Chapter 399 - 389: Farewell_1

Capital.

The representative ARJ21 from New Yuan slowly entered the apron, and Cheng Nankai followed closely behind Lin Ju as they exited the cabin, spotting two different sedans.

The latter patted his shoulder:

"Go on, don’t disgrace the base."

The first step in making inroads with EAST: cultivate good relations with the old heads at the Nuclear Science Institute.

After Ye Changsi and Cheng Nankai’s organization, the two picked out bits of content from that futuristic book, enough to achieve a logically coherent yet not explosively groundbreaking theoretical accomplishment, earning the proposer a reputation for having the intuition of a leading-edge nuclear physicist.

The organized paper was submitted to the Nuclear Science Institute and received significant attention. The institute fully supported Cheng Nankai’s request to come over for exchange and even sent a special car to express their high regard for this rising star in nuclear/high-energy physics.

Honestly, with the increasing national strength, there’s been a continuous boost in investment for basic science research facilities.

Take FAST, for instance, a 500-meter diameter super-large spherical radio telescope. Starting construction in 2011 and initially put to use in 2016, it cost over 1.15 billion yuan to build the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope, 2.5 times more sensitive than the second-ranked one.

This was a far-off investment without any direct profits, yet the state still offered enormous support.

Then there’s the particle accelerator. When Yang returned to China, the nation’s strength was incomparable to its current state. Since 2006, the calls to build a high-energy particle accelerator have been nonstop, with big ambitions, envisioning a world-leading facility similar to FAST.

Lin Ju gleaned this information from Academician She; the current message is that preparations are underway, with an expected start of construction in 2020.

After making mental comparisons, Lin Ju believed that in the original timeline, this project was either rejected or, more likely, delayed, as there wasn’t any news about it. At the very least, it showed there was no shortage of people wanting to build a high-energy particle accelerator, and a little push could make it possible.

This was good news indeed, but the time wasn’t right yet. In any case, there was no rush for the moment.

Two years. If they could push for the particle accelerator project to get approved within two years, that would be a success, and Cheng Nankai would need to "perform" well too, striving to persuade more big shots to vouch for him.

With great anticipation, Lin Ju sent Cheng Nankai off and headed toward the car waiting for him, only to be greeted with a chorus of "Chairman is good."

"Hey, hey, I’m the deputy, the deputy. And doesn’t the way you’re saying it sound a bit strange?"

"Mr. Lin, this is what you are now."

Driver Liu gestured a thumbs-up and then pointed to the sky.

"Right now, you’re the god of China’s aerospace industry, using the nuclear-powered space shuttle to send people to the Moon, heh heh, seven astronauts at that. The motorcade will need to up its security level again."

Lin Ju: "..."

"Mr. Lin, the big shot is already waiting for you. Let’s hurry."

Lin Ju glanced at the unfamiliar assistant; this time, it was a capable, strong-woman style, but the short hair was somewhat off-putting.

...

"Welcome our Deputy Chairman, ah, we should let you be the Chairman next time. New Yuan’s four-day-fivetric ton is honestly embarrassing for us old space industry folks, haha."

Having not seen him in a while, the big shot made a joke, and Lin Ju responded with a laugh:

"The progress on the CZ-5 isn’t slow, is it? Its CBC configuration holds more potential, and though there’s no official announcement, the trials for the YF135 from Institute 6 are almost done, right?"

"Hey, the engine should barely be finished by the end of this year, but the rocket..."

Big Shot talked about the attempts to change the diameters of both the CZ-5 and CZ-9, which would undoubtedly add another year and a half to the timeline.

Fortunately, the space agency now has the CZ-7 with a reusable lift capacity of up to 25 tons, so the immediate need isn’t urgent, and the entire CZ-6 series, which is of medium and low range, is already complete.

Lin Ju: "Then why... not continue developing heavy rockets with the YF100? The current 5-meter diameter body can fit seven engines, and with a CBC configuration, we can achieve about 70 tons of LEO lift capacity, which should be enough for future use."

He directly proposed the configuration of the original world’s 921 rocket, but Mr. Lin shook his head firmly.

"This idea has already been suggested by someone in the institute, exactly like what you said, but if we use it, we’d have to transport the lunar spacecraft in two parts, and well... it’s a bit small."

Well, a rocket with a 70-ton lift capacity is "a bit small"—clearly, the space agency’s vision has been raised by watching New Yuan’s No. 2 and No. 3 rockets being launched as if they cost nothing every day. The CBC configuration of the CZ-5 and the lift capacity of the CZ-9 are in the 200-ton and 400-ton class, respectively. So the CBC configuration 921 rocket was only on par with the bare CZ-5, which indeed isn’t up to their standards.

The space agency wasn’t just putting on a show; it was aiming for a one-step solution.

But by the time 2020 comes around, will the CZ-9 be the world’s number one rocket? By that time, the No. 4 rocket should already be sending the super space station to Mars, right?

Lin Ju imagined the No. 4 rocket with a takeoff mass of over 15,000 tons and felt his scalp tingle. Xie Liaofu was already working on its preliminary design, and the realization of zero-boil-off tank technology was imminent.

It’s just that a rocket that big would have a launch power far beyond that of the No. 3 rocket, and the launch pad would probably need to be specially made.

The No. 4 rocket should be New Yuan’s swan song for chemical propulsion rockets. The base would no longer develop new rockets in the future, and would go all in on nuclear propulsion and even more advanced technologies like electromagnetic rails or space elevators.

Big Shot had no idea that Lin Ju had already scheduled the phasing out of chemical rockets and imagined the scene where the space agency would act with abandon after acquiring CZ-5, involuntarily showing a bit of a smile.

"By the way, I have some good news to tell you. China Airlines is planning to buy two more special aircraft from you guys."

Lin Ju felt somewhat puzzled by this suddenly "good" news. Four special aircraft? They wouldn’t need that many, and wasn’t the follow-up order for the C832 supposed to be transferred to Yizhou for production?

Big Shot: "Not the C832, but that thing you flew yesterday."

Yesterday? Lin Ju’s expression became very interesting.

Indeed, on the 29th, the base had test-flown a new aircraft—the C810, which is a supersonic business jet capable of cruising at 2.8 Mach, inspired by the Mig-25.

Actually, C810 is just an internal name within the base. This designation was never formally approved, as the Civil Aviation Administration steadfastly refused to issue an airworthiness certificate for a supersonic plane.

However, due to Lin Ju’s financial push, the base bypassed the verification and testing stages, completing the assembly of a C810 in just over a month, and most of the parts for the second aircraft were also nearly manufactured.

Right at the tail end of May, the C810 took off in the early morning. This business jet, which looked a lot like the Mig-25, reached a top speed of 3.4 Mach during its test flight, giving the Rong City Military Region quite a shock.

China Airlines wants to buy it as a special plane??

Oh, it seems everyone likes to go a bit faster.

Traveling abroad on the C832 is dignified and steady, while for domestic visits, sonic speed saves time. That makes sense.

Lin Ju cut off Big Shot’s attempt to explain and said very generously:

"What do you mean buy? Give. For every C832, give a C810 as a freebie. A generous gift for the first customer is quite normal, right?"

"..."