Chapter 158 - 154 Space Advanced Studies_1

Apart from the Dream Chaser, Space X also announced its own manned "Dragon" spacecraft.

Ma planned the second generation Dragon spacecraft three years in advance and directly started with the manned version.

After the NewSTS program was handed over to the Nevada Mountain Company’s Dream Chaser, Ma announced that the second generation Dragon spacecraft would make its maiden voyage before January 2017 and it would be a manned version.

This was two and a half years earlier than the second generation Dragon spacecraft on the previous timeline, with only minor configuration changes.

Still with a maximum weight of 15 tons and capable of carrying 7 people, it didn’t need an escape tower and could use its 6 "Super Dragon Throne" engines to perform an escape.

Differently, Ma planned to reduce the cost per seat even further, to below 25 million US dollars, down to 15 million US dollars.

Although it seemed much more expensive than the Dream Chaser Space Shuttle, the feasibility was significantly higher.

To reduce costs, the second generation Dragon spacecraft would use exclusively reusable Falcon 9 launches, and materials were chosen to minimize the proportion of expensive ones; the previous configuration’s 8 "Super Dragon Throne" engines were reduced by 2, all in the pursuit of lower costs.

As for the rest of America’s commercial players, they also achieved notable successes in the race against New Yuan.

Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic mainly focused on suborbital manned flights, that is, not entering orbit, with some flights not even reaching the Kármán line, just exiting the atmosphere and briefly experiencing 3 to 15 minutes of weightlessness before returning.

The New Shepard rocket by Blue Origin did just that. Although it had not yet carried out a manned flight, the New Shepard rocket had already successfully recovered two or three times, and Jeff Bezos was ranting on Twitter about his own upcoming space flight on the New Shepard.

Then there’s Virgin Galactic, which is actually a UK company. Their approach involves a transport aircraft carrying a rocket-engine-equipped small plane high into the sky and then hovering in suborbit for a short while. However, it’s much cheaper than Blue Origin; a seat only costs 250,000 US dollars compared to the latter’s 25 million US dollars.

Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft (the small plane equipped with a rocket engine) suffered a crash in 2014, but this year it has made a comeback. The new "VSS Unity" spacecraft is already built ahead of schedule, preparing for the next test flight.

According to some media statistics, as of May 1, 2016, the number of people contracted for commercial manned missions directly or indirectly by New Yuan Aeronautics, Space X, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic had surpassed 50, with potential interested parties possibly exceeding 500.

Moreover, compared to last year, the cost of space tourism is projected to have decreased by more than 70%, indicating that the potential customer base for space tourism could expand by approximately 100 times.

Among these, the media particularly highlighted the Oriental International Space Hotel, which had signed the most contracts, with wealthy individuals from seven countries choosing this space tourism company.

Driven by the moon race and commercial manned spaceflight, this year’s aerospace sector saw a surge of mighty contenders, with no fewer than four types of heavy-lift rockets expected to launch, a spectacle not seen even during the Cold War half a century ago.

Many media outlets are saying that this marks the second space race far outstripping the first, but this is only in terms of technology and scale. A bigger shock came from a policy announced by the Chinese government, an impact perhaps even greater than the subsequent mass defection of JAXA engineers.

...

On May 13, after the successful landing of the Chang’e 4 lander at the predetermined site, the big shot at the Space Agency suddenly received a notice to discuss a policy in Beijing.

Four days later, it was announced that a new talent reform would be implemented within the Space Agency. The theme of the reform was "A Proposal to Expand Group Awareness of Space."

The proposal argued that in today’s world, space has become an inevitable destination for humanity. It is necessary to invest more resources in the space field and to strengthen space practitioners’ understanding of the significance and vast value of developing space.

After deliberations, it was decided to utilize cost-effective space travel plans to send 1 to 5 high-ranking scientists, key position officials, and chief engineers from the Space Agency on an annual trip for a variable duration of near-Earth orbit stay and other space activities.

During their space continuing education, each individual was to carefully summarize their understanding of space, feelings, and inspirations for the future direction of their work.

This would become a part of their personal record, with an annual special allocation of 400 million yuan aimed at improving "space awareness," to be adjusted according to actual situation each year.

This year would mark the first "space continuing education" mission, with preliminary nominees being the engine technology expert Tang Weitian, recovery control technology expert He Tang, and space technology experts Zhao Zong, Shen Zuozhou, and Yang Hong.

Exactly five people. The space vessel for the trip was currently undergoing internal tendering within the Aerospace Development Committee, with the flight mission expected to take place around December of this year.

The eldest among them was Tang Weitian, but since Zhou Rui had been up there, he shouldn’t have a problem either, at least last year’s medical examination results were pretty good with no major issues.

The five experts from the fields of engines, rockets, satellites, and space stations were all important figures within the Space Agency. However, they were all set for space continuing education, expected to stay at the space station for about 3 to 7 days.

Lin Ju was conveniently still in Beijing, listening to the entire content of the proposal as well as observing how people reacted to the news.

They showed shock, bewilderment, excitement, and curious gazes directed at Lin Ju.

This was because the proposal felt strikingly similar to statements Lin Ju had made not long ago about sending New Yuan Company engineers to space, even the reasons were remarkably alike.

It was hard to say that the proposal wasn’t influenced by Lin Ju, or at the very least, it seemed inspired by his ideas.

And although it was called a proposal, with people already selected, wasn’t it essentially confirmed for execution? And launching by the end of the year, no less!

Among the attendees was a particularly special individual, the very same He Tang.

While He Tang continued to improve the "Cloud Open" recovery control system and refine the CZ-6, he also received orders from the Space Agency to develop 5-meter core stage recovery techniques for the CZ-5 and the bundling recovery techniques for both the CZ-7 and CZ-8.

These three rockets were all undertaken by the First Research Institute. He Tang simply flew to Beijing to exchange with teams working on the new generation of manned experimental spacecraft.

This new generation spacecraft designed for the moon missions had the same configuration, only differing in details according to its purpose, and the older escape tower had to be retrofitted to become compatible.

Then, unexpectedly, a meeting was called, and next thing he knew, he was scheduled for space!

As eyes from all around the room focused on him, He Tang hemmed and hawed before finally saying,

"This... is it really necessary for the organization to spend this money? Adding in training for a few months of no work, and what about the projects if we’re gone?"