Chapter 258 - 252 Laurel_1

"Star of Asia? More like the Delay King of Asia, JAXA, these idiots. They’re teaming up with India to develop a lunar rocket? Are they planning for our astronauts to ride some cow dung spaceship to the Moon?!"

When the "Star of Asia" lunar mission plan was announced, and indeed, when the two countries engaged in frequent formal consultations within the following week, the whole world was somewhat stunned.

First of all, the name was worthy of criticism. Star of Asia? China, with its massive size, sitting right there, never claimed to be the Star of Asia, and now these two late bloomers dare to call themselves that?

Xiao Okada directly took to Twitter to rage against JAXA, questioning how they dare call themselves the Star of Asia. More like the Apes of Asia, if anything.

Another point of mockery for the H-X (the code name for the Star of Asia rocket by JAXA) rocket was its configuration. You couldn’t say it was identical to the SLS, but it was obviously derived from the same roots.

The core stage with four LE-9 hydrogen-oxygen engines and two five-segment SRBs, just place it next to the SLS and you’ve basically got a mini-me version.

Moreover, the island country’s rocket body and engine technology were derived from the purchase of the "Delta-1" rocket technology after America loosened its regulations in the ’70s, and it’s pretty obvious that India’s S200 solid booster technology also originates from America.

So... did America just contribute to a monkey version of the SLS?

However, interestingly, the H-X rocket with a lift-off thrust of 2200 tons and the SLS rocket with 3900 tons seemed to have similar low-Earth orbit lift capabilities, the former at 23 tons and the latter at 27 tons.

This certainly isn’t because the two LE-5B gas-generator cycle hydrogen-oxygen engines planned for the H-X’s second stage are so impressive, but because the SLS Block1’s second stage only uses one RL-10B engine, with a thrust of just 11.2 tons, drastically reducing its payload capacity.

Of course, it’s not that the latter can only use two engines, but even with two RL-10B engines, the SLS Block2 couldn’t send Blue Origin’s "Blue Moon" lander, which cost 3.4 billion US dollars to develop, along with the spacecraft, to the Moon.

The SLS Block2 is a cargo rocket, mainly for sending large payloads to low Earth orbit, not needed for the initial phase of the Artemis program’s lunar landings.

So if the SLS rocket could talk, it would definitely point at the H-X and say: In times without heroes, even the mediocre become famous.

But the Star of Asia project... well, just looking at the H-X rocket, it seems almost up to the mark. Like the SLS, all of its engines are off-the-shelf, the body and all internal are mature technologies, with no challenges.

As for the manned spacecraft, the island country seems to have no lack of technology, and India’s Gagan Yang project also obtained plenty of materials from Russia. Theoretically, the feasibility was quite promising.

But in practice... well...

India + island country, two nations with rather unreliable space sectors undertaking a manned Moon landing of such magnitude, just thinking about it is frightening.

Of course, not all countries were pessimistic.

The head of the Rusia Space Agency, Yuri, expressed his support for India’s independent space program, offering all possible assistance for the Star of Asia project.

India was deeply touched, with the head of their space agency stating they would soon head to Moscow for detailed discussions.

The Aerospace Development Committee kept silent, knowing Russia was gearing up to fleece the elephant again and simply watched the excitement from the sidelines.

...

On October 15th, the "Stalwart" welcomed its fifth manned launch mission, sending 8 tourists and two professional astronauts into space once again.

The day before, the CZ-7A Rocket arrived at the Qiongzhou Launch Site.

The chief engineer, Feng Ruixing, followed the development team and arrived at the Qiongzhou Launch Site as well.

The basic CZ-7 was a one-and-a-half stage design, while the CZ-7A on its maiden flight was a three-and-a-half stage design with an additional hydrogen-oxygen third stage.

The original CZ-7 of this timeline used 7 YF100 liquid oxygen-kerosene engines, with a lift-off thrust of 727 tons, originally scheduled to launch this June.

The improved version of the new CZ-7 has undergone significant changes in both the recovery mode and design.

First, during the development of the new CZ-7, to reduce the workload of the recovery control system, the core stage with a diameter of 3.35 meters used only one YF100K, while each of the four likewise 3.35-meter-diameter boosters carried two YF100K engines.

This posed a problem: if the plan was to recover the boosters intact without separation, then the booster’s fuel would be depleted in just over 100 seconds, while the core stage’s fuel tanks, holding the same amount of fuel, would still have more than half left?

If the single YF100K on the core stage had to continue flying with the deadweight of the four boosters, it would be doomed – how heavy would that be, surely the payload ratio would be a disaster.

After careful consideration, Feng Ruixing made a decision: since it was going to be a complete recovery anyway, the fuel tanks of the boosters and the core stage would be interconnected, the first stage and the boosters would effectively share a single fuel tank.

That way, all 9 engines would consume the same amount of fuel, and then shut down collectively upon separation, until the core stage’s engines restarted for recovery.

This was very similar to Russia’s "Proton" series of rockets, where you might think those strapped to the exterior were boosters, but in fact, they were not.

Then there was the second-stage engine: originally, there were plans to use four YF-115 oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle liquid oxygen-kerosene engines, with a vacuum thrust of 18.75 tons each, totalling 75 tons.

The YF115 had low thrust, low specific impulse, and a poor thrust-to-weight ratio, quite frankly, its performance was dreadful. The output of four YF115 engines could actually be replaced by just one YF77, and besides, with the YF77 being a hydrogen-oxygen engine with a specific impulse of over 400 seconds greatly exceeding that of kerosene engines, using it as the second-stage engine would significantly enhance performance.

But the problem with the YF77 was its unreliability!

The CZ-7 was intended for manned missions, to become the main carrier for the future space agency’s new generation of manned spacecraft, and it was absolutely risky to use the YF77, which had just exploded not long ago.

However, Feng Ruixing was unwilling to further lower the meager payload ratio of the CZ-7, so in the last two months, he decided to take the H80 hydrogen-oxygen engines that China’s space agency had purchased from New Yuan and put them to use.

The H80 had a sea-level thrust of 80 tons and a vacuum thrust of 112 tons, slightly larger, but it had a wide, stable throttle range and replaced the four YF115 engines directly.

Thus, the basic two-and-a-half stage CZ-7’s payload capacity increased from the initial 20 tons to 25 tons. If not recovering, it could even reach a 32-ton capacity, almost the same as the old CZ-5.

The CZ-7’s figures then looked much better, and the launch costs did not increase either. The average cost of ten launches was only 155 million US Dollars per launch, so affordable that the space agency was moved to tears.

And this time, the flying model was the CZ-7A Rocket. On the second stage, there was an additional third-stage rocket powered by a YF75 hydrogen-oxygen engine, with a single vacuum thrust of 8 tons. It was carrying three lunar orbit resource exploration satellites, each weighing 2.8 tons: the "Laurel" numbers 1 to 3.

These three satellites were jointly manufactured by New Yuan and the space agency for exploring resources in the Lunar South Pole and other areas. Each satellite was equipped with the 1.5N high-thrust Hall thruster provided by New Yuan, capable of supporting multiple orbit changes for flexible survey missions.

Compared to the "Magpie Bridge," which has a dual role, the professionalism of "Laurel" was much stronger.

New Yuan was originally planning to launch these satellites with the New Yuan 5B rocket, but the space agency covered the costs for free.

The quality of the space agency’s rockets was also trusted by them. The launches would definitely be fine; the second stage’s hydrogen-oxygen engine was built by New Yuan, and the YF100K was essentially a close relative of the K120, so there shouldn’t be any major issues.