Chapter 100 - 96 Aerospace Development Committee ADC_1

On August 6, Falcon 9 successfully completed its first sea recovery.

No one knew if the previous failures had exhausted all its bad luck, but this time, the thrice-reused Falcon 9 landed precisely in the center of the tugboat, absolutely perfect.

Now the whole world knew that Sky Fork had become the second space enterprise to master mature rocket recovery technology after New Yuan.

Meanwhile, the CZ-6 Remote 3 Rocket had been fully assembled. According to schedule, it would carry six satellites on August 11, launched from the Selenium Chang Satellite Launch Center into a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit.

But now He Tang didn’t want to launch, and neither did the person in charge of the Selenium Chang Satellite Launch Center.

"Old He, CZ-6 blew up Bingzhou, Jiuquan too, and if this continues, it will blow up my Selenium Chang as well, then Qiongzhou, and then there’ll be nowhere left to blow up."

He Tang was left speechless by the head of the Selenium Chang Satellite Launch Center, and it took him a while to muster up phrases like "failure in experimentation isn’t considered failure," "collecting experience," and the like.

He himself looked at the CZ-6 with a sigh. After two failed launches, the CZ-6-R had continuously improved, and the first stage rocket was now indistinguishable from New Yuan-1 Beta, but that didn’t mean it could be successfully reused.

The engine had been perfectly handled by Institute Six as if they had taken some sort of stimulant. Flight control and recovery legs were the work of Institute Eight, so there was no passing the blame.

In the difficult research on recovery control technology that had already lasted for 9 months, the more He Tang understood, the more desperate he became:

Rocket recovery was theoretically feasible, but the actual operation was far too complex. To achieve it, either you did like Ma Yilong and exploded until you ran out of mistakes and naturally succeeded—hadn’t their launches been successful every time these days? Once you found that successful point, there would no longer be any technical barriers.

Or you could be like New Yuan, which had found the solution from the start, but that was too difficult. It required a one-in-a-million genius to luckily stumble upon it.

Grid fin capture recovery was even more outrageous, an order of magnitude more difficult than leg recovery—it was too frightening to even contemplate.

During another sleepless night, He Tang suddenly received a piece of gossip from a friend in Beijing:

Instructions had come from above: the Space Agency would engage in large-scale military-civil cooperation with New Yuan, selling each other some sensitive or high-tech components and materials, which included the RX-01 data bus and the control assembly for leg recovery technology.

...

The impact of reusable rockets, the more than 1500-ton thrust New Yuan-2, the H1 spaceplane, and the Eastern Express rescue plan had a huge impact on the higher-ups. In addition to brewing a new round of space system reforms, they also proposed a new space program that included private enterprises, officially titled:

"8·15 Future Aerospace Technology and Space Exploration Development and Promotion Committee"

Simplified as the 815 Aerospace Development Committee (China Aerospace Development Committee), acronym CADC, and also abbreviated as Aerospace Development Committee.

The committee would be led by the Space Agency, with Institute One, Institute Five, Institute Eight, and private enterprises as the backbone forces. Together they would carry out China’s future space plans, including:

Building China’s own large space station;

Unmanned deep space exploration plans for the Moon and Mars;

Manned deep space exploration plans for the Moon and Mars;

Plans for permanent manned scientific research stations on the Moon (short term) and Mars (long term);

Exploration plans for planets within the Solar System (mainly via probes);

Universal observation plans (space telescopes);

Commercial space tourism industry plans;

Space resource development (electricity, agriculture) plans;

...

The emergence of New Yuan Aerospace Power Company seriously disrupted the higher-ups’ judgment, making them ponder why the advent of a private aerospace enterprise was so effective and whether there were problems with the original system, ultimately deciding to carry out a major reform of China’s traditional aerospace model.

Subsequently, the Aerospace Development Committee would make decisions about the space program, which would then be approved by a special task force consisting of several Big Shots, before being allocated a budget to commence execution. No longer would there be a rigid set of steps to follow or specific timelines to adhere to, as long as the budget allowed, they could carry out the program.

This was a completely bold attempt, prioritizing science over politics as the leading force, allowing the space program to develop freely and easing the original constraints.

The executing agency would be chosen or assigned by the Aerospace Development Committee from among the space bureaus and private enterprises, which would provide research funding or technical support before simply verifying the outcomes based on the plan’s requirements.

As for the budgeting of aerospace projects, no major adjustments would be made for the time being, but a special channel would be opened for direct communication with higher authorities, allowing for additional funding beyond expectations.

Even Lin Ju hadn’t anticipated that the higher-ups would take such a huge step, which was essentially a complete upheaval of the old paradigm.

However, he had to admire their wisdom. On the surface, the Aerospace Development Committee held enormous power and a high status, but if chaos or unsatisfactory results emerged, disbanding it could eliminate any repercussions, keeping control firmly in their hands.

Yet for Lin Ju, the existence of the Aerospace Development Committee was a great thing because the decisions within the committee involved both the space bureaus and private enterprises with equal voting rights; currently, the only one qualified was New Yuan Aerospace Power.

This meant that as long as a decision was passed, even embarking on a manned Moon landing immediately would not be an issue. They could completely use the nation’s finances to complete systematic tasks while wearing a "tiger’s skin" for business, making many aspects much more convenient.

It was also good news for the many scientists within the space bureaus. They could now decide whether to undertake certain space missions without waiting for assignments from higher authorities or slow approvals after reporting, thus reducing administrative time and costs.

The Aerospace Development Committee was established in Beijing, with its headquarters set up there, and various space agencies and New Yuan set up offices.

Lin Ju’s current role was as the representative of the private enterprise New Yuan Aerospace Power in the Aerospace Development Committee, theoretically on the same level as the space bureau Big Shots, wielding the power to make recommendations for space plans through standing committee meetings.

The first task for the Aerospace Development Committee: small-scale technical exchanges between the space bureaus and New Yuan to unify technical standards.

The first and most important was the spacecraft docking interface.

The space bureau used a 0.85-meter circular interface, while New Yuan had both a 0.9-meter circular interface and a 2.5-meter square interface.

The 0.85-meter and 0.9-meter circular interfaces were similar and not much different; either could be used, and Lin Ju, of course, preferred his own, as it required less modification work.

The large interface was controversial because the 2.5-meter square interface was simply too big, reaching an area of 6.25 square meters, compared to only 0.56 square meters for the 0.85-meter circular interface. The gap was just too large.

The International Space Station only used 1.2-meter square or circular interfaces, and such a large size sounded somewhat frightening.

Moreover, New Yuan’s 2.5-meter square interface took a unique technical route. Using an integral door for such a large hatch would take up too much space, so the door was sliding and folding, which sounded less reliable and was technically challenging.

After discussions, the small docking interface would be standardized to New Yuan’s more advanced 0.9-meter circular interface and RX01 protocol.

The large docking interface would be standardized to New Yuan’s 2.5-meter square interface, as the space bureau had no reserve for large docking interfaces and Androff indicated that the 2.5-meter square interface was mature.

The second was the protocol; the communication protocol for spacecraft had to be unified.

New Yuan proposed using their own RX01 data bus, arguing it was much more capable and reliable than the 1553B.

The RX01 data bus required eight chipset groups, 64 functional modules, and could be expanded and changed as needed, making it more flexible and advanced than the 1553B.

The chipsets and functional modules required for the RX01 had very low production processes and could be produced domestically. They could even use existing general-purpose DSP chipsets to function, and exclusive custom chips would only increase reliability and reduce system complexity without affecting performance.

Lin Ju announced he would provide a free license for the RX01 within the Aerospace Development Committee, which really left the others with no resistance.

And then he dropped another bombshell: landing leg recovery technology could be shared by selling the entire control system package, with a one-time purchase, free lifetime service, and paid customization available for rockets below a 5-meter diameter.

He also revealed that the maturity and stability of New Yuan’s recovery control technology were due to the use of the RX01 data bus.