Chapter 433 - 424 Entering Orbit_1

Xie Liaofu’s intention was very clear: the Huayin Treaty Organization aimed too high, to the extent that the combined efforts of the other 11 members paled in comparison to working alone, and without China, nothing could be accomplished.

In such a situation, it was essential to fully utilize one’s own advantages. During negotiations, one could afford to be more aggressive. It would be a disservice to oneself not to strike while the iron was hot.

Moreover, with the overwhelming advantage of possessing heavy-lift reusable rockets domestically, it was imperative to claim as much space territory as possible before other countries could acquire this technology.

The superiors took another look at the brief report summarized by the two men and made some decisions in their minds.

...

July 4, 4 a.m.

"Initiate deceleration!"

The ground control center issued the instruction to Dawn III, where over 100 staff members were present, working tirelessly despite the dark sky, and people could be seen hurrying in and out of the main entrance.

Commander Academician She and Chief Designer Yun Hongjun of the Long March rockets were sitting in the center of the hall, wearing headphones and staring intently at the screens.

On the large screen in front, the animated Dawn III was being captured by the Moon’s gravity, executing its deceleration maneuver.

The three astronauts were securely strapped into their seats, unconsciously looking out through the portholes, though there was nothing to see outside.

At this moment, they were precisely 5,400 kilometers above the far side of the Moon, outside of sunlight’s reach, where the vast majority of the Moon merged with darkness, with only a tiny bit illuminated.

Since departure, 69 hours had passed.

The Dawn Spaceship (Deep Space) had a mass of 22.6 tons, and the lander weighed 25 tons. The combined mass of 47.6 tons entered lunar orbit, surpassing the Apollo Spacecraft carried by Saturn V.

Zhang Zhiguang’s breathing had become so light that he almost couldn’t sense it. He was thankful that the Moon was not visible now, or his attention would have been entirely drawn to it.

Their arrival was approximately an hour ahead of schedule. He and Fang Lin had both slept about six hours before waking up at three, so they were in quite good spirits.

Ding Jihua, who was on duty in lunar orbit, hadn’t slept at all, continuously working for 8 hours, but his condition was also fairly good.

There were several deceleration maneuvers. During the second one, Dawn III finally saw the daylight on the Moon.

At that distance, the details of the lunar surface were still unclear, showing a whitish-gray color. Some areas were brighter, possibly due to the presence of metals.

Throughout the two-hour deceleration process, communication between Dawn III and the ground was quite stable, thanks to the "Magpie Bridge" at the L2 Lagrange point and several other "Laurel" satellites in orbit, which ensured smooth communication at all times.

At 6:21 a.m., Dawn III completed its final deceleration, entering an elliptical orbit with a periselene of 89 kilometers and an aposelene of 140 kilometers. Now, they only needed two hours to orbit the Moon once, and passing over the sunlit side took only an hour.

Zhang Zhiguang confirmed that the other two were still buckled in their seatbelts. He slightly activated the RCS, causing the spacecraft to pivot 15 degrees, positioning the largest portholes to face the lunar surface.

Now, he could clearly see the ringed mountains.

"Report to command center, Dawn has entered orbit, spacecraft status good, crew life signs good, over!"

Upon hearing these words spoken by the astronauts, Academician She let out a sigh of relief and picked up the microphone:

"Dawn, please establish communication with the ’U-Tu’ space station as planned."

In order to minimize unnecessary risks, Dawn III would only dock with the space station after the lunar landing was complete. The two lunar astronauts would first use the ascender to dock with the spacecraft to complete the transfer, then they’d jettison the ascender to dock with the space station. After several days of observational experiments, they would depart aboard the spacecraft.

At this time, they still needed to establish stable communication with the space station. "U-Tu" was equipped with New Yuan’s latest generation of comprehensive navigation systems. Together with unmanned lunar landers at various landing sites and the lunar orbit satellites, it could accurately guide the Dawn Spaceship for automatic rendezvous and docking, which would be very important later on.

This task was supposed to be carried out by Ding Jihua, but Zhang Zhiguang had told him to go rest and asked Fang Lin to check the lander.

In fact, according to the original plan, the spacecraft should have orbited the Moon for at least 24 hours before landing. However, rapid landing was also included in the training program, and the decision of the space agency was to complete the landing operation within the same day.

Just as Dawn III was decelerating, NACA also released photos of the Moon captured by Artemis II, which seemed to lag just over an hour behind Dawn III in terms of time and angle.

A bit more than an hour didn’t amount to much here, considering it took two to three hours just to inspect the lander.

Therefore, the crew of Dawn III adopted a rotation rest regimen, with the less burdened Ding Jihua working longer hours so that the other two lunar astronauts could get ample rest.

During the time they were doing preparatory work, Lin Ju finally arrived at the command center.

He took a glance at the orbital parameters on the screen before leisurely walking over and sitting down next to Academician She, setting down a bag of coffee in the process.

Academician She: "I don’t drink this stuff, it’s too bitter, and I don’t get sleepy anymore at my age."

Lin Ju: "I bought it from a milk tea shop, they add more sugar than coffee powder."

Yun Hongjun, sitting next to them, was not surprised at all as he picked up a cup and started drinking:

"The stuff you buy out there is not like what we grind ourselves. The young ladies who buy these can’t handle bitter coffee. Even the ’less sugar’ coffee my daughter buys for me is so sweet it’s cloying."

Reassured, Academician She then took a sip. The sugar along with the heat revived his spirit quite a bit.

"Has the landing time been confirmed? Afternoon or evening?"

"If everything goes smoothly, about 16:00 in the afternoon should do. We need to let the astronauts rest a little more, 9 or 10 o’clock for the public announcement."

Lin Ju nodded. This should be much faster than Artemis II.

Although they were unaware that "Blue Moon" was still waiting for four astronauts to carry out repairs, the Orion spacecraft would have to first dock with the "Gateway" space station before proceeding with subsequent work, which would take at least three to four hours. Considering Dawn III’s faster arrival time also, leading Artemis II was not a problem.

Even if launched at the same moment, the integrated spacecraft Dawn III had more advantages.

Academician She stood up, stretching his body, while talking to Lin Ju about the Hyain Conference:

"Do you know, late last night, the higher-ups still asked us many things, planning to make a few amendments to the treaty.

Your Xie Liaofu is quite capable; he easily persuaded them."

Lin Ju quickly shook his head: "He was just there to provide technical advice. The real decisions weren’t up to you or me. Besides, space is about proving your strength. Either you have the technology or the money. We have both tools at our disposal, so making some choices is only natural."

"That signifies a more serious confrontation."

"You speak as if you opposed the Skylight II mission discussion."

"..."