[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-technology-invades-the-modern-world":3,"chapter-technology-invades-the-modern-world-technology-invades-the-modern-world-chapter-74":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Technology Invades the Modern World",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2269558,4430,"Chapter 74","technology-invades-the-modern-world-chapter-74",74,"\u003Cp>“Professor Lin, you’ve finally arrived.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>James Webb, at the Red Stone Base, embraced Lin Ran warmly upon seeing him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had no choice but to be warm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had been appointed NASA Administrator half a month before Lin Ran, and clearly, in a place where PhDs walked like commoners and master’s degrees were worthless, a former lawyer like him struggled to quickly gain control.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The current White House set their goal: to complete a manned lunar landing within Kennedy’s term.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kennedy had not yet publicly announced the lunar mission, but everyone at the White House and NASA knew it well—it was their most critical task.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>NASA currently lacked the confidence to inspire anyone; even within its own ranks, people doubted they could succeed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Sir, that’s right. I thought Mr. Johnson would give me some time, but he just issued an order and shipped me straight from Washington D.C. to Alabama,” Lin Ran joked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>James Webb explained: “That’s Johnson’s style—simple and direct.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’ll get used to it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He then pulled a stack of documents from his oak desk drawer and handed them to Lin Ran:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Professor Lin, these are NASA’s key tasks this year.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Including the first spaceflight in two months; if successful, a second suborbital flight will follow in July.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Also this year, we plan to launch the Ranger program—sending probes to the Moon to take photographs.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“These are NASA’s official plans; the stack beneath is what I want to do.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Since NASA was founded only three years ago, it’s less an institution than a loose alliance of multiple research centers—including Langley, Lewis, and Goddard—lacking unified direction and plagued by chaotic management.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’ve outlined a plan to restructure NASA’s entire organization.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Our current annual budget is five hundred million dollars—far too little. I believe it must rise to at least one billion dollars to achieve a manned lunar landing by the end of the 1960s.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s my general vision. After you review it, I hope you’ll organize your thoughts and give me a prompt reply—I’m eager for your suggestions.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>James Webb knew the scope of Lin Ran’s authority and had no objection to giving this great mathematician an opportunity—if the man truly demonstrated sufficient capability.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He would manage operations; Lin Ran would oversee technical direction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even without Lin Ran, James Webb would have granted similar authority to Deputy Administrator Hugh Dryden, to jointly make decisions with him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now that Lin Ran was here, James Webb wanted to see what he was made of—whether he could shoulder this heavy responsibility.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After taking the stack from Webb’s hands, Lin Ran nodded: “Alright, I’ll give you a reply as soon as possible.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then came a half-month silence. During this time, Lin Ran did nothing beyond gaining a detailed understanding of NASA’s upcoming suborbital flight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, during these half-months, Lin Ran didn’t act alone—he kept pulling James Webb along.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mr. Webb, for the next half-month, I need you to come with me. I have a rough idea, but you must witness it—so it’s clear I’m not sabotaging anything.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Ran insisted on dragging James Webb along, even though Webb felt overwhelmed, tangled in chaos, with too much work piling up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Webb’s job was reform—restructuring NASA’s foundational architecture. Faced with Lin Ran’s request, he was baffled: “What exactly do you want me to do?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Ran explained: “Our first manned space mission begins in May. The Freedom 7 spacecraft was delivered to Cape Canaveral on December 9 last year.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It will serve as the vehicle for this manned mission.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The original launch plan was December last year—the moment it arrived at Cape Canaveral.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Later, they discovered issues with the reaction control system, so it was delayed to March 6—five days from now.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But due to a minor problem with the launch apparatus, the launch must be delayed again; we need to redo simulations and equipment calibration.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The current schedule is May 2. The reinstallation of the reaction control system happens in five days—I need you to come with me and watch how they do it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I have some insights, but I need to see it firsthand.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Also, I must prove this mission’s failure has nothing to do with me—it’s not my doing.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"So you must be fully involved. And ideally, the White House should send another trusted person to observe the entire process.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>James Webb immediately perked up: “Are you implying this manned space mission will fail?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>America simply couldn’t afford another failure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Soviets had already sent Gagarin into space. If we fail again, not only will the enemy’s press mock us, but America’s own press will too.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>James Webb came to NASA to make it great—not to turn it into another joke.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Ran said: “Hasn’t NASA suffered enough failures over the past five years?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I even counted them all during the hearings—more than one hand can hold.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Add this manned mission, and we’ve already had two delays—pushed from October to this May.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Would it be strange if another problem arose?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Sir, you must treat NASA’s failures as normal—and its successes as rare.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>James Webb fell silent, because Lin Ran was right.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In his month-plus at NASA, he’d seen countless internal files stamped with “failure.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Precisely because he’d seen so many failures, he wanted to restructure the organization.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Ran continued: “Opportunities often hide within difficulties.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I sense this might be a perfect chance to reshape NASA’s image in the public eye.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Not only can we rebuild how the public sees NASA, but we can also make our organizational restructuring smoother.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After listening, James Webb said: “Professor Lin, tell me what to do—I’ll fully support you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let’s go together to Cape Canaveral and personally observe the reinstallation of Freedom 7’s reaction control system.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Ran knew well: during Alan Shepard’s historic manned flight aboard Freedom 7, a critical control system failure occurred—the automatic attitude control failed to correct the spacecraft’s roll, forcing Shepard to manually stabilize it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To Lin Ran, this failure was an opportunity—an excellent chance to seize greater influence and authority.\u003C\u002Fp>",1001,"2026-06-19T21:37:46.551Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","470eeda5fe280d268dc56256089640c7b4cbcafb500e536f76ca17df0de8a40a","technology-invades-the-modern-world-chapter-75","technology-invades-the-modern-world-chapter-73",162,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Ftechnology-invades-the-modern-world-cover.jpg"]