Chapter 397 - 388 Izakaya Incident_1

"Every aspect was filled with haste and amateurism,"

Xie Liaofu watched the video of Starship’s maiden flight and gave it an extremely low evaluation.

"They lost control of the rocket right after launch and only managed to re-establish contact thanks to the computer’s self-correction. If the launch preparation staff are not part-time convenience store clerks, they should all be fired;

why didn’t they build a deflector trench beneath the launch pad? The engine’s exhaust not only destroyed the concrete but also kicked up underground debris, damaging even more engines;

the lack of protection on the bottom, ice formation on the rocket body ignored, and failure to execute the self-destruct command... Had they gone through the normal inspection procedures, they would have at least avoided a launch that resulted in immediate loss of communication."

He was not optimistic about Starship from the beginning. As the designer of the N1, no one understood the complications of multi-staging and parallel staging better than him.

Lin Ju, on the other hand, looked rather calm. The Starship was rushed for its maiden flight three years ahead of schedule, and both its engines and rocket body technologies were far inferior to the original timeline. The failure was expected, and the malfunction of seven engines was enough to highlight serious design issues with its first stage.

Fortunately, it crashed into the sea... His own unfortunate experience with Starship involved an ineffective self-destruct command, and the craft lost control and fell less than two minutes after takeoff, bringing a big catfish to the aerospace industry of this world line.

Following the failed inaugural launch of Starship, Ma appeared before the cameras as expected, stating, "We’ve obtained the necessary data, and the test met its objectives," and then he ordered the repair of the launch pad to begin...

As the first rocket that attempted to challenge the No. 3 rocket, Starship’s record of defeats increased by one.

...

The failure of Starship’s first launch, of course, led to various degrees of mockery and derision from people all over the world.

But the most curious reactions came from the Island Country.

The trigger was the news of Storm’s arrival on the Moon a few days ago, which caused a huge public outcry not just in neighboring countries but in the Island Country as well.

As a conflicted nation, they once attempted to "leave Asia for Europe" and also took pride in the launch of Shenzhou No. 5.

On one hand, they see themselves as part of the white world, but on the other hand, they have an inferiority complex about their skin color, so they derive joy from the achievements of their neighbors, with even deeper implications.

The fact that the Shenzhou No. 5 proved that a nation of the yellow race could send humans to space on their own is certainly a point of happiness, but America and the Union had already achieved this 50 years ago. In fact, many countries possess the technical capability, but are restrained by various factors.

China’s space capability, in fact, had already reached the level where they could research and launch manned spacecraft during the 70s and 80s. However, due to funding constraints and other factors, they reluctantly suspended the program, and combined with the stagnation of military projects for more than a decade for the sake of "everything for the economy," it wasn’t until the 90s that they restarted the program. Even the space shuttle plan, which was seriously considered back then, placed their technology ahead of Europe’s.

In their eyes, if the world’s aerospace technology were scored, America would get 5 points, the Union/Russia 4.5 points, China barely 3.5 points, Europe maybe 3 points, and all others would fail.

The Union’s missing 0.5 points were due to the Moon landing.

The Moon landing was not a desperate gambit like Gagarin’s, nor was it a wild gamble like Shepard riding a missile into space. It was a true systemic project that required comprehensive effort to achieve.

Before Apollo 11, America had manufactured Saturn 1 as a verification stage for Saturn V, carried out multiple uncrewed lunar exploration missions, established a monitoring system capable of remotely controlling from 380,000 kilometers away, let the astronauts of Apollo 9 live in a cramped spacecraft for 10 days until they all caught colds, and developed the most advanced electronic control technologies...

The laurels that even the mighty Union could not grasp, NACA obtained six of them. This was indeed a source of pride and deserved the sincere admiration of all competitors in the world.

When seven Asians reached the Moon aboard the largest nuclear-powered spacecraft ahead of NACA, the intense pride nearly suffocated them.

The Storm had declared, "The supreme world is a thing of the past, even the lunar landing, which seemed to be their patented achievement, is now in our hands."

Just look at the Starship that tried to rival New Yuan No. 3 rocket; the defeat was so thorough!

The approach of aligning with Eastern ideas started to gain grassroots support. Although Representative Nakayama Juji, who tried to promote manned space cooperation between the two sides without success, had failed, he was now confidently preparing for a comeback.

"I have the advantage."

The large crowd on the streets was not protesting; they were celebrating, with the banner at the front so conspicuous.

Beneath the banner, in the first two rows of people, was an older figure actively shouting slogans.

Yamamoto Ikki had never imagined such a day when every message sent back to Earth by the Storm would create such a huge impact on their internet, especially photos of astronauts and the Moon’s exit, which caused server crashes due to the insane number of downloads.

He swaggered past the base of the special forces squad on the outside; the once haughty soldiers did not provoke as before, just coldly watching the crowd from behind the isolation wall.

"Would you have thought? We returned to the Moon before you guys!"

Yamamoto Ikki walked the preplanned route with the crowd for the whole day, and after it was over, he did not forget to call his friends to the izakaya for a good drink.

Inside the izakaya, Yamamoto’s recounting of the soldiers’ deflated appearances had all the customers laughing uproariously, these moments of relish were rare.

A small TV was set up on the bar, replaying the video from the day before yesterday of Hu Dong and Meng Senlin working outside the habitat, an action that greatly increased the popularity of the izakaya, causing even the owner to internally thank the Storm for bringing in good business.

After the third round, with the replay over and today’s news on, a half-drunk Yamamoto Ikki nibbled on tempura while watching Kishimoto’s just-delivered speech.

Kishimoto seemingly deliberately forgot to mention Storm’s lunar achievement, focusing instead on the "rapid progress" of the "Star of Asia" project during the speech, and claimed that the congress would discuss joining the Artemis program, in order to contribute more to human exploration on an international level...

"Baka yarou (bastard)! We have achieved so much, yet we still have to kowtow to America!"

Xiaochong Yinan, a friend joining him for drinks, slammed down his glass and cursed, immediately met with several echoes of agreement from those around.

To the bafflement of the patrons, who didn’t understand politics or international intricacies, their own had achieved so much, so why cuddle up to the cold backsides of white people? They only knew that something in their hearts felt twisted, an indescribable sense of humiliation.

Yamamoto Ikki could be considered as someone involved in establishing the regime and was a bit more thoughtful. In his view, Representative Nakayama was clearly more popular and was fast becoming the leader of the Alliance Asia Group, closely associated with skilled elite, he was the ideal leader in Yamamoto’s heart.

Kishimoto, that bastard, how dare he reside in Chiyoda?

Such vermin that would only betray interests, their every second of existence was a sin!

He furiously smashed the half-eaten tempura on the ground, climbed onto a table, and shouted loudly, "Kishimoto out, only Representative Nakayama can lead us forward!"

A crowd of drinkers, finding an outlet for their pent-up frustrations, immediately joined his chant, and the izakaya quickly became noisy and rowdy, with slogans growing increasingly outrageous, frightening passers-by who chose to call the police.

The police department, seeing a group of drunken agitators attempting to restore order, didn’t know who cursed "Te-saki desu (lapdog)" and threw a bottle, and even though it didn’t hit anyone, the scene quickly spiraled out of control.

When the izakaya quieted down, it was already late into the night. Led by Yamamoto Ikki and Xiaochong Yinan, the "violent elements" were arrested, the rest were taken in to sober up.