Chapter 122 - 118: Moving into the Space Station_1

On the morning of November 19 at 6 a.m., at Qiongzhou Space Launch Site.

Six astronauts took the oath at the launch ceremony, wearing the cabin suits from Xinyuan and each carrying a small air conditioner. They proceeded through the media-lined red carpet and boarded the Coaster.

The spacesuits manufactured for Xinyuan were more advanced and lightweight. After due consideration, the Manned Space Committee decided to adopt Xinyuan’s standard spacesuit for this Unity mission.

Since they were already using private enterprise rockets and spacecraft, there was no need to stick to their own cumbersome spacesuits and suffer embarrassment. Moreover, Unity was a spacecraft, and it wasn’t very convenient for the commander to manually operate the controls in a bulky suit, as it might lead to accidental touches.

When launching the Shenzhou 11, there was also discussion within the Space Agency about whether to send up three astronauts with the Shenzhou Spaceship, but the idea was eventually rejected.

The Tiangong Phase One complex, with three modules, was just right to accommodate six astronauts. Sending three via the Shenzhou Spaceship and three via the Unity spacecraft seemed redundant. Instead, the Shenzhou 11 was used as a cargo craft, stuffing in plenty of supplies.

In the future, the Shenzhou spacecraft would mainly serve as an emergency escape vehicle and provide power and electrical energy to the complex. It would also be convenient for astronauts to return to Earth when the spacecraft was not available.

The six people boarded the Unity four hours before launch, secured themselves, and waited for the repetitive self-checks. They also had time to chat with each other.

This mission was not strongly research-focused. Apart from Zhou Rui, who was a bona fide payload specialist, the rest were professional astronaut types.

Three from the Space Agency, one from Xinyuan, four rookies, and two experienced ones were to spend 30 to 90 days in space. Once back on the ground, they would all become experienced astronauts.

The reason for the wide range was that the Space Agency’s previous record for the longest time astronauts had stayed in space was no more than 15 days. Although Tiangong Phase One was fully capable of supporting long-duration astronaut habitation, their actual adaptability still needed to be seen.

In the cabin of the entire spacecraft, Zhou Rui was the most relaxed. For him, every flight was an incredible enjoyment, and who knows if there would be any in the future.

Zhao Xiaowen had been all set to go but got pulled away to work on lasers, so Xinyuan pushed him forward. Deng Lei was sidelined due to participating in three consecutive "high-intensity" flights; he stayed on the ground to train rookies and would only be up for rotation in the following batch.

"Liu Ming, Commander, how does it feel to pilot the Unity?"

"It’s awesome haha." Liu Ming had already set the self-check program and stretched out his hand to give Zhou Rui below a thumbs-up.

Liu Ming had participated in the Space Agency’s third manned mission. He still remembers the situation back then; it was China’s first spacewalk mission. First, the hatch wouldn’t open, and Zhang Zhiguang had to forcefully pry it open. Then a fire alarm went off in the orbital module, and both thought they wouldn’t make it back.

Plus, the spacesuits were too cramped; even moving inside the spacecraft required extreme caution. But what about Unity? There was a large window next to each seat. A crew cabin that could potentially fit four seats only comfortably housed two, and it was difficult for seated crew members sitting side by side to even touch each other’s arms.

Now, he was glad that when Xinyuan Company and the Space Agency conducted joint training, he took advantage of nearly 200 hours in the simulator at the Ulanha Mountain base. When selecting for the Unity mission four, his simulator hours ranked second on the team, and he was chosen as the commander.

The first? Captain Li was held down by the Manned Space Flight Office; they wouldn’t let him go no matter what.

Unity was now famous. After rescuing three ISS astronauts on the remote two missions, the Progress spacecraft was also awarded the title of "Heroic Spacecraft" by the government, with a red star painted on the tail fin.

At 9 a.m., the New Yuan 5 Rocket carrying the Unity spacecraft launched from Position 03 at Qiongzhou Space Launch Site, sending six astronauts into the 400KM orbit of the Tiangong Space Station.

Two hours after entering low Earth orbit, Unity approached the Tiangong Space Station, aligning its docking port on the back of the machine with the circular port beneath the Cloud Palace Core Module’s node module.

At this time, Tiangong Space Station was in a "T" shape, with Tiangong No.2 and Shenzhou 11 docked in a straight line, occupying two 0.9 meter circular ports. The node module had one remaining axial 2.5-meter square port and another 0.9-meter circular port to dock with Unity.

The docking procedure was completely automatic; Liu Ming’s role was merely to serve as a backup. At this moment, he and Hu Dong, the co-pilot from Xinyuan and a professional astronaut, were anxiously watching the docking port camera.

Under the action of the RCS, the Unity spacecraft kept moving and finally ascended gently after the lasers aligned, followed by a small, light tremor before it was steadily captured by the node module.

The indicator light on the overhead hatch turned green, indicating that the air pressure in the node module was the same as inside Unity, and it was safe to open the door.

The six began to unbuckle their seatbelts, and Hu Dong pressed the electric switch on the control panel. The hatch made a buzzing sound of electric motors before swinging outward.

Liu Ming grabbed the inner wall of the docking port and gently pushed himself, floating into the node module, where he couldn’t help but take a deep breath of the space station’s recycled air.

The length of the node module was 6 meters and the width was 7 meters. Aside from the docking passageway, the interior cubic space measured 3 x 3 x 4 meters, which is 36 cubic meters of space! That’s almost as much as the 40 cubic meters of Tiangong No.2!

Moreover, due to the soft white color of the cabin walls, it appeared even larger, feeling almost like an ordinary large bedroom.

Subsequently, the other five also entered the node module one by one, each expressing their amazement.

Just the node module alone, accommodating six people, did not feel crowded!

However, unlike them, at the ground control center and during the routine news broadcast, the astronauts on the screen were frozen in the node module for quite a while, and the ground staff thought something had gone wrong.

Luckily, it was just a false alarm, and after coming to their senses, the six followed the predetermined procedures and first entered the core module, the XS-62 model tourist cabin "Cloud Palace".

The 2.5 x 2.5 meters ultra-large square hatch was much larger than the narrow docking ports of the previous Shenzhou spacecraft. It might not seem like much at first glance, but when three astronauts passed through side by side almost simultaneously, it gave all the viewers a massive shock.

That was a 2.5-meter square hatch, and the astronauts’ average height was just over 1.7 meters—they could pass through standing upright, rather than having to carefully crawl out like passing through a sewer.

The first to enter was Zhou Rui, who saw the interior of the Cloud Palace Core Module, with a square chamber that had both width and height measuring 4.7 meters.

The interior of the Cloud Palace Core Module was divided into two parts: the space next to the core module was a square section 4.7 meters wide, and the rear half was a circular space with a diameter of 6.8 meters.

Since they had converted it into six single bedrooms and added service facilities, the space volume had decreased from 620 cubic meters to 560 cubic meters, but it still felt incredibly spacious, unbelievably so for something attainable in space.

And in front of television sets at the primary broadcast audience on the ground, countless people also exclaimed "wow".

In their minds, space cabins were like cramped cans, small and narrow, but the spaciousness they saw completely overturned their past conceptions.

Just by calculating the area of the square space, one gets 96 square meters—a three-bedroom, one-living-room apartment would be about this size, not counting common areas.

And the circular space offered an additional 360 cubic meters of room!

However, unlike the ground audience, who could only exclaim "wow", those in orbit were more focused on other aspects.

For instance, the astronauts on the ISS International Space Station were also watching the live feed.

The size of the Yungong Space Station was indeed enviable, but what truly made people green with envy was that in the video, Zhou Rui casually slid open a cabin door. It was an independent toilet with a 4 square meter area equipped with a toilet and shower, and it was only one of two.