Chapter 449 - 440_1

Ground Control Center.

It was now 22:40 PM, nearing midnight, but the place was still brightly lit.

They were remotely connected with experts at the Beijing Fifth Research Institute, discussing the issues with the lander.

Once the location of the two astronauts was confirmed and they were still alive, they definitely had to figure out a way to bring them back from the Moon, or at least to a space station.

Currently, Earth couldn’t send any supplies to the Moon, there were plenty of rockets, but no landers and supplies.

The ascent stage of "Full Moon" was designed to accommodate a maximum of three people; the Skylight II mission in August involved two Chinese astronauts and one from America landing on the Moon.

But what if there were four people? According to the usual redundancy design of spacecraft, it should be enough, but they would still have to cut some weight.

"We definitely can’t bring back the moon soil samples, anything that can be thrown out of the cabin should be discarded."

"Backup life support packs can be discarded before takeoff, since they’re no longer needed; the two together free up more than 100 kilograms."

"We can throw away tools and equipment too, and it seems the storage cabinets can also be dismantled."

"..."

After brief communication, the Institute confirmed that the ascent stage could completely bring back four humans, but there was another problem: there were only two seats.

They couldn’t allow the other two to just stand anywhere since a sudden shift in center of gravity during takeoff is extremely dangerous. However, the ascent stage indeed didn’t have backups for this gear... so they would have to strap them to the wall like they did with fourteen, the space was already reserved.

In just over half an hour, a rough rescue plan was devised; as long as they could take off with those two unlucky fellows, returning to Earth would be much easier.

Now, only two tasks remained: find them and confirm they were still alive.

The two astronauts from Dawn III and fourteen had worked together to modify a large antenna, fixed it onto the lunar rover, and connected it to the robot, which was about to reach the complex terrain area.

"This robot is truly more useful than a person."

Yun Hongjun nodded continuously as he watched the live images transmitted back by fourteen:

"This area was detected by the seismic monitors to be full of cavities, probably preserved landscapes from ancient lunar periods. Had it not been for the robot, I would have definitely opposed sending astronauts in to search; it’s too dangerous."

Academician She: "Well, it might not be that bad. The lunar rover and the person weigh a lot, so does the lander, and I guess their landing wasn’t in a normal posture, which is why they’re in such a mess now.

Hey, Lin, where did you go just now?"

Lin Ju shook his phone and then pointed upwards: "I made a call. I reckon NACA is still desperately searching for people. If we bring two astronauts back from 380,000 kilometers away, they’ve got to show some gratitude, right?"

"What do you want, money?"

"Of course not, I just asked Commercial Aviation to apply for international airworthiness certificates C822, C832, C810 with ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization). Our planes are so good, the people of the world should experience them."

Academician She’s eyes widened. He hadn’t expected Lin Ju to play this card:

"If I were America, I’d rather give 100 billion dollars than agree to these conditions. Opening the civil aviation market would be a huge blow to Boeing, and it’s not just America; France, Brazil, they would all object."

"We’ll negotiate slowly."

Lin Ju spread his hands; after all, they couldn’t let this opportunity pass without plucking a tuft of feathers from the eagle.

"They ask for the moon and then settle for much less, the director also said he applied for the unrestricted undertaking of international commercial satellite launch orders, as well as the leasing of a site in Hawaii for constructing a port for deep-sea tracking vessels,"

"..."

Deep-sea tracking vessels, while ostensibly for tracking rockets, could just as easily track another kind of rocket, and are equipped with a substantial amount of powerful electronic equipment, capable of searching and cracking the radio and radar signal characteristics of other ships and planes. Only a madman would agree to let such vessels dock in Hawaii.

As for unrestricted satellite launches, wouldn’t that mean China’s burgeoning private aerospace companies would be competing globally for a piece of the pie? America, it was assumed, would not agree to this.

As of now, there are nine private aerospace companies in China that have acquired the capability of launching reusable rockets. Even though the engines or recovery systems are purchased from abroad, they still represent genuine launch capabilities. Just in the first half of the year, their cumulative launch count exceeded 30, rivaling Sky Fork for a share of the market.

...

For China, July 4 was a perfect day that was about to end, yet tonight, an unusually large number of people were raising their heads to look at the moon.

In America, it was still afternoon, and the announcement of the suspension of the moon landing mission had not been long ago. With the government’s strong control over public opinion, the people were merely disappointed, with no overly strong reactions.

NACA was still diligently searching for the "little bird," but to no avail.

John was already preparing to practice managing his expressions for the eulogy he would deliver tomorrow. He was troubled by how to face public criticism and the possibility of impeachment by Congress, which could even jeopardize his re-election.

While he was troubled, his assistant brought him a document to review.

It was a message from Jakitaño, the president of the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) Council, and based at the ICAO headquarters in Canada:

Southwest Commercial Aviation Company and XAP have applied for international airworthiness certificates for three models of passenger aircraft, and very prominently requested a detailed reply within a week.

The actual controllers of ICAO are, of course, the established aviation giants and key component manufacturers, most of them in America, with a few in Europe. In practice, the real decision-making power is still here at the Presidential Palace.

Companies like Boeing and Lockheed certainly loathe the three all-domestic passenger planes. Except for the C810—this plane had recently appeared and was mysterious, first thought to be a fighter jet for a long time before being recognized as a passenger plane. Lockheed even planned to copy it to market to the wealthy and governments, currently rushing to create a PowerPoint presentation. Despite this supersonic plane being very impressive, it has a limited market, hence the hostility is somewhat less.

However, John was still puzzled as to why they were applying for airworthiness certificates now. This didn’t seem like their style, and he was sure that ICAO would not agree.

Commercial Aviation had submitted their application just over an hour ago. After thinking it through, John cast it aside and decided not to bother with it for the time being.

4:00 PM Central Time, 2:00 AM Beijing time on July 5.

In the sleeping Eastern Hemisphere, the Aerospace Development Committee released explosive news that stirred up a media storm in the Western Hemisphere.

John saw this news early on because he had the habit of checking Twitter and YouTube, unlike his predecessor who didn’t even know how to use a smartphone.

The smart algorithm pushed a news update from CGTV’s YouTube channel, which had been posted just 3 minutes before and already had over 10,000 views.

The title was: "Dawn III Command Cabin Captures Artemis II Lander Wreckage."

The cover was a picture of the moon with a red circle drawn on it, explicitly indicating the video content to users.

John quickly clicked on it. The video was obviously released hastily with a duration of only one minute, which he quickly finished watching.

It was a photo taken by Yun Hongjun at an altitude of 70 kilometers while passing the impact crater. At this time, the sunlight was nearly gone and most of the lunar surface had fallen into darkness. However, after high exposure, it was still possible to identify differences from the previous photos.

In the circled area, there was a distinctly colored speck and a light-colored trace that was visible when zoomed in. None of these had been there five hours earlier.

The last sentence of the news was: "The two astronauts from Dawn III also discovered an HLS distress signal and are organizing a search operation. Please stay tuned to this channel for further updates."

John felt darkness enveloping him.