Chapter 209 - 203: Yellow River!_1

"CCTV reports that the State Council and the Science and Technology Committee will convene the 2016 China Semiconductor Industry Summit on July 22 in Beijing, inviting many domestic semiconductor enterprises and related individuals to participate.

It is understood that the purpose of this summit is to build a new system led by new technologies, to create a closed-loop chain of domestic chip software ecosystem, to enhance the domestic chip design and manufacturing capabilities, to strengthen awareness of intellectual property rights..."

On July 13, officials announced that the Semiconductor Summit for this year would be held on July 22.

This was a typical summit, yet it revealed something unusual.

Firstly, the organizers were the State Council and the Science and Technology Committee, which significantly increased the summit’s prestige. Secondly, was the invitees.

They were essentially state-owned semiconductor enterprises, along with a few fully private yet quite capable companies; not a single foreign-owned or joint venture semiconductor enterprise was invited.

This was quite unexpected. A normal industry exchange summit should invite as many as possible, not deliberately limit the list unless some strongly biased policy was about to be introduced.

Intel, Qualcomm, AMD, and NVIDIA all expressed concern about this summit because none of the four were invited, and neither TSMC nor Samsung, who would usually be invited, received an invitation either.

The latter two have quite a few foundry businesses on the mainland, for sure!

However, with the summit still eight or nine days away, no one was in a hurry, but on that same day, a company registered with the Industrial and Commercial Bureau.

"Yellow River Semiconductor Technology Company, legal representative: Wang Minjiang, registered capital: 50 billion yuan."

...

At 7:00 AM on July 13, the first group of six crew members of the Hila Space Station, after living there for 15 days, departed the space station onboard the Mecca Spaceship, returning to the atmosphere.

When Rayana Al Karri was piloting the Mecca Spaceship to decelerate in orbit, Lin Ju, with the aid of satellite guidance, briefly caught a glimpse of the fast-moving Mecca Spaceship through the Tiangong Space Station’s optical telescope.

To be precise, he passed by the Mecca, as it was now decelerating while Tiangong was the faster one.

The reason for ending the space journey after just 15 days was firstly because Abe was eager to welcome the astronauts back and secondly because although the Hila Space Station was large, there wasn’t much supply; most of it had been brought up by the Mecca Spaceship.

To prevent issues with the center of gravity, the five launched cabin segments were not filled with too many supplies, after all, it wasn’t a specialized cargo spacecraft.

Subsequent supply talks with Prince Swetan and the Aerospace Development Committee concluded to use the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft series and the New Yuan 5A Type A Rocket, which could deliver more than ten tons of supplies in one trip, enough for the astronauts to live comfortably for a long time.

At 9:40 AM, the Mecca Spaceship landed at Mukala Airport at a speed of 370 kilometers per hour. People just had to look up when it passed over Central Asia to see a fiery meteor shooting across the sky at Mach 25.

The six astronauts from four different countries received extremely high honors; each was awarded the title of "Abe Hero," along with substantial rewards.

Ultimately, all six were sent to the Holy City Mecca as "servants who had served the Almighty," spreading the good news to the believers still present there.

In Mecca, tens of thousands of pilgrims wanted to shake hands with the Almighty’s servants; there were over six hundred stampede incidents in a single day, but it didn’t dampen the fervor of the passionate devotees.

Later that evening, Hamand, along with the heads of the other three states, met with the six astronauts. The former’s prestige soared, and after consultations with the Abe Aerospace Agency, it was decided to award a commemorative medal to Hamand and Prince Swetan for their contributions...

With this, Abe’s initial $8 billion comprehensive cooperation plan signed with New Yuan was essentially completed.

The Mecca Spaceship will be on display for 10 days at Abe, during which it will be guarded by New Yuan engineers. Apart from certain senior staff, no one is allowed inside, and visitors may only view it from the outside.

After that, the Mecca Spaceship will be transported back to New Yuan for overall maintenance and repair. The New Yuan-2 rocket will undergo the same process.

This process will take roughly a month, and Abe has already planned the second Mecca mission for the end of August, with six crew members ready.

Prince Hamand, already entangled in mundane affairs, genuinely cannot make it and can only wait, not knowing how long it will be.

...

On July 16th, in the B-level Base spacecraft workshop, half of the An-1250 was towed inside to undertake hoisting and transportation tasks.

A crane was set up beside it, ready to lift onto the An-1250 something quite familiar: a spacecraft.

It is not the small class of spaceships like the H1 or Dream Chaser, but the large ones like the Columbia or the Blizzard, with a maximum takeoff weight of over a hundred tons.

If Prince Hamand were there, he would certainly remember that this was the H2 spacecraft that he had resolved to invest in two years ago.

Of course, the two conventional power versions of the H2 didn’t start construction until June 1st, so it would be impossible for them to be completed in just over a month. This was merely a full-scale aerodynamic test model.

The interior materials were simplified, made of aluminum tubes and sheet iron, and even a fair amount of wood was used. While nearly the same size as the official version, it was very light, weighted down with ballast to simulate realism.

This model would be used to test the aerodynamic layout and structural weaknesses of the H2. Although it lacked a power system, it still had retractable landing gear and movable leading edges, allowing it to glide and fly under remote control on the ground.

The testing site was still the same old place, Ulanha Mountain Airfield.

Since being borrowed by New Yuan, the airfield had gradually lost its military attributes and had become a training ground for astronauts and various non-sensitive flying apparatuses. Moreover, the airport’s infrastructure was significantly improved.

In the afternoon, when the sun was at its strongest, the An-1250 carrying the full-scale H2 model taxied down the runway and took off.

The dimensions of the H2 were startling: 74 meters in length, 34 meters at its widest, and a tail height of 12 meters. Even with the An-1250 carrying it, it did not appear small; rather, it emphasized the exaggeration of its size.

Since a few days before when the An-1250 flew over, crowds had gathered around the B-level Base, all aviation enthusiasts here to capture the An-1250 taking off. They also tried to estimate the best time for takeoff.

The weather this afternoon was excellent, so there were a lot of people waiting, and then everyone witnessed a classic scene:

The An-1250 carrying the H2 spacecraft ascended to the skies!

This scene was reminiscent of the past because the An-1250’s aerodynamic inspiration, the An-225, was designed to transport the Blizzard Spacecraft.

And as the An-1250 is an enlarged version of the An-225, and the H2 spacecraft an enlarged version of the Blizzard, then... The Union rises again?!

The aircraft enthusiasts who came to shoot were ecstatic, witnessing such an iconic scene for the first time in over twenty years. The uninformed might think it was a dream of the old Union, with tears shed for the past glories!

The H2 spacecraft also attracted intense interest, as it was simply too large, bigger than any constructed by America or the Union!

Never mind who’s ahead or who’s behind, just say whether it’s big or not!