日本成功发射间谍卫星

TOKYO — Japanlaunched a new spy satellite on Friday, the country’s space agency said, as theregion grows increasingly uneasy over North Korea’s quickening missile program.

东京-日本国航天局发表声明，日本在周五成功发射了一颗新型间谍卫星，这一地区正对朝鲜加速导弹计划而不安加剧。

The Radar5 unit was carried into space on Japan’s mainstay H-2A rocket from a launchsite in the country’s southwest.

雷达5由日本主力火箭H-2A送入太空，发射场位于国家西南部。

It ismeant to replace an existing satellite that is coming to the end of its mission.

这颗卫星计划用于取代轨道上快要退役的卫星。

Japanstarted putting spy satellites into orbit in 2003 after North Korea fired amid-range ballistic missile over the Japanese mainland and into the westernPacific in 1998.

在1998年，朝鲜发射了一颗中程弹道导弹，导弹飞跃日本本土落入西太平洋，之后日本开始在2003年将间谍卫星射入轨道。

Thethreat has steadily accelerated and just last week Pyongyang fired fourballistic missiles, with three landing provocatively close to Japan.

威胁在持续上升，就在上周，平壤发射了四枚弹道导弹，其中三枚掉衅地落在离日本很近的地方。

Tokyocurrently maintains three optical satellites for daytime surveillance and threeradar satellites for nighttime monitoring. Two of those are backups.

东京目前维持三颗光学卫星用于昼间监视，三颗雷达成像卫星用于夜间监视。其中两颗为备份

The newsatellite will succeed one of the three radar satellites that was launched in2011.

新卫星将用于取代三颗雷达成像卫星中的一颗，这颗卫星发射于2011年。

Thesatellites are officially for “information-gathering”—a euphemism forspying—but are also used to monitor damage in the wake of natural disasters.

官方声称，此卫星用于“信息收集”-一种从事间谍活动的委婉说法-但同时也用于监测自然灾害的损毁程度。