Chapter 483 - 474 I Feel Good_1

"Are you ready?"

"Always ready."

On the last rung of the lunar lander’s ladder, Deng Lei and Reyna stood side by side, then solemnly stepped out with their left (right) foot, leaving the first footprint on the Moon’s surface together.

The two, supporting each other, managed to stand upright with each other’s help. Deng Lei felt a bit lightheaded and only after firmly sensing the solid ground did he speak:

"The Moon’s resources belong to all humanity and will be used for the benefit of the people of the world."

After speaking, he gently pushed Reyna.

The latter paused for a moment, then a trembling voice appeared on the radio:

"(In Abe’s language) We have lifted your veil, and now your eyes can see the smallest detail of autumn."

A common phrase from the Koran, recited countless times by believers around the world, but now it seemed as if heard for the first time from Mohammed himself, extraordinarily meaningful.

In the ground control center, Lin Ju and Academician She, watching the frenzied Abe visiting delegation, clapped in unison.

Amidst the lively scene, Academician She picked up the microphone and in a moderate volume spoke to the last astronaut in the lander:

"It’s your turn, 02."

"02 understands."

It was then that Li Wei stepped down from the cabin door. Although everyone agreed that he was a suitable candidate for the first step, he steadfastly refused, indicating that his current status as a "United Mining Skylight No. 2 Exploration Team Employee" made it more appropriate for Deng Lei to go first due to the mission’s commercial nature.

He was now 52 years old, old enough to face everything calmly.

Under the gaze of the two astronauts already on the lunar surface, he walked down smoothly, step by step, and reached the ground.

"I feel good, I am proud of my motherland."

[Event: Space Race

A manned spacecraft manufactured by the base collaborated with a third-party lander to carry out a Moon landing mission, which delivered a base astronaut to the Moon, a Third World astronaut to the Moon, and an important figure to the Moon.

This mission is not counted as part of the base’s independent landing efforts, but it is still of significant importance and has caused a relatively major impact on the global aerospace structure.

Note: The first phase of this event will settle on December 31st. Please complete the landing mission as soon as possible.]

In the ground command center, upon hearing the system’s prompt, Lin Ju recalled the progress of the XH40: now set for rollout in October and a maiden flight in November, there was still plenty of time.

Although from the base’s perspective this wasn’t considered an independent Moon landing, Academician She didn’t see it that way and sincerely congratulated him:

"New Yuan is now the only private company in China and the world capable of independent lunar missions, and even capable of large-scale Moon landings. You’ve done very well, congratulations."

Lin Ju: "I suddenly think United Mining should go public. Otherwise, it might have hit the daily limit by now."

Academician She: "..."

United Mining did indeed have plans to go public, but the original plan was to list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange when the "Yu Shu" base started preliminary construction to seek a good start.

But now, after what Lin Ju said, he also felt a sense of regret, feeling like he had missed out on a significant amount.

We’re not talking small change here; the aerospace administration now had many places to spend money: the Tiangong Space Station, the Forward Space Station, the Dawn project, the Chang’e project, the Heavenly Inquiries project—these were all very expensive major projects, and most of the funds had already been used up.

A manned Mars landing had been confirmed, but the funds wouldn’t be approved until the conference in February next year. Even with the significant boost from the Forward station, it would still require an investment of several hundred billion RMB to complete the Mars mission.

And that’s no exaggeration. The environmental and distance factors of Mars dictate an exponential increase in cost, where every launch mission must involve a hundred-ton-class heavy rocket, and the shuttles aren’t much of use due to distance and launch window constraints.

The completion of the assembly for the Forward station doesn’t mean all is well. On the contrary, the cost of familiarity and maintenance for such a large space station is astronomical.

The current weight of the Tiangong Space Station is three times that of the original timeline, and with the very frequent launches (11 manned missions in 2017, including commercial flights), the annual maintenance costs reach a staggering 7 billion RMB, with the Forward station easy consuming twenty to thirty billion.

And what was the aerospace administration’s budget for the year 2017? The publicly disclosed amount was 13.8 billion US dollars (the budget for the Dawn project was included in the 2015 expenditure), approximately 95 billion RMB.

If United Mining could earn money in various ways, not to talk about turning a profit, but even if it could subsidize one-third or even a quarter of the expenses, that would be no small figure.

It also owes much to the fact that most currently active rockets have achieved recyclability and reuse, and they can also take on commercial launches to make some money, or else there would be an additional burden of several tens of billions.

From 1992 to 2014, the space agency only spent 20 billion RMB, but the budget for the three years following was ten times that amount, propelling China’s aerospace industry at a furious pace, building space miracles at an astonishing speed. Even without New Yuan, it would still be considered number one in the world.

While this process of creating miracles through great effort, leveraging industrial advantages, and abundant funding was quite comfortable, Academician She still hadn’t forgotten the traditional virtue of frugality and thrift.

Initially, Xie Liaofu had taken on the Cloud Ascend project as well; how was the progress on that?

...

"Reyna, you are a hero of Abe. You are the first of the followers of the true God to set foot on the Moon."

At the Mukala Aerospace Launch Site, "Commander" and "Commander of Abe Astronauts" King Hamand was talking to Reyna via link, a face under a white headscarf and another obscured by a golden visor appeared simultaneously in the global broadcast.

Thanks to the Abe royal family’s financial offensive on all global broadcast media, there were no commercials during this time slot. Aside from the watermarks, the screen showed flowing Chinese/Abe bilingual subtitles in a green-themed color scheme, as though they themselves had landed on the Moon.

New NACA Director Robert watched impassively as these wealthy upstarts, filled with nothing but money, were visibly discontent.

In actuality, they had tried to draw Abe into the Artemis program, even promising that Abe astronauts would have priority in Moon landings. But because NACA in the new century was too "dovish," in the end, Abe chose New Yuan, which was even willing to sell them space shuttles.

That was over a hundred billion US dollars, enough to launch three SLS rockets. Why couldn’t these tycoons place their trust in the traditional elites?

NACA, even with its past achievements, hadn’t yet fallen from grace, but it was certainly on shaky ground. The common view of NACA had shifted from "light of civilization" to "light that’s become somewhat unreliable."

Robert had his work cut out for him dealing with the Artemis II incident investigation while also striving to reorganize the entire aerospace system and prepare avidly for the Mars mission, hoping to gain back some ground.

Watching the competitor’s Moon landing mission was also part of the plan.