Chapter 439 - 430: Three Hours_1

"Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep beep..."

The final 150 meters of altitude above the designated landing point didn’t require manual input, as the landing module’s bottom-mounted terrain-mapping radar was already capable of precisely determining the most suitable landing spot for adjustment. The astronauts only needed to concentrate on dealing with the impact force of the landing.

Zhang Zhiguang and Fang Lin held their breath as they waited for nearly 12 seconds after being alerted, then suddenly felt a powerful upward acceleration, followed by a sudden disappearance of that force, causing the entire lander to shudder heavily.

The constant vibrational noise from the mechanics due to the engine deceleration that had been sounding off ceased at that moment, leaving only the faint noise of the radio in the headphones and the alert tones inside the spacesuits.

Fang Lin, seemingly oblivious to his own heavy breathing and ignoring his body’s discomfort due to gravity, strained to look out the porthole, which allowed him a perfect view of the continuous mountain range rising along the edge of Kuom Impact Crater.

"01, 02, report status!"

Academician She posed the question, and after 2.4 seconds, Zhang Zhiguang and Fang Lin heard a distinctly serious voice over the radio.

"Reporting to Commander, landing posture normal, 01 feels good!"

"02 feels good, I have reached the lunar surface, I have reached the lunar surface!"

Their responses, transmitted from the lander, were picked up by "Magpie Bridge" at the Lagrange point, which was responsible for relaying them to Earth’s geostationary orbit communication satellites. The electromagnetic waves traveled at the speed of light for 1.28 seconds before being received by the geostationary orbit satellite, and by the time the signal had been processed on the ground, the delay had reached nearly 3 seconds.

Academician She stood as if for a century-long five seconds, then the broadcast in the command center echoed with the clear and powerful replies of the two astronauts.

Just a minute before, the live broadcast signal had finally included the audio part of the astronauts’ communication, and the world listened to the crisp Mandarin being broadcasted, hearing the phrase "I have reached the lunar surface, I have reached the lunar surface!"

In Huayin City.

Superiors dismissed the proposal to adjourn the meeting, instead integrating the afternoon’s lunar landing broadcast as a session of the meeting itself.

As Fang Lin’s voice repeated twice, the representatives of the 11 countries seated on both sides of the oval conference table began clapping almost simultaneously. Regardless of the varying opinions on the Huayin meeting, at that moment, the superiors declared their power in the most straightforward and unmistakable way.

The superiors glanced at the domestic translators and bodyguards who were struggling to suppress their excitement, then took the initiative to stand and say,

"Let us clap for the successful landing mission of the Dawn III crew."

With his lead, the otherwise spacious and somewhat muted hall instantly filled with enthusiastic applause, with some clapping so hard that tears streamed down their faces.

Among the other 11 national representatives, Badis and Antoine were the first to react, followed by a slightly slower Prince Swetan, with the rest standing almost at the same time.

The photographers at the side swiftly seized the moment to capture this precious scene, recording the actions of the dignitaries from various countries.

"Congratulations, congratulations to the aerospace bureau for such a great achievement, humanity has once again landed on the Moon!"

Prince Swetan, seated closest to the superiors, was the first to express his congratulations.

"The merit doesn’t lie with me, it belongs to the hundreds of thousands of aerospace workers who dedicated themselves to the Dawn project, and to our brave astronauts."

The event quickly turned into representatives coming up in turns to express their congratulations, as the original agenda of the meeting was temporarily set aside.

After a while, the superiors signalled for a bit of quiet.

"Ladies and gentlemen, our astronauts need some time to adjust to the gravity before they can conduct extravehicular activities. I hope everyone can wait patiently."

...

"Dear viewers, after a landing process of one hour and 55 minutes, our astronauts have now successfully landed on the designated landing site with the lander."

According to the latest news we have obtained from the Aerospace Development Committee, the exiting activities will be carried out within the next one to two hours. Let us wait patiently for the exciting news to come."

’Our Space’ News Studio will bring you more fascinating content later on. Now, let’s continue to appreciate the wonderful scenery of the Moon."

The voice of the female host was gentle and melodious, as she couldn’t help but raise her eyebrows and reveal her snow-white teeth, the excitement of the guest sitting next to her was palpable, his body trembling slightly as he looked at the camera with a fiery gaze, sharing his heartbeat with all the viewers.

The director, whose forehead was covered with sweat, glanced at the real-time backstage data, his jaw rigid on his face.

At this moment, four billion users around the globe saw the smile on the host’s face.

Houston Space Center.

The assistant ran swiftly to Claire’s side, whispered something quickly in her ear, her face remaining unchanged in its calm expression.

"How’s it going?"

Deputy Director Jim grabbed the assistant; Claire answered for him:

"7:55, the Chinese people have successfully landed on the Moon."

Jim didn’t know whether to be happy or disappointed at this moment, standing conflicted for a while before he finally stomped his foot and returned to his work station to put on his headphones.

Claire, however, stopped the assistant and asked him:

"Has John said anything yet?"

"Not yet, but it should be soon. They will probably urge us to initiate the landing mission of Artemis II."

The Artemis II mission has now been live broadcasting for an hour, and the number of viewers is soaring rapidly; just ABC’s count has already exceeded 1.6 billion people, and the global viewership should be about the same as that of Dawn III.

But now, Artemis II still needs to fly for almost another half-circle before approaching Aitken Basin, meaning there are about 70 minutes left, roughly around 9:20 p.m. (Beijing time 7:20 p.m.) to start deceleration.

Three hours, in terms of deceleration time, Artemis II was ultimately three hours behind.

Even executing the plan at what NACA considered the craziest speed, it was still one rocket short and three hours late compared to the Dawn project.

The outcome has been decided.

"Then tell John that we will also begin landing on the Moon in an hour, Artemis II will carry on steadily."

After saying this, Claire turned away, leaning on the table with both hands and let out a quiet sigh unheard by others.

After nearly half a century of pursuing industrialization at full speed, NACA, despite still having the world’s leading high-end manufacturing capability, found its once huge technological gap rapidly closing, especially as it could no longer compare with the manufacturing capabilities of the largest economic entity in human history that boasted the largest industrial scale, the most comprehensive range of industries, and the highest industrial output value.

The entire Artemis program, from NACA’s successor to the canceled "God of War" project to the Moon return project competing with "Dawn", faced most of its difficulties from internal rather than external factors, with the consequences of hollowing out all too evident in this endeavor.

If no changes are made, lagging behind in the Artemis project may just be the beginning, and it will become increasingly difficult to compete with rivals in the future.