Chapter 79: Greatly Meritorious Assistant Lin

Looking at history, Lin Ran felt that everything was particularly strange. Cooper even pulled off a ruthless stunt like piloting an F-106 fighter jet to fly low over the NASA building at Cape Canaveral.

NASA had clearly called off Cooper's mission and changed it to Shepard, but ultimately still decided to continue having Cooper complete it.

Even if America didn't require discipline, under normal circumstances, this was impossible, and the requirements were so low.

Therefore, Lin Ran persuaded James Webb to go to the Cape Canaveral aerospace launch base with him.

Besides wanting to see Freedom 7, it was to find a suitable reason to tell James Webb his speculation.

You couldn't just suspect the other party was sick without even meeting Shepard, right?

Pulling the time back to April, after Lin Ran and James Webb visited Cape Canaveral together, Lin Ran told the other party his observations:

"I don't think Colonel Alan Shepard is right."

James Webb's expression was heavy: "I felt it too.

His reaction was a bit slow during my conversation with him."

As a former lawyer and financial personnel, James Webb's observation of details was beyond doubt; when he shook hands with Shepard, he noticed Shepard's abnormality.

Lin Ran continued: "I suspect that not only does Freedom 7 have problems, but Colonel Shepard himself was also carefully selected.

Because we want to change NASA's loose status quo, this will affect NASA's current pattern. In order to give us a deterrent, they didn't hesitate to pay the price of Freedom 7's failure and the astronaut's life."

Since then, after James Webb returned to Washington to report, with the assistance of the *IA, he first found Colonel Shepard's private doctor, who revealed that Colonel Shepard had consulted him before being selected about his physical discomfort and how he could cover it up during the physical examination process.

Then, with the private doctor's consultation records, he found Alan Shepard's original physical examination report from a doctor at Hermann Hospital in Houston.

It clearly recorded: Alan Shepard suffers from Meniere's disease.

The doctor who cooperated with the fraud was also taken away for questioning.

Having only joined NASA for a short two months, James Webb felt he was already more tired than after two years of politics in Washington.

He was also glad that there was Lin Ran; if there hadn't been Lin Ran, the pot of Freedom 7's failure would have been firmly received.

From the perspective of James Webb and the White House, Lin Ran had made great contributions.

For the White House, Lin Ran had completed their initial expectations very well: hoping Lin Ran could break NASA's deadlock.

As for why NASA didn't make trouble again in the original space-time, this was because James Webb had raised NASA's budget from the past 500 million USD to 1 billion USD in just one year.

James Webb's deep connections in Washington could help NASA get research funding, leading to a significant decrease in opposition within the entire organization.

And if Lin Ran wanted to gain prestige within NASA and make the position of Special Assistant for Aerospace Affairs a position with real power, and he couldn't bring direct benefits to NASA like James Webb, his method was to take a side path.

In the early days, Newton was known as Sir Newton; in the last century, Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao could fall out because of authorship; in this century, Shing-Tung Yau and Tian Gang also quarreled endlessly.

When scientists fight for power and profit, they are not only not inferior to politicians, but even worse.

After confirming that Shepard was sick, James Webb's trust in Lin Ran's guess that Freedom 7 had problems also increased significantly.

It was also under this physical examination report that James Webb was able to obtain Kennedy's support by announcing the replacement of Alan Shepard within twelve hours before takeoff.

Because for this White House, this would be a perfect opportunity to thoroughly clean up NASA.

Also for Kennedy, this was a perfect opportunity to make a clean break with the past NASA.

This White House would not be responsible for NASA's past failures.

At the Cape Canaveral press conference, Kennedy waved his hands, his expression impassioned:

"We must continue to move forward, for the progress of science, for the honor of the country, for the future of humanity.

NASA has too many problems. The White House will establish a special investigation team, with Vice President Lin Deng Johnson as the team leader, to conduct a detailed investigation into NASA's past problems.

Including this incident, as well as every rocket launch failure of NASA in the past.

I solemnly promise here that the government will thoroughly investigate NASA, severely punish those responsible, and will never allow any conspiracy to hinder us from achieving the great goal of space exploration.

Facing the failure of Freedom 7, this is the failure of the past NASA; in the future, under the leadership of James Webb and Randolph Lin, NASA will only usher in one success after another.

Failure is a test on our path forward, not a reason to retreat.

Although we have encountered setbacks, I firmly believe that America will not be knocked down by difficulties.

Our space race with Soviet Russia is just beginning, and it is far from being a settled matter!

Finally, I will promise here that before the end of this decade, America will achieve the goal of sending humans to the moon and returning them safely to Earth..."

Kennedy was speaking impassionedly on the stage, trying to offset the bad luck of this manned space flight failure and the serious problems within NASA by announcing that America was going to land humans on the moon, when a gunshot was vaguely heard from outside.

Then the atmosphere at the entire scene became tense.

A soldier wearing an Air Force uniform trotted to Kennedy's side and whispered in his ear:

"Mr. President, Luo Bote Gilruth, the director of the ground control center, has just committed suicide."

After Luo Bote Gilruth learned of Kennedy's speech content in the control center, he was panicked and uneasy, and committed suicide with the Smith & Wesson M29 revolver he carried with him.

Alan Shepard was the astronaut he directly determined for the first manned space flight.

Kennedy subsequently announced this news.

The reporters present were already numb, because the news density today was already high enough.

Every reporter lucky enough to come to the scene felt they had gained a lot.

If you want to report positive news, you can report Kennedy's announcement of moon landing.

If you want to report negative news, there is too much to write, from NASA deliberately playing tricks to Luo Bote Gilruth's suicide to Freedom 7's crash.

If you want to report legendary stories, Lin Ran's prediction is also a good angle.

Reporters are not like White House bureaucrats who can take a special plane back to Washington at any time.

Everyone can only wait for public transportation here.

Also, the reporters didn't want to go back so quickly; the manuscript had already been sent back to the newspaper office by fax, and their desire to discuss was already uncontrollable.

The reporters even found a campsite around the Cape Canaveral launch site, planning to have an outdoor barbecue, gathering in twos and threes to chat.

As for the manuscript, let the editors at the headquarters write it. ===== CHAPTER 80 =====