Chapter 235 - 229 Seduction_1

As soon as Badis’s words were out, the dozen or so representatives in the room became a mess, emitting various ambiguous noises.

Italy does have some aerospace technical strength, but mainly in the manufacturing of space capsules. Rockets? It takes the combined effort of 11 countries to produce an Ariane rocket.

Italy alone? A reusable rocket with a payload capacity of 30 tons?

Antoine, "Director Badis, we would all welcome it if you want to develop your own rockets. I hope that when Ariane 10 retires, Veneto One will be able to replace it."

Laughter immediately filled the room. Antoine was obviously being sarcastic. The Ariane rockets were primarily led by France, a traditional European industrial powerhouse, which also found it difficult to single-handedly support a heavy-lift rocket project and eventually chose to co-develop with the European Space Agency.

It’s not necessarily impossible to push it alone, but the progress... that’s hard to say.

But Badis faced the mockery of the crowd with a steadfastness akin to Mount Taishan, gesturing for Saur, the representative from Arianespace, to come over.

Without a word of nonsense, Saur put a sturdy model rocket on the table:

"The Veneto 1 rocket has a 5.4-meter-diameter body, with a single 400-ton-class LOX/kerosene engine in the middle, surrounded by eight 130-ton-class LOX/kerosene rocket engines. With a lift-off thrust of 1440 tons and a lift-off mass of 1200 tons, it has a non-recoverable LEO payload capacity of 38.4 tons and a recoverable LEO payload capacity of 31.5 tons;

It features leg-supported recovery and has CBC potential. The CBC payload is 95 tons to LEO when recovered and 122 tons not recovered, and it is entirely capable of lunar missions!

And the Veneto 1 rocket will have its maiden flight by the end of this year!"

When Saur finished speaking in one breath, the room fell silent.

After a long while, the Belgian representative finally asked:

"Mr. Saur, the 5.4-meter rocket body is technology from the Ariane 5, isn’t it? But Europe doesn’t have the 400-ton class and 130-ton class LOX/kerosene engines. Whose engines are you planning to use?"

At this moment, Badis stood up and said proudly:

"We’ve already talked with New Yuan Aeronautics and China’s National Space Administration. New Yuan will provide us with a specially made K400 type (a slightly improved version of the K380 with increased combustion chamber pressure) staged-combustion cycle LOX/kerosene engine, and the Space Administration will provide us with the YF100V (the latest improved version of the YF100K) LOX/kerosene engine;

"At the same time, the recovery system is also provided by New Yuan. They offer a full package of solutions, willing to sell one K400 and eight YF100V engines within three months, enough to manufacture one Veneto 1 rocket."

"Jesus!"

The scene suddenly became lively again, everyone staring in shock at Badis and the Veneto 1 rocket model on the table, not daring to believe this was really happening.

The European Space Agency had always lacked a heavy-lift rocket, and they had considered purchasing engines abroad, but their previous pride had kept them from wanting to buy Russian engines. Now, with circumstances changed, they were unable to buy any.

If they could purchase engines and control systems from China, it would definitely be a great thing.

Antoine and the UK representatives were also somewhat taken aback, not expecting Badis to make such a move.

Then the UK representative asked,

"So, Badis, what’s the price?"

The price? Of course, there was one.

Badis’s smile receded a little as he remembered the good news that Saur had told him a few days earlier.

On the day of the Qinglong No.2 launch, Arianespace asked New Yuan Aeronautics if, since they could sell engines and recovery systems domestically, could they also sell them abroad?

At that time, Lin Ju hadn’t considered this question at all, but he then raised the issue within the Aerospace Development Committee.

To sell or not to sell wasn’t simply a business decision, so in the end, the higher-ups made the call to sell under certain conditions.

First, only kerosene engines could be sold, and even then, in limited quantities: YF100K was available, as was K380; that would be enough.

Then came the conditions: Rockets using engines sold by China had to be assembled and launched in facilities with Chinese technical personnel on-site to supervise and prevent damage, or else no further technical support would be provided, and the recovery control systems services would be suspended.

New Yuan’s recovery control system was, of course, encrypted and connected to the Meridian satellite network to provide telemetry and tracking service support. If the satellite service was halted, the recovery system would cease to function.

This also ensured that even without any technology transfer, the European Space Agency could only use the system and not reverse-engineer it.

Of course, reverse-engineering would also be impossible. Rocket engine technology is not as simple as its design alone.

Moreover, these two Veneto rockets could only carry out internal European Space Agency missions, not commercial ones to make money, and certainly not to launch any military payloads.

Beyond that, there were no other conditions: a K400 was ten million US dollars a unit, a YF100V four million a unit, and a custom recovery system was one hundred and fifty million US dollars, totaling one hundred and ninety-two million dollars.

Of course, what came before wasn’t the most important; the most important thing was to give the European Space Agency a bit of impetus to push back against NACA.

Even with Europe’s outrageous labor and material costs, the cost of a Veneto One launch could definitely be reduced to between two and three hundred million dollars, and the rocket could be reused.

With a powerful tool at hand, the desire to use it arises naturally.

Nine engines in exchange for the European Space Agency and NACA drifting apart, driving a wedge in, perfect.

When Badis set out the conditions, the representatives weren’t fools; they all understood China’s intentions. But even if it was a poisoned apple, it was still a fragrant and sweet one.

That Veneto One could drastically reduce launch costs was good news for all members of the European Space Agency, and it was also beneficial for the agency’s growth in strength. They were reliant on NACA simply because they lacked cost-effective heavyweight launch capability, right?

However, accepting Veneto One and the attached conditions meant opposing NACA, and while all countries in the European Space Agency were inclined to do so, few had the guts, so there was hesitation.

The UK representative was on the verge of saying something, but Saur quickly delivered the final blow.

"Gentlemen, don’t we also have the solid rocket boosters, EAP, from the Ariane 5? The EAP has a thrust of 506 tons. If we strap four of them onto Veneto One, the lift-off thrust would reach 3464 tons, the lift-off mass would be 2300 tons, the LEO payload capability would be 62 tons, capable of sending a 24-ton payload to the Moon, and the core stage of Veneto One would still be recoverable.

Think about it—if we launch the landing module and the crewed spacecraft separately, then..."

Antoine blurted out, "Then Europe can implement its own lunar landing mission, just two launches would suffice, 48 tons is enough for the crewed spacecraft and the lander."

Badis thought to himself that the idea his friend from China had was excellent. Veneto One had great potential for expansion and could significantly increase its payload capacity with different designs.

"Exactly, all that’s needed for the strap-on boosters is to reserve the separation device installation points and make some structural adjustments, and with the rocket, we are capable of a Moon landing.

Gentlemen, Europe missed the first Moon landing during the Cold War; when the second Moon race comes, are we going to miss it again?"