Chapter 273 - 266 Pedro_1

On November 17, the Unity spacecraft, completing its fourth 7-day space station tour, returned with four foreign tycoons and two from its own country.

Five researchers from the space agency, who will go to space in December, stood inside the tower at the Xinyuan Launch Site and watched the entirety of the Unity spacecraft’s extremely smooth landing, which came to a stop after sliding about 3800 meters on the ground.

This mission differed greatly from the previous ones, as it was the first time New Yuan attempted to use the automatic piloting system to take over the landing instead of having the pilot manually control it.

The test was quite successful. The entire return route of Unity was automatically calculated by the system, and ground control couldn’t find any fault, meaning the safety factor of Unity had increased.

Director Huang of the launch management bureau said with a beaming smile,

"Students of the Tiangong Advanced Course, the next launch after Unity is refurbished will be your turn."

As it’s nominally for space learning, internally all now refer to the annual quota of advanced training as students of the Tiangong Space Station’s Advanced Course, and no one finds anything inappropriate with that.

Following planned training, the five experts, despite not having perfect ages or physical condition, meet the requirements and are fit for the launch mission.

All but He Tang showed signs of uncontrollable joy, as he had a hint of sorrow.

Tang Weitian knew why; just the day before, the CZ-6A Type A Rocket low-altitude vertical landing test had failed, resulting in the destruction of a core stage.

The CZ-6A is an evolutionary model derived from the CZ-6. The original world line design featured a core stage with two YF100 engines plus four 120-ton solid rocket boosters, with a 4.5-ton capacity to a 700-kilometer SSO orbit.

Now there’s no need, as the payload capacity to SSO of the new CZ-8 is on par with the old CZ-6A and is also recoverable, naturally leading to changes in the configuration of the CZ-6A.

The payload capacity to LEO of 10 to 25 tons is covered by the CZ-8 and CZ-7. CZ-6 handles rockets with payloads of under 2 tons. So there is a gap in the 2 to 10-ton range, without any inexpensive reusable rockets.

To solve this problem, the space agency decided to develop a medium-sized, single-rocket body recoverable rocket based on the CZ-6, with a LEO payload capacity of about 7 to 8 tons, and once again, the Sixth Academy was entrusted with the development task.

After careful deliberation and preliminary research into the future of rocket recovery technology, He Tang boldly decided to develop the CZ-6A, a Type A Rocket with a LEO payload capacity of around 8 tons, using three YF100K engines for the core stage.

The three YF100K engines can output a ground thrust of 390 tons, with a YF115B engine for the second stage and a YF50 engine for the third stage, a lift-off mass of 288 tons, a mainland recovery payload of 6.9 tons, and a payload of 8 tons for sea or Qiongzhou recovery.

The design is not optimal, but it is the cheapest; the rocket body is still universally 3.35 meters with no new technology.

The only special aspect is the core stage managing to fit three YF100K engines, which demands a higher requirement on the recovery control system, prompting the construction of a core stage to conduct 1000-meter low-altitude hover and recovery tests.

This aligns with the future engine configuration and number for CZ-9 recovery, effectively preparing for the future and simultaneously building up the technical library.

The landing was a success at first, but for some unknown reason, it caught fire, igniting the remaining fuel and causing an explosion just seconds after touching down.

The test could only be deemed a failure. Preliminary investigations suggest that the bottom line was too crowded and vibrated to the point of fracture, but solving this issue is somewhat difficult due to the small size of the CZ-6 body.

He Tang: Tired~

Oh, and then there’s the still-in-development "chopsticks" recovery technology, also known as grid fin clamping recovery, which has resulted in the destruction of two CZ-6 modified validation rockets. A third attempt is planned before the end of the year.

Due to the rapid increase in budget, the space agency’s approach has shifted, adopting a more lenient perspective toward the success rate of test rockets. After all, CZ-6 isn’t expensive to build; if it explodes, so be it.

CZ-6 now has a production line, and this year’s launch frequency has reached a total of seven rockets, 22 times: One occurrence of a land recovery failure resulting in a cracked body, one sea recovery failure, with all other attempts being originally successful. In contrast, the number of launches this year for the Xinyuan-1 series is only 16.

The latter took on more foreign tasks, launching many small satellites for desert countries, while most domestic scientific missions were fulfilled by CZ-6.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket came out on top, having undertaken 29 launch missions to date. Many European countries opted for Falcon 9, which is relatively cheap and aligns correctly with certain policies; ISS also launched a supply mission with Falcon 9.

Limited by the Wolf Amendment, domestic commercial launch tasks can only be limited to Asia, but there are still quite a few, and they are acceptable for now.

No matter what, the Long March 6 and its improved models in research are still the most successful reusable rocket series of the aerospace bureau, and He Tang’s future is still bright.

The space propulsion expert from the First Academy, Shen Zuozhou, wanted to liven up the atmosphere:

"With 20 days left where we all pause work for training and rest, why not find something to do? The Heavenly Questions Project should be approved, and the Mars atmosphere re-entry vehicle should be given to the Sixth Academy, right? How about we do some research on that?"

The Aerospace Development Committee has been holding small meetings these days to discuss the long-term plan for manned Mars landing missions, temporarily named the Heavenly Questions series of plans.

In the middle and later stages of the mission, the temporary idea is to have the Sixth and Fourth Academies undertake the development of reusable atmosphere re-entry vehicles that shuttle between the Martian surface and the near-Martian orbit.

A few people exchanged glances with each other, with five of them—a chief missile designer, a chief engineer of engines, and three chief spacecraft designers—they almost had enough.

"0.38G gravity, so we have to send at least 5 tons of payload into orbit, right?"

"How many seats? Three should be enough."

"There should be basic life support facilities on the ground, and it can also serve as a rapid mobility tool on the surface..."

...

"Dream Chaser Block 1-Falcon 9 MISSION READY!"

"The assembly is in good condition and ready to launch."

"Countdown 30 minutes."

"..."

At the Kennedy Space Launch Center, the fully ready Dream Chaser No. 1 is mounted on a Falcon 9 rocket that has completed two successful recovery missions, with the extremely low temperatures of liquid oxygen frosting its missile body.

After nearly a month of refurbishment, the current Dream Chaser B1 spacecraft is now fully capable of manned flight and has obtained NACA’s manned license, carrying four expensive mannequins, ready for the last test launch before manned flight.

Inside the launch center, the Spanish astronaut Pedro Dick squinted at the huge fairing enveloping the Dream Chaser.

Owing to the adoption of even more advanced technology, the Dream Chaser’s preparation time has been reduced to less than half a month, roughly the same as the Falcon 9, so the next manned mission launch is scheduled for December.

The first manned flight will carry three astronauts, a NACA engineer and a professional astronaut, along with the Spanish astronaut Pedro Dick.

The latter, with the most experience, was appointed as the mission commander.

"Pedro, how do you feel? You’ll be piloting a spacecraft, and that’s much more exciting than the Union spaceship."

"You’re not an American, yet you’re the first astronaut to pilot her. That’s our attitude toward allies."

Officials at the launch center chatted with Pedro, but he could only squeeze out a forced smile.

Talking to me about ally attitudes here, the European Space Agency only has three spots in total—one spot for a lunar orbit mission and two spots for subsequent landing missions. There’s no chance for a fringe country like Spain, so NACA let him pilot the Dream Chaser as a form of "compensation".

Damn Yankees, always thinking of squeezing old Europe. Do you think the European Space Agency is a weakling like India?

Pedro cursed in his heart while praying for the European Space Agency’s Selene project to pass soon, to avoid laboring in vain for the Americans.