Chapter 470 - 461: Post-Event Handling_1

Huayin City.

On July 18, twelve countries reached a preliminary agreement on space cooperation and near-Earth defense here, with the publicly disclosed contents as follows:

First, within the next five years, build the ’Cold Palace No.1’ Lunar Scientific Investigation Station, which can accommodate 15 individuals including five international astronauts, for long-term habitation. China shall bear 30% of the funding, with the remaining 11 countries jointly covering the other 70%. The estimated initial budget is 60 billion RMB;

Second, the scale of the Scientific Investigation Station includes multiple components such as a resource excavation system, essential material production system, human habitat, plant and animal cultivation gardens, comprehensive electrical facilities, scientific laboratories, a rapid transit system, and a lunar space station. Russia, Italy, and France will be responsible for the comprehensive electrical facilities, parts of the scientific laboratories, and part of the resource excavation system; and will include HVE rockets and ’Hurricane’ rockets in the launch vehicles, receiving the first round of $300 million US Dollars, and long-term total funding of $600 million US Dollars from the four Middle Eastern countries and Siam;

Third, establish a comprehensive Eurasian ground-based observation system, and launch the first batch of 10 geosynchronous orbit satellites to establish an asteroid and meteoroid detection early-warning system;

Fourth, led by China-Russia-Italy-France, jointly develop and fund the ’Atom’ super-large 50-ton comprehensive scientific laboratory module, to be launched by HVE rocket before 2020 and dock with the ’Tiangong’ space station, with a total investment of about 10 billion RMB, to provide space observation equipment for frontier physics research on the universe’s origins and black holes;

Fifth, based on the Silk Road Economic Belt, strengthen economic and commercial ties, integrating the Southeast region into the Eurasian railway network, reducing trade barriers and tariffs, and strengthening currency exchange.

When a row of representatives completed their signatures and stood together for a handshake photo op, the Huayin Treaty Organization was officially declared established.

It was just the announced five-year cooperation plan that involved a total amount close to 80 billion RMB. Overall, China undertook nearly half of the funding and launch tasks, but it was not at a loss.

These total funds also included fixed assets from the initial investment of the Dawn project, such as the Dawn I to III and ’U-Tu’, ’Tiangong’ space station, etc. Although the numbers seemed exaggerated, the actual amount of money to be spent wasn’t much, and even a profit could start to be turned by relying on the rest of the members’ capital injection.

That was only on the space front; in other economic and trade activities, there were even more benefits to be had.

Of course, the other member states of the organization didn’t feel at a loss either, as members without launch capabilities provided financial support for the international mission part of Russia-Italy-France, and they will also be sending astronauts to rotate jobs at the Scientific Investigation Station in the future - a much more concrete arrangement than the nations involved in the Artemis program, where the number of people going up is stated in the treaty.

The reason for the early agreement was due to recent sensitive changes in the situation. The success of Dawn III mission brought an immensely huge shock to the entire world, especially regarding the recognition of China’s national power.

In the past, most people only knew such a country existed – their understanding was either not comprehensive or extremely biased, but now almost everyone knows that "two Chinese People landed on the Moon while America failed." Naturally, this led to the belief that China was quite close to or even better than America.

The saying, "Unnoticed in the bustling city when poor, suddenly relatives in the deep mountains when rich," is timeless; the willingness of countries to seek cooperation intensified in an instant, indirectly promoting the speed at which consensus was reached on the Huayin Treaty.

Especially the countries with decent industrial strength but far from achieving moon landings on their own were very actively maneuvering.

...

Presidential Palace.

"Let us welcome the hero Victor Glover and the equally brave and fearless Christina Koch, who miraculously survived with her wisdom!"

Under NACA officials’ administration, the two astronauts walked up side by side, and then, under the witness of the media, John awarded them each a Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the NACA Distinguished Achievement Medal.

These were honors of extremely high importance, most recipients of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor having been posthumously awarded to astronauts who had died, with very few alive to receive it.

In NACA’s incident investigation report, when the lander’s center of gravity became unstable with changes occurring, external explosions took place twice, nearly all automated components failed, and there was a serious engine malfunction, Victor heroically maneuvered what was harder than a T34 tank and more sensitive control stick for 21 minutes, narrowly scraping past two mountains to land on the lunar surface.

If not for the ill-fate of crashing into a sinkhole, it might have been possible to stabilize the lander’s orientation, maybe even managing to take off again after repairs.

It can be said that Victor truly might be the luckiest and most outstanding astronaut in history, and together with his companion Koch’s uniqueness, they were immediately promoted as heroes upon returning home.

From Victor helping neighbors fix pipes at the age of three (questionable), to several harrowing carrier-based aircraft forced landings onto aircraft carriers (dubious), whether it was his elementary school teacher or the aircraft carriers’ captains he served with, they all praised him without reservation.

Koch, who also assembled a radio transmitter from scattered parts, was hailed as a "brave and insightful scientist." These days she and Victor continuously dominated the headlines, with virtually no mention of their setbacks upon return.

The "freely objective" media pinch their noses and widely propagated the definition of "90% success." The official stance undoubtedly acknowledged this result, at least firmly denying a complete failure of the mission.

After praising the Artemis II crew, John announced the launch date for the Artemis III mission at the end of the press conference:

"The third SLS rocket will launch in February of 2018. This time we will send three astronauts to the Moon surface and safely return them. The next year, America will carry out two moon landing missions!"

...

"Finally, the aftermath of the Artemis II mission is almost done."

Back in his office, John felt somewhat relieved.

Claire admitted in the congressional impeachment that it was her ambitiousness and mismanagement that led to the mistakes, and she quickly resigned.

Her cooperation resulted in congressional support for Robert’s succession, and it also let Blue Origin off the hook.

The responsibility for the ’Blue Moon’ lander was divided among NACA, Blue Origin, and Lockheed, with the latter two resolving the incident by leniently dealing with a few derelict engineers.

Based on the black box’s incident records, they compiled a 1500-page defect investigation report and identified 73 items for modification and 110 points for reinforcing quality inspection; by December, an improved new ’Blue Moon’ was expected, remaining the main lander for the Artemis program.

Meanwhile, NACA started the Space Support System (Orbital support system), demanding the construction of OSS spacecraft to carry out reusable fueling for the new ’Blue Moon’ and began bidding.

The OSS was required to refuel the lander docked at the ’Gateway’ space station from Earth, not less than 100 tons each time, and potentially as an interstellar spacecraft.