大的風險，加深了太空旅行只是為少數富人服務的（錯誤）觀念」。
After all, one seat on Blue Origin's first flight was auctioned off for $28 million. Czabovsky recently worked on a poll that found about 80% of U. S. residents saw the recent launches as "billionaire ego trips."
畢竟，藍色起源首航每位旅客（座位）競拍高達2800萬美元，最近Czabovsky做一項民意調查研究顯示，大約80%的美國民眾視此次發射為「億萬富豪自我旅行」。
"You have that kind of cynicism, negativity, maybe realistic understanding of what is going on," he says.
他還說：「你有一種憤世嫉俗的消極情緒 ，也許是對正在發生之事一種現實理解」。
Despite that, that poll also showed that people generally felt positive about space travel's potential for humanity, says Czabovsky.
Czabovsky說：「儘管如此，這次民意調查研究還顯示，更多民眾對太空旅行所持態度是積極的，對人類潛在影響是樂觀的」。
More than half said the recent private spaceflights made them believe that one day soon, ordinary people will be able to go to space.
過半的美國民眾說：「最近私人太空飛船的發射讓他們堅信，不久的將來，普通民眾也可以去太空旅行」。
That's long been the promise of both real-life space travel and science fiction shows like Star Trek. In the early days of the Space Age, astronauts famously had to have "The Right Stuff"; they were mostly military pilots. But the possibility of space vehicles someday becoming more like airlines didn't seem so farfetched.
長期以來，現實太空旅行跟《星際迷航》科幻小說展示那樣只是一種許諾，在星際時代的早期，著名宇航員成為了「太空英雄」；他們多數是軍機飛行員，將來的某一天，讓太空飛行器更像航空公司一樣的可能性，不再看起來那麼難以置信。
A brief history of ordinary folks in space
普通民眾遨遊太空的簡史
When NASA's space shuttles began flying in the 1980s, all kinds of VIPs started lobbying to go as passengers, says Alan Ladwig, author of See You In Orbit? Our Dream of Spaceflight.
《在軌道上遇見你，我們的航天夢》的作者Alan Ladwig說：「美國航天局的穿梭機在1980年開始飛行時，五花八門的貴賓開始遊說成為太空旅行的乘客前往」。
A task force ultimately decided that flying a non-astronaut would be OK for NASA to do, for public education purposes. That's why, in 1984, President Ronald Reagan said he was directing NASA "to chose as the first citizen passenger in the history of our space program, one of America's finest: a teacher."
出於對公共教育的目的，太空任務組最終決定美國國宇航局可以讓非宇航員身份的民眾太空飛行，這就是為什麼羅納德 . 里根總統在1984年指示美國宇航局挑選美國太空計劃項目歷史上首位乘客，美國最傑出代表之一：教師。
Ladwig, who managed NASA's program for citizens in space, remembers going on Late Night with David Letterman to talk about it. "I said the first spaceflight participant program would be the teacher," he recalls.
拉德維希 (Ladwig) 負責管理 美國航天局的太空公民計劃項目，他清晰記得，跟大衛·萊特曼 (David Letterman)在深夜裡 討論過這此事。 「我說首個太空飛行計劃的參與者是位老師，」他回憶道。
The very next day, however, he was stunned to see a newspaper report that Senator Jake Garn, who chaired the committee that oversaw NASA's budget, would be flying in space.
然而，翌日他在一篇新聞報道中驚訝地發現，負責監督美國宇航局財政預算的參議院 Jake Garn將執行太空飛行計劃。
NASA ultimately flew not just Garn, but also another member of Congress, Bill Nelson, who is now the head of NASA. Both went up before the 1986 space shuttle Challenger disaster, which killed the whole crew, including teacher Christa McAuliffe. She had participated in a nationwide contest to select the first teacher and had received widespread publicity; millions of Americans watched the tragic explosion.
美國宇航局最終（執行太空飛行計劃人員）不僅參議院Jake Garn，還有另一位議會成員 Bill Nelson，目前是美國宇航局負責人，兩人都在1986年挑戰者號穿梭機災難之前登陸了太空，那次災難造成了機組人員全部遇難，也包括首位全國範圍內選拔出的教師Christa McAuliffe，當時她收到了廣泛的宣傳，數百萬美國人親眼目睹爆炸慘劇的發生。
"There was some criticism out of Congress, some media, that, well, this just shows space is too dangerous for an ordinary citizen," recalls Ladwig, who says NASA canceled plans to fly a journalist in space.
「議會和一些新聞媒體批評說，此次事件展示太空飛行公民計劃對於普通民眾太危險了」 ，拉德維希 (Ladwig) 回憶到，還說美國宇航局取消了一位記者的太空飛行計劃。
After that, NASA only flew professional astronauts, with the exception of John Glenn, a former astronaut and the first American to ever orbit the Earth. When Glenn said he wanted to fly again at the age of 77, NASA gave the go-ahead.
從那（挑戰者號事件）之後，美國宇航局只允許職業宇航員太空飛行，首位繞地球軌道飛行的前美國宇航員John Glenn除外，當77歲高齡的Glenn再次想太空飛行時，美國宇航局同意了 。
"The media turned out in droves for that mission, the public loved it," says Ladwig, noting that Glenn was a national hero.
拉德維西說：「媒體為了這項任務爭相恐後而來， 公眾也熱衷於此，Glenn就成為了國家英雄」。
For people who weren't astronauts or national heroes, the only way to get to space, for years, was paying millions of dollars to Russia.
對於那些不是職業宇航員或者國家英雄之人，數年來唯一進入太空的途徑就是支付俄羅斯數百萬美元。
The Russian space agency has sold trips to orbiting space stations to a TV journalist from Japan, a bunch of businessmen turned space tourists, and just last week, an actress and movie director.
俄羅斯宇航局兜售繞太空站旅行給一位日本電台記者、一群有錢的富商，搖身一變成為太空遊客，僅僅上周，一位女演員和電影導演（進入太空旅行）。
Space tourism takes off
太空旅遊（產業）將要騰飛
Now, though, Russia has competition from U. S. companies. Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin both offer up-and-back jaunts that have a few minutes of weightlessness. And Space X has a capsule that can orbit the planet for days.
雖然目前俄羅斯面臨來自美國公司的競爭，維珍銀河（Virgin Galactic）和藍色起源（Blue Origin）只提供短暫失重狀態下短途旅行，但 Space X提供一個可以環繞地球數天的天空倉（旅行）。
This year, flights operated by these firms have taken a motley assortment of people to space — what Saturday Night Live recently called "random weirdos" in a skit that parodied both Star Trek and rich space entrepreneurs.
今年這些公司運營航線送人們到達太空旅行，最近周六夜場秀模仿《星際迷航》和太空富商的表演稱之為「隨機怪人」。
Just a couple of days later, Blue Origin announced that it was taking up Shatner.
僅僅幾天後，藍色起源宣布將攜夏洛特（遨遊太空旅行）。
The SpaceX flight in September that made history by having no professional astronauts on board was bankrolled by a billionaire Jared Isaacman. But he offered up three seats to support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, which allowed a physician assistant from the hospital to go, as well as a community college professor who won a contest and a data engineer whose friend won a fundraising sweepstakes.
在今年九月份SpaceX創造了非專業宇航員飛行的歷史，此次飛行任務由億萬富豪Jared Isaacman資助，他提供三個席位來支持一位來自孟菲斯的聖裘德兒童研究醫院的助理醫師，一位社區比賽中取勝的大學教授，還有一位數據工程師，他的朋友成了籌款抽獎活動的幸運兒。
One nonprofit, called Space For Humanity, is trying to raise money to sponsor space trips for people from all over the world who might otherwise never be able to afford them.
一個取名為「人類太空」的非盈利組織試圖籌集資金，為世界各地人們提供太空旅行的資助，否則，他們可能無法負擔起（太空旅行的費用）。
"We are now at this cusp of a new era in space exploration, where more and more people are going to have access to this experience," say Rachel Lyons, executive director of the group, who says seeing the Earth from space can have a transformative effect. "We believe that it's our responsibility to use this advancement in technology for the good of all."
該組織的執行董事雷切爾·萊昂斯 (Rachel Lyons) 表示：「我們現在正處於太空探索新紀元的分水嶺，越來越多的人將會獲得這種體驗。」 從太空上遙望地球將一種變革效應。 「我們相信，利用這種技術進步造福所有人是我們的責任。
She says right now, space is just "not accessible to 99.99% of humanity," and that about 4,000 people from over 100 countries have applied to their program.
她說：「目前「99.99% 的人類無法進入太空」，來自 100 多個國家大約 有4,000 人已經申請加入他們的項目」。
