Chapter 257 - 251 Star of Asia_1

"The American Dream Chaser Spacecraft completed its first unmanned full-status flight and returned to the ground after staying in space for 24 hours."

"Nevada Mountain Company: In November there will be another unmanned full-status flight, and the first manned flight is scheduled for December, using the reusable Falcon 9."

"Musk will add two sea landing platforms to provide high-frequency support for the manned launch of the Dream Chaser Spacecraft."

"ABC: America has a space shuttle once more, and NACA is leading America back to its peak."

"The Island Country and India want to jointly develop a lunar super-heavy rocket ’Star of Asia,’ with plans to send astronauts from both countries to the Moon’s surface in 2020."

On October 12, the Dream Chaser spacecraft landed on the runway at the Kennedy Space Center, marking the first time in five years that a space shuttle has landed here.

The already well-designed Dream Chaser experienced virtually no issues during this flight, and the status of all four dummy test passengers was very good, indicating full readiness to carry out a manned launch mission.

Director Claire commended the Dream Chaser’s development team and decided that after one more unmanned flight, the spacecraft could proceed with its first manned flight.

As a space shuttle much heavier in dry weight compared to spacecraft, it is indeed remarkable for the Dream Chaser to accommodate nine people within a maximum takeoff mass not exceeding 15 tons, with every component chasing weight reduction.

Of course, there were some slightly imperfect aspects, one being that the production cost of the first Dream Chaser B1 exceeded budget by 35%. Fortunately, this is routine; as long as things fly, Congress won’t fuss over this bit of money.

Moreover, the Dream Chaser, as a small space shuttle, indeed did not cost too much money; it’s the large space shuttles that are the real money pits.

Following the FATS plan, the ’Endeavour’ at the Kennedy Space Center was shipped back to Boeing’s factory on a Boeing 747 for two months of retrofitting.

Although the nuclear engine tailored for it is not yet available—in fact, the nuclear engine team had just been established for a month, sorting through research data left behind at a Nevada desert air force base—and it would definitely be next year before they could sort out the technological route and start development.

However, there’s no need to worry too much about the schedule. All eight different types of nuclear engines manufactured in the past have technical documentation and even preserved physical models; if restored, even their original performance could be sufficient for Endeavour, which would definitely make progress swiftly.

On the other hand, the carrier aircraft is very problematic. Boeing engineers first stripped off all the thermal insulation tiles, an outdated technology, which will definitely be replaced with newer, lighter, more durable, and larger insulation tiles.

Then there’s the interior, which also needs to be completely removed. After stripping to leave only an empty shell, further disassembly of internal piping for replacement is required—more troublesome than manufacturing a new airframe.

Boeing very clearly told Claire: unless they want to send another seven people to their deaths, Endeavour’s first test flight will definitely not be earlier than July 2017.

Externally removing thermal insulation tiles, internally stripping the interior, and in the middle dismantling piping, even the landing gear needs to be renewed. The only possibly unchanged airframe also requires major refurbishment to replace key parts because the nuclear engine is heavy, and one must reconsider the changes in center of gravity and structural strength application.

Endeavour will almost need a complete overhaul both inside and out, hardly tracing any relation to the Endeavour of 1992.

And to accomplish all this, Boeing has asked for 3.5 billion US dollars.

Half of that money is to be distributed to other manufacturers for development costs since many companies that once produced parts for the space shuttle have gone out of business. The technical documentation is naturally missing, and everything needs to be redone.

NACA, knowing this is a waste of money, can’t do much about it because those bankrupt businesses are not state-owned, and they had no obligation to preserve their core technology records with NACA.

So it is often said that NACA couldn’t produce Saturn V might indeed be true, although they had most of the main design; if the outsourced manufacturers no longer existed, those technologies would definitely have to be redeveloped from scratch.

But overall, the FATS and NSTS programs progressed fairly quickly and smoothly, not like the Artemis program, which was fraught with problems.

This time it wasn’t an issue with the SLS rocket, which was progressing well enough to make its maiden flight on time. The Orion spacecraft had been sorted out during the Constellation program, and there were still a few years to sort out the lander, so no big problems there.

The trouble came from the participant countries of the Artemis program.

The current Artemis program wasn’t yet the massive organization with 29 member countries it would become in the future. Apart from the Island Country, it was mostly America and some European countries (mainly the UK and France).

Recently, the Aerospace Development Committee hinted at a willingness to sell engines and recovery control systems, giving the European Space Agency an additional "Veneto One" rocket and encircling plans for their own lunar missions. Although given their track record, just starting a project within a year was fast, but it still meant less commitment to the Artemis program.

Especially concerning France, Europe’s largest industrial nation and leader in aerospace technology. If they too chose to undertake the "Selene" project, it would definitely interfere with the progress of the Artemis program.

The service module manufacturer for the Orion spacecraft is Airbus Defence and Space, providing the capability for automatic docking and attitude adjustments, while America’s approach was more oriented towards manual docking and mechanical arm assistance.

Europe, on the other hand, had mastered this technology through ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle), and they also had superior funding technology.

The Artemis program had a total of six crewed flight missions, which meant at least six service modules, and all America was paying for that was merely three seats.

Consider that six Orion spacecraft have a total of 24 seats, and the providers of the service modules only got three of them.

The cost of each service module built for the Orion spacecraft was about 200 million euros, now roughly equivalent to $250 million, not a small sum for the European Space Agency.

Fortunately, the European Space Agency did not have a strong independence inclination at the moment, and its internal fragmentation made it easier to control, so NACA chose to wait and see for the time being.

The Island Country was different. At the beginning of the month, during a visit to India one morning, high-level personnel from JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries were present, and then, following a week later, the Island Country and India, after what seems to have been some backstage dealing, suddenly announced their intention to jointly land on the Moon?

Island Country, India, manned lunar landing.

Put together, these three phrases didn’t seem reliable at all.

However, the Island Country appeared to be playing seriously and had already announced plans to jointly develop with India a super-rocket with a liftoff weight of 1,500 tons: Star of Asia, JAXA’s designation H-X (10).

The core stage of the Star of Asia rocket would use 5.2-meter diameter rocket bodies from the H2 and H3 series. The core would be equipped with four LE9-X open cycle expansion engines, each with a 130-ton class, and two 3.2-meter diameter, 45-meter high solid boosters, upgraded from India’s S200, each with a thrust of 875 tons.

The total thrust would be 2,270 tons, with a lift-off mass of 1,650 tons, a low earth orbit capacity of 54 tons, and a trans-lunar injection capacity of 23 tons.

According to their lunar mission plans, India would launch a rocket to send a manned spacecraft manufactured by the Island Country for testing, and the Island Country would launch a moon-circulating manned mission.

Finally, two rockets manufactured by each country would launch within a week of each other; India would launch their lander, and the Island Country would launch a manned spacecraft. They would then rendezvous and dock in Moon’s orbit for the lunar landing.

It looked... rather similar to copying the Artemis program??