Chapter 156 - 152 Commercial Launch_1

"Factory Manager Lin, is Factory Manager Lin there?"

Fifteen minutes before the launch, Chen Weizhang suddenly shouted in the radio, following the trend of recent months and calling him Factory Manager Lin.

Lin Ju, who was slightly more invested in this commercial launch mission, sat in front of his computer and responded to Chen Weizhang, "I’m here, Chairman Chen. Although I’m not at the launch site, I’ve been watching you guys the whole time."

Chen Weizhang said, "Factory Manager Lin, I’m about to head to space before you, and I want to say: Xinyuan Company has done a great job, and I’m also aboard a space plane made by Chinese people. Let those Americans eat our dust!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than laughter of varying degrees broke out both inside and outside the live broadcast.

Chen Weizhang’s words had the stereotypical brusqueness of a coal boss, but they were indeed gratifying to hear. Only a few could guess he was actually a bit nervous and was using this bravado to bolster his own courage.

Perhaps feeling the need to show off a bit himself, Chen Jun promptly interjected:

"I want to continue working for the company for another twenty years, and strive to go to space every year!"

Lin Ju, who was seen on screen, nodded with a smile, "As long as the sales are good, you can go to space every year, I’ll even pilot the ship for you!"

Their banter didn’t disrupt the launch sequence. As long as the control center monitored the five people’s stable condition, everything proceeded as planned.

The audience watching the live stream found it very interesting. As it was a commercial launch, there were no newscasts to watch, but the number of people watching online spiked compared to last year, with several millions tuning in.

The 4G network had already been fully rolled out, and the development of the mobile internet enabled more and more people to move away from traditional media dependency. Things would peak in September when TikTok came out, which would be a benchmark for the ascendance of the mobile internet.

Short videos were both loved and hated, but it was undeniable that their popularity could sweep the world and generate vast amounts of traffic.

The online viewing audience was much more active than those in front of the TV. For today’s commercial launch, the top trending topic of the morning was "How far is space from the average person?"

Due to Lin Ju’s almost reckless trend of sending people into space "for free," common people even began to labor under the illusion that going into space was becoming accessible to the masses.

This impression was mostly due to the lottery conducted by the XC4, which selected ten lucky winners. They were somewhat wealthier than the average person, but not extravagantly so, which made many feel that going to space was within reach in their lifetime and sparked great enthusiasm for space travel.

This was exactly what Lin Ju wanted to see and was striving towards even more.

Three minutes to countdown, the four passengers all simultaneously took deep breaths, closed their eyes, and then opened them again.

Whether they were executives of billion-dollar companies or super-rich tycoons, space travel is a profoundly noble endeavor.

Now seated inside the spacecraft, their level of excitement was no different from that of ordinary people.

Hu Dong, who was going to space for the second time, was more practiced. He kept checking the physical condition of the four of them and adjusted his posture to prepare for the overload.

As the countdown reached zero, Chen Jun felt his ears go silent for a second, then he felt glued to his seat, his legs went soft and were immediately replaced by the pressure of the G-force chair, goosebumps covering his entire body.

He told himself: it was worth it.

Ten minutes later, the second-stage rocket detached from the Firm Spacecraft, as did the fluid connectors, and the Firm Spacecraft officially entered orbit.

Forty minutes later, the Firm Spacecraft caught up with the Tiangong Space Station and gradually slowed down to join it.

Since the docking hatch was moved to the rear, the docking maneuver was assisted by astronauts inside the space station in addition to the automatic docking. Fortunately, the SC09 was very powerful, and it easily inserted the tail docking port.

The locking mechanism activated, and the Firm Spacecraft detected through the data link that the air pressure on both sides of the airlock was equal. Hu Dong then gently opened the hatch after confirming this.

It was not until then that Mae Mayu carefully unfastened his seatbelt, opened his visor, and slowly floated up to the top of the crew cabin under the influence of momentum. With a gentle push with his hand, he drifted down at an angle.

"It’s so amazing!"

Chen Weizhang didn’t try experiencing weightlessness first; instead, he leaned his head close to the porthole, gazing down at the vast land of Africa below, where the shapes of tectonic plates, once only visible on maps, were now clearly in view.

So engrossed was he that he didn’t even notice his own legs floating up and inadvertently kicking Chen Jun in the head.

Chen Weizhang muttered to himself, "Damn, even a coarse guy like me has become an astronaut!"

...

When the senior leaders saw the successful commercial launch of the Firm Spacecraft, they also received information about Masashi Okada.

After information gathered by their subordinates was analyzed, it was preliminarily determined that Okada’s "sneak away" was voluntary, likely due to the extreme pressure from severe corruption within JAXA, which led to his departure.

Furthermore, evidence suggested that before Okada departed, he had been in contact with several engineers from JAXA, more than ten of whom had already applied for passports.

Leaders were left speechless for a while, wondering just how dire things at JAXA must be for it to cause internal resentment, with a chief engineer defecting and potentially taking a bunch of engineers with him!

After arranging for personal confirmation from Okada and Lin Ju, the leadership decided: as long as Okada’s departure was voluntary, he could be fast-tracked through the technical expert channel for immigration procedures;

He should promptly hand over his responsibilities domestically, complete the resignation process and change of nationality to avoid further issues;

The news of this would be made public as late as possible, waiting for JAXA to initiate inquiries.

However, before significant JAXA updates could wait, the senior leadership presented a major topic to the Standing Committee today:

Suggestions for vigorously developing the space industry and enhancing space-related employees’ understanding of space.

The name might be somewhat lengthy, but it fit the essence of the suggestion:

In short, it meant that "space industry workers, especially leaders, apart from serving policy plans, must have an intuitive and comprehensive understanding of space;

Where possible, consider allowing core scientific researchers and management cadres to reach space by any means to assess space’s status and significance from another perspective;

And in the future, the possibility of allowing non-industry-related personnel to visit space, providing it does not affect the space program, should not be excluded, with a special fund approved annually for this expenditure, categorized under ’spiritual construction’."

However, contrary to the leadership’s expectations, the first reaction they received after making the statement was not dissent but an unexpected development they had never considered.

The others thought the senior leader wanted to go to space!

The conference room erupted into chaos, as a typically solemn and serious group passionately voiced their opinions, attempting to explain why it would be highly risky and ill-suited for someone of the senior leader’s status to go to space — suggesting they should take on the task instead, even if it meant serving the people at the sake of their own sacrifice.

Watching his thoughts being distorted by a swarm of sycophants, the senior leader wore an expression of utter frustration and re-explained the source of his inspiration, clarifying that he definitely had no intentions... at least not for now... of going to space, and that such a valuable opportunity should be reserved for the most competent individuals.

He deemed this a special form of "advanced training," currently exclusive to the aerospace industry, with significant funding involved, so it had to be maximized for value.

This time, the meeting lasted a long time.