有关nasa的文章中一个句子的翻译

题目

有关nasa的文章中一个句子的翻译
请翻译这句话Literally hundreds of people worked on the X-38, millions of dollars were invested developing prototypes that were realized to the point of a drop-test vehicle, before being canceled in 2002 due to budget cuts.
另外这里面的“that were realized to the point of a drop-test vehicle”怎么理解?

答案

事实上数百人在为X38工作,数百万美元投资于其上,目的是发展一个原型机,已经实现到了可以做坠落实验的阶段,但是在2002年的时候因为预算紧张而下马了.
realize 这里是指实现,做出；to the point of是到了某种程度； drop test vehicle 指的是能做坠落实验（应该是某种飞行器设计中的实验）的一个实验样品.