Chapter 137 - 133 Sparkle_1

February 5, Tiangong Space Station.

Today marks the 78th day since the six crew members arrived in space.

During this period, three of the crew members conducted a total of five extravehicular activities, performing some tasks without practical significance. Meanwhile, the Progress executed an unmanned resupply mission.

Their mental and physical health has been continuously monitored from the ground and is in excellent condition.

The only person who had it somewhat tough was Zhou Rui. Being older and not a professional astronaut, he has to spend 2 to 4 hours exercising every day; otherwise, he might face problems with his gravity function upon returning to Earth.

There was a minor issue. Several astronauts who got used to living in the Yungong Space Station needed some time to adapt when entering Tiangong No.2 Space Station and the Shenzhou Spaceship and showed a slight tendency towards claustrophobia.

So it goes to show, it’s easy to go from frugality to luxury, but hard the other way around~

Luckily, the new Tianhe Core Module, jointly developed by the Fifth Academy and New Yuan, is about to be launched. The Tianhe Core Module has a docking port and a node module, which will allow for future expansion to nine docking ports, making its expandability MAX.

With the launch of the Tianhe Core Module, the second phase of Tiangong construction will start from April 2016 to April 2017. Four modules including a core module, a Tianzhou Cargo Spacecraft, and two laboratory modules will be launched to form a combination of 280 tons in space with seven cabins.

The Tianhe Core Module, Ask Heaven laboratory module, and Dream Heaven laboratory module will all be launched using the New Yuan-2. These gigantic modules have a diameter of 7.6 meters and vary in weight from 38 to 43 tons.

At that time, the maximum number of people that can be accommodated simultaneously will increase to 12—six in Tianhe and three in each laboratory module. The entire assembly will have 2040 cubic meters of space, surpassing the International Space Station.

Because of the launch of the Tianhe Core Module, the Cloud Palace Core Module will be used as a commercial segment by New Yuan, open to the first batch of tourists who have completed their training.

From April 2017 to April 2018, the third phase of Tiangong, the final step, will see the launch of the Sky Patrol space telescope, as well as a space hotel made by the Italy Ariane Space Company, which will dock with it. The final total mass will be around 330 tons, on par with the International Space Station.

The entire assembly will be able to accommodate up to 27 people at the same time, compared to the ISS’s 13.

This ambitious space station project received unanimous praise from the space agency. However, before that, the task of the Tiangong Space Station was to celebrate the New Year.

Following the procedure, the six astronauts will stick Spring Festival couplets together and then greet the New Year during the live broadcast of the Spring Festival Gala, also celebrating the first Chinese Lunar New Year in space for the Chinese people.

Then, on March 10, their 112th day in space, the Unity will launch again to send a new group of six astronauts into space and retrieve them afterwards.

But before watching the New Year’s greeting from outside the atmosphere, you can also see the inside the atmosphere.

...

"Class 4, Zhuang Tao, step forward!"

"Present!"

"Class 5, Zhao Weihao, Li Chenyang, step forward!"

"..."

Inside the temporary flight school, expanded and refitted from a hangar, 28 instructors took turns calling out students who had already obtained their preliminary flying certification from each class.

Of these 28 instructors, 12 were retired pilots recruited by New Yuan to be trained as professional astronauts, 8 were New Yuan base employees who were excellent fliers, and 8 were sent by the western air force.

The situation for the staff and students at the B-level Base was different; they found it very easy to accumulate flight hours. Monthly workshop awards and technical assessments awarded flight time, allowing them to easily accumulate hundreds of free hours.

It goes without saying that as long as you weren’t a total slacker who didn’t want to go, you could fly anytime you wanted at the base without worrying about money.

Thus, some talented engineers quickly emerged, with flying a plane after work becoming a leisure activity for New Yuan Company employees.

Every evening after 5 p.m., the neighboring residents could hear the sound of V8 aviation engines and propellers, and they would see groups of Colored Cloud Initial Teaching Machines descending from the sky, whizzing past the tree bark and leaving behind a trail of fallen leaves.

These aerospace engineers, relying on their technical expertise, were very familiar with the capabilities of the initial teaching machines and flew boldly. As they would fly when the students were off from school, an additional after-school activity was born for the elementary and middle school students: watching the planes.

The nearby elementary and middle schools also actively contacted New Yuan, hoping to have the flying team come to their schools for activities. So while there were complaints about the flight school disturbing residents, people were actually quite welcoming.

The air force was much more interesting: they claimed their presence was to ensure the safety of training a large number of students, supervising on-site while also acting as volunteer instructors, appearing enthusiastic.

In reality, these "instructors" spent their days going through the students’ training records, specifically looking for promising candidates to establish relationships with; it seemed they were treating New Yuan as a talent reserve.

Air force leaders initially regretted giving New Yuan such extensive privileges due to the abundance of planes, but they soon realized:

The students coming to the B-level Base for training were mainly aeronautical and astronautical majors from universities, with relevant majors and almost 3,000 in number, a figure that’s guaranteed to increase each year. Even if only one in twenty turned out to be an outstanding pilot, that was significant.

This was essentially a treasure trove of excellent talents obtained for free, allowing for early selection, yearly recruitment, and reduced training costs for themselves.

However, what disappointed them was that the effect of their talent poaching wasn’t as good as they anticipated.

If the air force had been willing to recruit pilots from universities before, it would have been popular, but now the students from the Aerospace Institute and other collaborating disciplines were different. They had the opportunity to work with aerospace companies, which ranked high nationally and even globally, after graduation, drive planes like cars, and even venture into space in the future.

Compared to this, the allure of being a pilot wasn’t as strong anymore.

To think, I could one day use the line, "Want to ride an airplane? I’ll take you flying." How incredibly cool that would be.

While New Yuan’s salary levels weren’t particularly outstanding, simply maintaining such a large fleet of aircraft was tremendously expensive. An average engineer’s monthly wage might not even cover the cost of flying a training plane for an hour or two each day.

On February 6th, 28 instructors and 14 outstanding students took off from the airport in 18 Flying Dragon intermediate trainers and 24 Colored Cloud initial trainers, forming a fleet and taking pictures with a helicopter flying alongside them.

The first batch of flight students hadn’t yet graduated, but the first batch of Flying Dragon trainers had been successfully rolled out.

As for the Meteor advanced trainers, the company had to wait until it resumed operations in March before it could start assembling the first batch.

With 42 airplanes trailing colored smoke, they were even specially authorized to perform aerial shows over the city, executing various complex maneuvers above the urban area for 40 minutes before leaving the scene.

However, this did nothing to alleviate the protests from the suburban residents of New Yuan City; with the number of planes increasing each day, the government had no choice but to relocate a small group of residents living near the airport.

The provincial government, on the other hand, was very supportive, promoting the idea of creating an "aviation city" even though New Yuan had only ordered a few planes...

Someone uploaded the air show to the internet, and the UK’s Westland Company, which had been acquired, was surprised to find a striking resemblance between New Yuan’s "Flying Dragon" and their own "Flying Dragon." If it hadn’t been six or seven decades past, well beyond the statute of limitations, they might have accused the other party of infringement.

February 7th was New Year’s Eve.

As the Spring Festival Gala neared its end, an additional location was connected: the Tiangong Space Station.

Six astronauts, both men and women, young and old clad in dark blue casual wear, pasted Spring Festival couplets at the junction of the square and circular sections of the Yungong Core Module.

Besides celebrating the New Year together, thanks to the unique nature of the Yungong Space Station, they could also gather around in the observation module and wrap dumplings with dumpling skins that had been meticulously kept moist all the way from Earth.

It was impossible for astronauts to make dough in space, as flour is a flammable and explosive material. If it drifted into any small crevice, it would be very troublesome, not to mention hazardous if inhaled into the human body.

After the dumplings were wrapped, boiling them also presented some difficulties, requiring a specially modified microwave to steam them out.

Just so the astronauts could enjoy freshly wrapped and "boiled" dumplings in space, an enormous amount of effort went into it on the ground.

The results, however, were evident and worth it. The Chinese People had a special obsession with freshly made, hot food, astronauts included. Only by personally cooking in the space station could they feel a sense of "home." Otherwise, constantly eating ready-made meals might be tasty, but it would always feel like being on a business trip.

Next, the program connected live to the Spring Festival events across various regions. This time, the scene in Qiongzhou remained unchanged with traditional songs and dances performed 2 kilometers in front of the rocket launch tower, except that the misty New Yuan-2 was much larger than last year’s tiny New Yuan-1, completely dominating the screen.

Fortuitously, the firework ban was not yet strictly enforced, so the host didn’t feel much dread when the Spring Festival Gala mentioned the upcoming major fireworks show.

As the program started, a large background screen displayed the launch site of New Yuan-2.

High-frequency launches of New Yuan-2 had become a common sight for many throughout the year, but a nighttime launch was still a first.

Audiences with last year’s fireworks experience understood what was about to happen.

As soon as the broadcast command center gave the signal, the launch command was immediately issued.

At the Spring Festival Gala venue and in front of televisions across the nation—and even overseas—countless people joined in the countdown together.

After all, this kind of program which would provoke a strong backlash from environmental groups was only possible in China, uncontested, and on such a grand scale. Who wouldn’t want to see the excitement?

As the countdown reached zero, New Yuan-2 ignited a second early and quickly ascended, trailing flames.

In the dark night sky, devoid of the moon, the glow from the seven M220 Liquid Oxygen Methane Engines lit up the sky, creating an even more magnificent spectacle than the previous year.

After 60 seconds, the second stage’s fifteen firework canisters reached their preset altitude and detached, with the first-stage rocket veering off to land.

In the camera feed, the sky suddenly sprouted eight shooting stars, which were eight firework canisters spreading outwards under the influence of solid rocket motors.

In Qiongzhou itself, many people, whether stepping out of their homes or standing on their balconies, could now see several bright lines in the sky.

Then, eight points of light exploded simultaneously, creating countless burning metal particles that masked the night sky and expanded rapidly, resembling an expanding sea of stars.

At the same time, the central illumination flare plus version exploded.

A sudden, incredibly bright flash erupted in the dark, illuminating the clouds and casting stark white shadows of everyone on the ground.

That was the brilliance of 15 tons of illumination flare burning at an insane rate!

Soldiers at nearby military bases were dazed, reminded of joint exercises where hundreds of illumination flares fired overhead were not as bright as this one—it was as if someone had flipped the switch of the sun!

Since there had been no rehearsal, the engineers at the launch center in New Yuan were also taken aback; it was too bright, outshining all the other fireworks!

At the Spring Festival Gala venue, crowds stared agape. Without debating the entertainment or artistic value, the scene reminiscent of a nuclear explosion was indeed memorable.

The year 2015 drew to a complete close, culminating with a bright new star.