Chapter 129 - 125: Space Station Tour_1

Life on the Tiangong Space Station for the six astronauts was also very enjoyable.

They worked a standard 6-hour day, completing scientific research tasks for the ground within these 6 hours, and the rest of the time they could allocate freely. Except for spacewalks which were approved by ground control, they could do whatever they wanted.

With three modules providing 650 cubic meters of living space, each person had an average of 108 cubic meters, so no one would feel cramped.

Before ascending to space, astronauts had to undergo adaptation training in confined spaces to get used to living in spacecraft.

But inside the Cloud Palace Core Module, whether 4.7 meters or 6.8 meters in height, it only gave a sense of spaciousness.

Before going up, they thought staying in the space station with six people for up to 90 days was a rather daunting task, but if it was in the Cloud Palace Core Module, it was no big deal.

Not only did the astronauts think so, but the audience on the ground thought so even more.

On the first day up, it was Deputy Commander and professional astronaut from New Yuan, Hu Dong, who introduced the audience in the live broadcast, and on the ISS Space Station over 10,000 kilometers away, astronauts from different countries also gathered together to watch the live broadcast of their colleague.

"First, greetings to friends all over the world... and perhaps even those in space might see me, I’m Hu Dong, let me start by showing you my bedroom where I slept last night."

Hu Dong floated over to a square cabin section, and then he pressed a switch above a protrusion that was about 30 cm out of the wall. An electric sliding door, covering about half of the wall, slid open inward, revealing the scene inside.

It was a bedroom about 3 meters in length and 2.5 meters in height, with an arc-shaped side forming the cabin wall, occupying a position above the right side of the circular cross-section of the core module.

The arrangement of the 6 bedrooms had 3 arranged opposite each other, two on the bottom and one on top; the bedroom interiors were mirror images of each other, meaning astronauts slept back to back.

After all, in weightless space, without reference points, any way one lies doesn’t make one feel upside down.

Inside the ISS Space Station, the six astronauts watching the live broadcast simultaneously muttered a friendly greeting.

What did they see? On the bedroom floor there was a 90 cm wide single bed, leaving a decent gap to the square cabin door.

Opposite the foot of the bed, about 1 meter away on the wall, there was a small desk, above which were storage compartments and a bookshelf. It allowed someone to sit at the foot of the bed and freely read or play on a computer; the fixed laptop there served as evidence.

Even more enviable was the arc-shaped side, where two round glass portholes displayed stars, a part of the Tiangong No.2 Space Station, and one-third of the Earth’s view!

One porthole was beside the desk and the other above the bed. From these two spots, a simple turn of the head was all it took to keep company with the cosmos.

The first and only astronaut from America to have entered ISS, Tim instantly thought about how he slept.

In the Star service module made by Russia, there were two sleeping bags fixed to the cabin wall. Sleeping meant crawling into them, which compared to the cabins in the Cloud Palace Core Module, felt like camping in a tent on a villa’s lawn – the difference was too great.

Just thinking of lying in such a comfortable bedroom, sipping tea at the desk, and turning his head to see the starry sky and Earth...

"(Translated) Shit! Why didn’t they let the Chinese join the ISS? That way, we too would be sleeping in bedrooms instead of hanging on the wall like reindeer heads."

American astronaut Scott answered him:

"(Translated) Tim, you know the reasons. Besides the Unity mission in October, ISS wanted to commission a cargo mission to New Yuan Aeronautics, but the Dragon Spaceship got it, NACA is keeping them at arm’s length."

Tim: "(Translated) What a mistake it was for America to be involved with the ISS; should have joined the Chinese from the start, we’d definitely get preferential treatment then!"

Scott: "(Translated) You’d definitely get it, but you’re too late. France and Italy have already confirmed with China’s National Space Administration to join the Tiangong Space Station."

"(Translated) Those two European traitors, huh?!"

...

Arguments abounded in the sky while the Internet environment on the ground was a scene of a different nature.

In China, there were supporters of America, Russia, India, and even Vietnam; likewise, abroad there was a considerably large group of China enthusiasts.

Of course, the China enthusiast group was generally non-Chinese. Chinese expats usually went to great lengths to disassociate themselves from China and took the opportunity to slander it a few times.

Among the China enthusiasts, the most numerous were from the Confucian cultural sphere, neighboring China, particularly Vietnam.

After some earnest experiences with its good neighbor, Vietnam almost entirely copied China’s model in many aspects, sometimes even resorting to copy-pasting, which once almost resulted in another matter due to not replacing all the details correctly.

The ultimate dream of many Vietnamese people was to sneak across the border to work in Kunming; their spirit of admiration for China was no less than that of the spirited America fans.

When the first phase of the Tiangong Space Station was completed, their typical reaction was "Wow, wow, wow."

Below a YouTube video, comments from Vietnam were so flattering they could make the Chinese people blush.

"China has already become the world’s number one superpower, America has fallen behind."

"Civilization is still civilization, far superior and cleaner compared to the barbarians’ space stations."

"Will the astronauts take the space station to the Moon? Asians can now land on the Moon too, long live China!"

"China is more powerful than the Union, love from Vietnam."

"If we were annexed by China, Vietnamese astronauts could go back into space."

"..."

Indeed, Vietnam had its astronauts. In 1980, as a junior partner of the Union, Hữu Thủy promised to send an astronaut from each of its smaller allies into space, and Phạm Tuân became the first Asian person in space, going there on an Alliance Spaceship.

Compared to this, the Island Country had many objective observers, and whenever its neighbor achieved something significant, they were glad to join in the celebration on the grounds of being fellow Asians.

Korea... it’s better left unsaid.

However, as long as the Tiangong Space Station’s live broadcast continued for even one day, it would constantly convert people into China enthusiasts, who would, sooner or later, wish to identify as spiritual Chinese people.

Besides, there was the soul-stirring Moon landing plan, wasn’t there?

Hu Dong was probably aware of this, so he continued with his commentary.

Apart from the bedrooms, the most distinctive feature of the Cloud Palace Core Module were the various functional areas. The vast space allowed for dedicated areas for dining, entertainment, and fitness instead of folding everything up against the cabin walls to save precious volume.

The dining/bar area was built at the very end of the Core Module in a spherical observation cabin. This 1.6 meters in diameter sphere, protruding from the cabin wall, could squeeze in all six astronauts, seated in a circle.

The dome above, made from 17 large portholes, allowed them to sit inside for rest, dining, and chatting with their upper bodies exposed to the universe.

To ensure the air-tightness and safety of this protruding section, 10% of the cabin’s budget was spent here, but everyone who experienced it felt it was worth every penny.

Compared to it, the ISS Space Station had no ground for comparison in terms of livability and entertainment.

This incensed the American Congress so much that they immediately instructed CNN to publish a report the next day:

"Have the Chinese people degenerated? Space is not a place for luxury."

An afternoon tabloid responded, with a front-page article: "Humanistic Care in Space is vitally important."