Chapter 176 - 172: Fussing_1

On June 16, in the early morning, around the Mukala Launch Site, approximately four hundred thousand people had gathered, far exceeding the local carrying capacity.

To prevent heatstroke, Abe urgently purchased thousands of generator trucks and even more air conditioners, which were set up right next to the roadside crowds, delivering cool air with a whoosh.

Although the area of low temperature was quite limited, Abe’s financial power made it possible for air conditioners to line up one after another on the streets, directly challenging the weather.

This lavish display left the media from various countries who came to Mukala clicking their tongues in amazement, experiencing for the first time what it meant to be from Saudi Arabia.

Even America wasn’t this extravagantly assertive!

Although today was an unmanned test launch of the Mecca, the number of people who came to the launch site was still exaggerated, not reduced at all because it was unmanned.

New Yuan engineers, who had been in place two months in advance, had already adjusted the corresponding facilities on site, and the rocket was smoothly assembled for the launch.

Of course, it was publicly claimed that New Yuan engineers provided technical guidance, and the Abe Aerospace Agency completed the assembly, though everyone knew what was really going on.

On the side of the Mecca at the top of New Yuan-2, the logo of the Abe Aerospace Agency, ASPACE, was clearly visible and continuously given close-ups.

The white mist from the liquid oxygen’s evaporation rose slowly around the rocket’s body, adding more mystique to the Koran.

Inside the launch center, royal family members and the top brass kept their eyes fixed on the rocket, occasionally reciting the verses inscribed on it.

Rayana Al Karri and a group of royal family members sat together, discussing the flight process.

Al Karri was a seasoned astronaut who had been to the International Space Station and later trained in China; she was highly regarded and was to serve as the commander of the launch mission on June 28.

Al Karri explained to them what the Hila Space Station could do in the future, how to perform the five daily prayers in space, how often the Mecca could be launched, and—how likely it was for members of the royal family to ride a spacecraft into space in the future.

Don’t think that being religious means they don’t like adventure; on the contrary, these royal family members who are well-fed and well-rested always find life boring and like to seek excitement. Naturally, going to space is an excellent choice.

But they all knew that the one with the strongest desire was Crown Prince Hamand, the future King Hamand.

Now, the would-be king who was so eager to reach the heavens stood in front of the microphone and shouted loudly,

"...I approve, launch the rocket!"

...

"JAXA has reached an agreement with Northrop Grumman to develop a new module jointly, with plans to use the H3 rocket for the launch or possibly commissioning SpaceX."

When Abe successfully launched the final module of the "Hila" Space Station into orbit from the Mukala Aerospace Launch Site, it marked the successful completion of the Hila Space Station, weighing in at 215 tons as the world’s second-largest and offering the largest usable area.

The configuration of the Hila Space Station was quite unique, shaped like the character "工".

The "Hashim" module, number one, had two nodes, connecting two modules on one side.

The reason for this was that if only one node was used, no matter how the other four modules were arranged, it would look like a cross from several angles.

At that time, the Vatican would probably be thrilled, and Prince Swetan would be in danger of being stoned.

Although this 88 by 44-meter orbital space station lacked a single piece of scientific research equipment, and by that, I mean equipment worthy of space, not just filler.

But the "Hila" Space Station still established an unshakeable position for Abe.

Russia repeatedly expressed the desire to join the "Hila" Space Station and offered Abe free astronaut transportation slots as part of the collaboration, but was ruthlessly rejected.

The reason for refusal was simple, Russia’s Union Spaceship had a rod-cone connection for the docking port, which was incompatible.

Russia immediately said it could change the interface, Abe then said, "First go to New Yuan to get authorization for the interface technology standard."

And then the matter was dragged on. The Russia Space Agency was preparing to convince their own space agency, and they were well aware that the "Hila" Space Station had strong political factors involved: who joins and who doesn’t had significance.

Beyond that, other countries, especially smaller nations, also hoped to join Abe’s space program, but all could only end at the idea stage.

Only the Island Country, greatly stimulated, also wanted to build its own space station and spaceship and hooked up with America’s Northrop Grumman Corporation.

To be honest, Northrop Grumman’s commercial rockets were not very successful. The Antares Rocket used two AJ26-62 engines, which were improvements on Russia’s NK33 liquid oxygen-kerosene engines.

The predecessor of the NK33 was the NK15, which were the engines used by the N1 rocket.

The Antares Rocket had decent lift capacity, but it was not reusable. They also developed their own "Cygnus" unmanned cargo spacecraft and planned to execute a resupply mission to the International Space Station in October that year, delivering 2,300 kilograms of supplies.

During the turmoil caused by Masashi Okada’s defection, JAXA’s H3 team was severely hit, and the original deputy chief designer took over the task to continue research and development while JAXA shifted its focus to space.

Originally, they wanted to launch an independently operated module, but eventually, they chose to dock with the ISS, becoming the Island Country’s module in the International Space Station.

Simultaneously, Northrop Grumman and JAXA were planning to improve the "Cygnus" spacecraft, developing a new generation of manned spacecraft that could be launched by the Antares or H-series rockets to carry astronauts to space.

The improved manned spacecraft would be reusable, and JAXA would jointly develop the H4 (Antares 2) rocket with Grumman, which would also be reusable.

The Island Country planned to invest about 4 billion US dollars in this project, expecting that by the year 2020, Island Country astronauts would be able to take the combined manned spacecraft to the Island Country module.

...

At B-level Base, Lin Ju sat in a chair, tilting his head as he watched the speaker on the stage flip through a PowerPoint presentation.

"Our developed reusable rocket Suzaku No.1 will use a 220-ton class liquid oxygen and methane engine as the power source, with vertical takeoff and landing. The takeoff mass is 180 tons, and the low Earth orbit payload capacity is 5 tons..."

"Okay, next."

"...The Hyperbola-3 has CBC potential, parallel-twinning two Hyperbola-1 core stages, with a core stage diameter of 5 meters, equipped with nine K120 engines, a low Earth orbit payload capacity of 30 tons, a CBC configuration payload capacity of 90 tons, recovery..."

Seven private enterprises gathered at New Yuan, mainly for one thing: seeking investment, technology, and products.

After New Yuan Aeronautics created a storm in the private rocket sector, a large amount of capital led to the establishment of many private aerospace companies, and then they found out that space endeavours were not so easy to handle.

A year had passed, and these private companies had completed their initial funding rounds, with factories and staff nearly in place, feeling ready for significant achievements. The result was a series of disastrous failures.

Except for a certain privately-run enterprise with official backing, which had a few successful solid rocket launches, the others were convinced by Lin Ju to go big, take an aggressive route, directly to hundred-ton class engines and medium to large rockets. The worst one exploded three times on the launch pad.

The Aerospace Development Committee could not stand by any longer and after a discussion, Lin Ju bluntly said, "Stop messing around, just come to me and buy what you need!"