Chapter 157 - 153 Dream Chaser_1

Regarding the first manned launch of the Unity and the world’s first space tourism & space station tourism mission undertaken by a commercial company, there were reactions from all quarters.

Foreign tycoons who had booked the "Eastern International" Space Hotel through Belmond company trained even harder at the astronaut training centers in Europe and Haidian District.

Since the establishment of "Eastern International", the major stakeholders were Xinyuan Company and Arianespace, with a smaller share given to Belmond group, and a portion was unexpectedly sold to an unimaginable buyer.

NACA.

Yes, NACA subscribed to a 3% shareholding, thus becoming a significant shareholder.

Of course, they didn’t get involved directly but did so through a subsidiary company; however, this was undoubtedly an initiative actively promoted by NACA.

It’s quite intriguing, but the major shareholders didn’t object, and in some ways, it wasn’t a bad thing.

Up to now, 39 tycoons had paid their deposits after some adjustments were made to the commercial crew program following the inaugural flight of Unity.

The number of spots for visiting the space station remained unchanged for now, with only one XS-62 touring capsule in practical use, able to accommodate at most five people. The seat fee was set according to the price of Unity, with the group rate for five people on both Unity and Unity being 13 million US dollars per person.

On the contrary, the cost of astronaut training was expensive, at 8 million US dollars just for this aspect.

Some tycoons who chose the 24-hour space tour without visiting the space station could share Unity, with nine people besides the commander, bringing the average seat cost down to 6.4 million US dollars.

A simple 24-hour trip to space was only 1440 US dollars, which is a bit crowded with ten people together, but still entirely sufficient; no one would complain about that.

Once the space hotel manufactured by Arianespace is launched and operational, Unity’s nine seats can be fully occupied, which in turn will lower the unit price even further.

Eastern International’s external operational policy of not increasing the launch cost with additional seats but decreasing the individual price if tourists can bring in more people for group bookings welcomed wide praise from the wealthy, adding more charm to the offer.

Even the training fees could be slightly discounted, resembling a space version of Pinduoduo.

This was a very attractive feature for the tycoons because for many of them, the thought of a second or third trip to space loomed, and a cheaper price was of course better; a small discount could mean saving millions of dollars.

It was the same within the country, where Lin Ju discovered that aside from two Mas and one Wang, there were so many other wealthy individuals, with nine opting for a 7-day space station tour and twelve for the 24-hour space trip.

Of course, the most eager were the ISS.

In March this year, shortly after Unity replaced the Tiangong crew, ISS carried out its first manned launch mission of the year, still using Russia’s Alliance Spaceship.

On March 19th, TMA-19M successfully transported three astronauts to the International Space Station.

What about TMA-18M? To dispel the doubts of ISS member countries, it made an uncrewed launch firing blanks, delivering several hundred kilograms of cargo to supply the International Space Station.

In truth, all countries understood that the Alliance Spacecraft was still reliable, but who would accommodate Russia’s excessive demands? Without some financial pain, they wouldn’t be able to launch at all.

None suggested that Xinyuan Company take over the launch missions; in fact, after the release of the tripartite lunar exploration plan, NACA, with its Artemis program, tightly bound the member countries, with political correctness sealing their lips.

The Artemis program was an international collaborative effort, with twelve astronauts from various countries in training. Did they still wish to go up there?

Only two obstinate players, France and Italy, managed to reach a preliminary lunar exploration cooperation agreement with their space agencies, boasting some confidence but lacking the strength to defy the table decisively.

However, after the successful manned launch of Unity, they once again became active.

The Unity is good, and what’s good about it? It’s crowded.

The disclosed launch price for the Unity remains unchanged at 50 million US dollars, and the astronauts that ISS intends to send do not require additional training. Gather 9 people for one launch, and the cost per person is only about 5.6 million US dollars.

How much was the cost per person for the launch mission undertaken by Xinyuan Company last September? 16 million US dollars, which is a drastic two-thirds reduction.

Compared to that, the price of an Alliance Spaceship this year is 58 million US dollars per person.

Therefore, the head of the Italian Aerospace Agency, Badis, directly appealed through the media:

Let’s postpone the manned mission in July this year. Combine the next two missions, send up 9 people and bring down another 9, and even considering other costs it won’t exceed 60 million US dollars. It’s fast and cheap, so why squeeze into the ’old and shabby’ Alliance Spaceship?

As this appeal went public, the public naturally couldn’t understand all the twists and turns, only grasping the media’s carefully calculated disclosure: "The cost of launching astronauts using the space shuttle is only one-tenth of that using a spacecraft."

The protest crowds, which had already begun to gather in European streets and alleys, unified and paraded around with their signs.

This time, their expressed sentiment had changed: We’re not saying the ISS shouldn’t do spaceflight, but why not save hundreds of millions of US dollars when we can? Why not save it for social welfare?

Now the public also felt the protest organizations made sense. With a tenfold difference, how could anyone justify wasting money, regardless of opposition?

The European member states of the ISS, especially the smaller countries, thought it was great. If the cost for one astronaut could be reduced to just over 5 million, financially struggling countries like Spain could also afford to send a few astronauts each year.

NACA... was not troubled by this.

Under intense public pressure, Montal did not compromise as the public thought he would. Instead, NACA responded to the news from a different angle.

Director Claire announced that the Dream Chaser mini space shuttle, developed by Nevada Mountain Company, is planned as the successor to the congressional reinstated Space Shuttle "New Space Transport System (NSTS)," with minor modifications to the plan.

The manned version of the Dreamer Space Shuttle will have a slight change, with its maximum takeoff weight reduced from 20 tons to 15 tons, but the number of crew members increased from 7 to 9, on par with the Unity.

The manned version of the Dreamer Space Shuttle will be launched using the reusable Falcon 9, with launch costs of 39 million US dollars, and the single maintenance fee for the Dream Chaser will not exceed 30 million US dollars.

Nevada Mountain Company received 2 billion US dollars for this project. Progress has greatly accelerated, with the first unmanned flight test expected to be completed by October this year, and a manned flight by January.

The cost per crew member would be as low as 5.5 million US dollars, even cheaper than the Unity!

Then immediately came a "source" revealed by CNN. The astronauts for the next three ISS launch missions could just wait to gather 9 people and then ride the Dreamer up; the timing was the same as booking the Unity.

The furious European public quieted down, and the ISS European member states were silenced by the Dream Chaser, with nothing more to say.

However, industry insiders could see obvious problems with the NSTS plan disclosed by NACA.

The revised manned Dream Chaser underwent many changes. An unmanned test flight in October was feasible with sufficient funding, but would they really dare to conduct a manned flight on the second trial?

And then there’s the disclosed launch price, which completely omits the construction cost of the Dream Chaser and does not include telemetry, personnel expenses, and such integral costs.

Arianespace, based on NACA’s past experience, believed the Dream Chaser project would ultimately cost around 3 billion US dollars, with a ticket price per person unlikely to be less than 22 million US dollars in order to recoup costs. Only after about 10 launches could they recover the research and development costs, reducing it to around 15 million dollars.

So if they were chasing a single seat price of 5.5 million US dollars, then the Dream Chaser was truly chasing a distant dream.