Chapter 275 - 268: Leaving the Group in Geneva_1

On November 22, the European Space Agency officially announced that the Selene manned Moon exploration program had been officially launched.

"The Selene program will creatively use the European space shuttle for Moon landing operations, which will help save costs and the environmental cause. At the same time, the reusable rockets will also significantly reduce pollution to the environment.

The ultimate goal of Selene is to send astronauts from all 22 member countries to the surface of the Moon, with France, Italy, and Germany undertaking the main research work for the Selene program..."

In Texas, the beacon of rednecks, America’s future boss, amateur movie actor, and fried chicken endorser—John George turned down the volume of his phone and looked quizzically at his top aide Mike Pio:

"Pio, isn’t Europe participating in our Artemis program? Why do they still want to carry out their own Moon landing program?"

"Sir, the Artemis program has allocated one Moon landing spot for the European Space Agency on both Artemis IV and V, while they have 22 member countries."

"..."

Seeing John silent for a long time, Pio thought he was angry about the betrayal of an ally and tentatively said:

"Should we put pressure on NACA, or increase the number of missions for the Artemis program, to include more..."

"No, don’t do that."

John interrupted him and stroked his chin, thinking for a while:

"The Artemis program is not something we need to rely on Europe for but is rather to win people’s hearts by giving them a chance to land on the Moon. Their involvement has actually slowed down America’s pace."

Mike Pio: "Ah?"

John: "We have Boeing, Lockheed Martin Marietta, SpaceX, and so, so many powerful companies, yet we handed over the service module manufacturing to them, which is damaging America’s industry. That money should have gone to American workers!

Do you remember what I’ve said before? America should complete space programs as independently as possible instead of relying too much on allies. These allies are dragging us down! It’s not just that, various United Nations agreements are also interfering with America. We should not be constrained by these rules but instead decide on our own what to do."

Mike Pio may not be a seasoned political elite, but he understood the subtext of John’s words, was this a move toward isolationism?

A hundred years ago, America was isolated by Europe and was desperate to integrate into the world, and now John’s thinking was to isolate the world in reverse?!?

The latter continued to speak without pause:

"Their withdrawal is a good thing. Does the European Space Agency still buy our rocket engines? Let them do it themselves. We’ll sell products, increase manufacturing scale, and the God of War Ares program too, we’ll do it all ourselves, to create more jobs for America!"

As the words ended, under the stunned gaze of Pio, John skillfully opened Little Blue Bird, liked the post published by the European Space Agency, and commented:

"Delighted to see our allies developing an independent space venture!"

Then he countered with a tweet: "Europe’s independence will reduce NACA’s pressure, America can cut its allied spending to improve people’s livelihood."

Pio was confused for a long time, still unclear about John’s thought process, but for the sake of his position as the national advisor, he played the sycophant:

"Mr. John, you are doing the right thing, American manufacturing above everything, their Selene program won’t succeed in ten years without our support!"

...

Moscow.

After more than ten days of discussion and negotiation, Xiven·Samarkand on behalf of the Indian Space Research Organisation reached an agreement with the Rusia Space Agency.

The RKA would work with ISRO on the research of the Gagan Yang spacecraft, including the service module, manned re-entry capsule, escape tower, power and propulsion modules, and so on.

To accelerate the research, much of the mature technology from the Alliance Spaceship would be used.

For this, ISRO agreed to pay RKA a total of 600 million US Dollars over the next 10 months covering technology transfer, parts manufacturing, and personnel training, with the latter guaranteeing the completion of Gagan Yang’s first full unmanned launch and recovery by June 2017, and the spacecraft’s first manned flight before December 2017.

In the presence of the media, Samarkand and Yuri, who had attended the talks for 8 days straight and was still feeling a bit dizzy, signed the Russo-Indian Space Technology Cooperation Agreement and then shook hands for the cameras.

That same evening, Samarkand prepared to board a flight back home, with Yuri accompanying him to the airport.

"Director Borisov, thank you for your warm hospitality, but I must return home to report, please send your technical team to guide us as soon as possible."

Facing Yuri’s enthusiastic entreaty to stay, Samarkand couldn’t help but recall the eight nights he spent terribly drunk, shivering at the thought, and eager to leave the icy land as quickly as possible.

Yuri (still eager), "Director Samarkand, look, Europe has already started the Selene project research, and your Star of Asia project has yet to be officially established. You must hurry."

Utilizing the power of alcohol, the KGB had extracted every detail of the Star of Asia project, confirming Russia’s understanding of India’s attitude towards the initiative: they were eager, but somewhat lacking confidence.

ISRO was very interested in the H-X, a monkey version of the SLS lunar rocket, but felt the specifications were "too high" and even with the Island Country, it seemed very challenging, both parties still had some self-awareness and were struggling with the validation process.

Yuri saw an opportunity in this; the HX rocket subsystems were basically reliable, after all, they were all American technology—the body, engine, no issues there. The problem was that both countries severely lacked large-scale integration ability, which was precisely Russia’s strength.

While not impressed with the "weak" lunar endeavors of these countries, if they could come up with tens or even hundreds of billions, then Russia could play the role of benefactor and help them achieve their dreams.

Of course, it was only natural to use this cooperation to fund their own lunar mission, which could later be opened up to them too!

Although Xiven·Samarkand was also deeply confident in his own country, even he felt that the goal of landing on the Moon was slightly beyond India’s reach for now, especially since they hadn’t yet managed to send a person into space.

He didn’t even dare to tell Yuri that he thought the Star of Asia project was less viable than joining the European Space Agency’s Selene program.

"Thank you for your concern, Director Borisov, I will relay the information to my country as soon as possible."

Yuri, "No problem, we will also contact the Island Country, as you both are old friends of Russia with deep ties."

Watching Samarkand dash into the passenger cabin as if fleeing, the smile on Yuri’s face gradually subsided, his expression fluctuating, his thoughts unreadable.

The 500 million Dollars obtained from ISRO, equivalent to 31 billion Rubles, was already enough to support the launch of the lunar mission, but he also saw that the Star of Asia project was very unstable and could be abandoned at any moment.

In the short term, Russia wouldn’t benefit much financially from the Gagan Yang project; only by getting India and the Island Country to firmly push forward with the Star of Asia project, could they take a substantial bite, which might even be enough to fund Russia’s entire independent lunar mission.

So... they’d need to offer them some benefits.