Chapter 477 - 468 Night Operation_1

July 24th, 2:50 a.m.

The Pioneer spacecraft ascended from the Qiongzhou Xinyuan Space Launch Center. The launch took place at the darkest moment of the entire day, with the tail flame of the liquid oxygen and methane engine illuminating the clouds, even eclipsing the moon’s brilliance.

The reason for choosing this time for the launch was because of the recent spell of extremely poor weather, and the launch schedule was extremely tight:

On July 23rd, two New Yuan No. 3 rockets sent two service modules into space, costing approximately 1.5 billion and 3.5 billion RMB respectively. The latter was particularly expensive because it carried the most advanced optical remote sensing system. The space agency dismantled an entire Practice Eighteen Backup Star system and fitted it onto the module, along with a series of deep space exploration instruments. It was extremely costly.

These expensive devices would play an unimaginable role with the abundant electric power from the March spacecraft, providing strong monitoring capabilities for both outer space and Earth’s environment. Even during deep space navigation, they could provide powerful information assurance for the crew.

Both service modules arrived at their target orbits with great accuracy, followed by Jiuquan and Qiongzhou launching their respective Glory and Pioneer spacecraft.

In this mission, apart from carrying trusses, they also each carried two arc-shaped connectors for the centrifugal cabin segments. Their launch mass neared 130 tonnes and, after being sent to low Earth orbit, they still needed to work longer using their own power.

The original launch date for both space shuttles was the 26th, but continuous heavy rain on the 23rd and the thunderstorm warnings for the following days compelled the launch center staff to ensure the success of this nighttime launch.

If we include the mass of the space shuttles themselves, then in three days, the two launch sites sent more than 440 tons of payload into space. Until now, New Yuan’s total launch mass for the half-year had exceeded two thousand tons, accounting for over 90% of the world’s total, surpassing all global space powers single-handedly.

Domestically, there was already a numbness to such frequent large-scale launch missions; only the novelty of a nighttime launch was worth an extra mention from the official media.

For the people at the launch center, they never imagined they would experience moments as busy as these because they were about to clear the launch site in preparation for the Storm spacecraft’s launch scheduled in a week. It had already arrived at Jiuquan and was waiting for the Glory spacecraft to depart before it could start the final assembly with the rocket.

Because the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center is not large, the Storm spacecraft, isolated by radiation warning barriers in a temporary warehouse, was quite conspicuous.

A group of foreigners passing by took out cameras to take pictures, but they were stopped by the accompanying security personnel.

It was not that the space shuttle could not be photographed, but the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center had many military payloads, so other than in media and some open areas, photography was not allowed—exactly the case here.

The Mediterranean foreigners, disappointed, asked He Tang in fairly proficient Mandarin which space agency the spacecraft belonged to. When hearing it was the nuclear-powered Storm, their faces showed great longing, and then they muttered to themselves about when their own Hermes spacecraft would have its maiden flight.

They were from Alcatel, the largest telecom operator in France, a team that, in conjunction with several other European countries, had built a 11-ton geostationary communications satellite. The space agency had taken on this launch mission.

As for why not use their own Ariane 5? The answer was that the European Space Agency was not happy about it.

The Veneto 1 rocket had entered the model rocket test phase, and after the "Dawn III" plan, the European Space Agency had increased support with the goal of getting this type of rocket to fly by early 2018.

Veneto 1 was stronger than the Ariane 5 and also boasted much lower single mission costs due to its reusable technology. France had already stored one Ariane 5, intending to use it when military payloads required it, essentially planning to stop its flights.

Now most of the European Space Agency’s funds were tied up in the "Selene" plan, and they decided to outsource satellite launches.

Because the Huayin Treaty had just been signed, Alcatel’s satellite order directly overlooked the eagerly anticipated Heavy Falcon from SpaceX, citing the latter’s temporary lack of available rockets as the reason for refusal.

But New Yuan didn’t take the order either. In the end, the Eighth Academy proposed using the CBC configuration of CZ-6A, a "CZ-12" rocket with a total of nine YF100K engines, capable of sending a 15-ton payload to geostationary transfer orbit. The satellite could then use its own thruster to accelerate slightly and enter geostationary orbit.

Although this was the maiden flight of the CZ-12, Alcatel had quite a bit of confidence in the success rate of China’s aerospace endeavours.

The Mediterranean foreigner chatted with He Tang for a while, and the topic always revolved around landing on the Moon:

"He, according to our country’s cooperation plan with yours, a French astronaut will land on the Moon during the Dawn VI mission. Do you know precisely when it will launch?"

"This... I’m afraid I don’t have an exact answer. To be precise, the Dawn VI mission will be launched by a new type of rocket. After the CZ-10 completes the Dawn V mission, production will cease, so doesn’t Dawn VI depend on the launch timing of CZ-5?"

He Tang spoke candidly, as the aerospace agency had already decided to put the lunar ferry and the reusable lander into use within half a year. Then, launching an integrated lunar mission with both the spaceship and the lander would be unnecessary.

The body manufacturing of the CZ-10 rocket had redundancies; with the production of some additional parts, it would be possible to assemble two more CZ-10s in the future. Thus, after the completion of the Dawn V mission, no new CZ-10 rockets would be made.

In the future, to land on the Moon, one would either take a ferry from low Earth orbit or use the not-yet-commissioned CZ-5 rocket to send the Dawn spacecraft there. The latter offered a lunar transfer capacity of around 25 tons as well, which was both cheap and convenient.

The specific design of the CZ-5 had just been finally confirmed. It would feature a 7-meter diameter body, and its maiden flight could be rushed before the launch of Dawn V, becoming the successor to CZ-10.

Hearing He Tang’s explanation, the Frenchman felt somewhat disappointed, knowing that the wait for the new rocket would certainly not be short.

"I hope we’ll be earlier than the Islanders and the Indians. If our astronauts reach the Moon at about the same time as theirs, it would certainly be a shame."

He Tang said, "Are you referring to the Star of Asia? To my knowledge, the Island Country seems to be withdrawing from the program.

After Kishimoto was assassinated, Nakayama Juji took over his position and is already prepared to scrap the H-X rockets. The Star of Asia project is left only with the Indians, and it surely cannot continue."

"Cancel? They’re not planning to go to the Moon anymore?"

"At least they will not attempt it with their own capabilities. In fact, even if they pressed on, it would be unlikely for them to succeed. You’re not very familiar with aerospace, but the European Space Agency’s aerospace technology is far more advanced than theirs."

"He, so will they be joining the Artemis spacecraft or your Dawn spacecraft in the future? I vaguely remember they were quite keen on joining the Artemis program previously."

"I don’t know..." He Tang pondered for a moment, feeling that the possibility of cooperation with the aerospace agency was relatively small.

"Mr. Adrian, actually, there are fewer countries in the world chasing after the Moon than you imagine."