Chapter 527 - 516: We are Witnessing the Future_1

"You mean, I can go inside?"

The CBS interview van stopped outside the valley entrance to the New Yuan base, where there was also a checkpoint.

Susanna poked her head out and surveyed the heavily guarded checkpoint, inquiring curiously.

After examining their invitation, the guard confirmed it was correct and called for an off-road vehicle, pointing as he said:

"Follow this vehicle. You won’t be allowed into the production area, but it will take you to an area set apart near the airport where there are facilities for electricity, water, and food. Please make sure to stay within the designated boundaries. This is a sensitive controlled area and walking around freely might get you arrested for spying."

"Of course, we’ll behave!"

Susanna raised her hands in a cheer, unconcernedly flashing a large expanse of her chest.

Just yesterday, she was in the Capital following up on the accelerator project when she suddenly received an invitation from New Yuan to attend as a CBS invited journalist, to live broadcast the maiden flight of a new type of spacecraft the next day.

This was truly unexpected. Susanna immediately made some discreet inquiries and found out that none of her foreign media colleagues had been invited; she smelled a big news opportunity.

She flew to Rong City overnight with the production team and managed to rent an interview van, arriving here with credentials and an invitation in hand, well aware that 99% of people would be stopped at this checkpoint.

Even if not entering the production area, being an "over-the-wall journalist" right outside the airport was perfectly acceptable to her, as she could very well be the foreigner closest to China’s most mysterious space enterprise.

The interview van followed the lead vehicle through the forest until they finally reached an open area, with the base runway’s wire fence immediately coming into view.

Next to the isolation fence, a hill was cordoned off and marked, where she instantly saw a large number of her peers, mostly from China’s media, possibly close to a hundred people.

There was also an anti-riot vehicle from the special police parked to the side, with a dozen fully armed elite special police keeping a vigilant watch over everyone’s movements, hands always resting on the weapons at their chests.

"Jesus!"

The two photographers immediately parked the van and began setting up their equipment. Although they didn’t know why only they had been invited, just being here was already worth boasting about enormously.

Looking at the massive factory buildings inside the base, each could be considered a powerful industrial park on its own.

Susanna urged the team to prepare the equipment and immediately took out her own ZTE X20YE (Moon commemorative design, with satellite direct connection chipset), and began searching for a link to the Meridian satellite network.

Although satellite direct connection data was exorbitantly expensive and the satellite version of the phone sold for over ten thousand, countless media professionals had proven that satellite direct connection + Meridian satellite network could provide high-speed internet globally, ensuring no worries about slow network response in hotspot areas.

So Susanna still painfully purchased the discounted 50GB mega satellite data package for 499 US Dollars, just in case.

The live broadcast was relayed using a much more cost-effective internet antenna, also connected to the Meridian satellite network, but the receiver wasn’t as convenient as the mobile ones.

Susanna’s CBS team actually arrived the latest. She chatted with other Chinese colleagues for a while but didn’t get any substantial information.

She directed the camera at the bustling airport within the base and opened the live broadcast.

CBS had a significant influence, and even with no advanced notice, viewers quickly flooded into the stream and immediately stayed due to interest sparked by the broadcast title’s location, stabilizing at around fifty thousand viewers.

Then the journalists waited, with no official from New Yuan coming out to meet them, yet none left, waiting for around forty minutes until finally, there was movement.

The huge hangar door at the end of the runway began to slide open slowly, the cameras immediately zoomed in to the maximum, but the assembly building was a kilometer away, and even with the zoom, it wasn’t very clear. Moreover, it seemed there were no lights on inside, making it pitch black against the brightness outside.

After the hangar doors opened, another ten minutes passed before a sharp white nose emerged from the shadows.

What followed and exposed to the sunlight were two linked tow trucks, their flashing warning lights signaling to those around to keep their distance.

The 55-meter-long gray-white Aero-Space Plane of Cloud Ascend slowly moved out of the hangar, and then its edge bars, delta wings, and finally the vertical tail fully appeared, its 24-meter wingspan clearly designed for high speed.

But what was most striking was the oversized rectangular air intake under the wing surface, which actually took up nearly half of the width, making its front look quite thick.

This was, of course, because it needed to fit as many as ten engines at the rear to save fuel during atmospheric flight, increasing air intake as much as possible while also reducing liquid oxygen consumption.

Though the TP-25’s atmospheric core engine also stemmed from the WCR09, due to the use of cryogenic fuel and its own oxidizer, it could support altitudes of 70 to 80 kilometers, which is very close to space, brushing the edge of the Kármán line.

But in actual flight, it would still switch to air spike mode at 60 kilometers, flying into space from there.

When this air intake-designed behemoth appeared, the journalists immediately knew who the star of the day was and started speculating.

A professional magazine journalist thought it was the same high-speed aircraft that had flown over the Island Country and quickly garnered some agreement, but dissent was significant too, with some feeling that it was a highly secretive military aircraft and that since it had already flown, there would be no need to invite them.

As they were debating, the base itself provided the answer, erecting a huge banner over the crowd nearby:

"’Cloud Ascend Project’ Prototype 001, Single-Stage-to-Orbit Aircraft’s Maiden Flight Ceremony"

Media personnel who were invited had a fair understanding of spaceflight and quickly grasped the significance of single-stage-to-orbit.

The magazine journalist who first guessed the 8.12 protagonist immediately screamed, disregarding his image, unable to believe the words before him, comprehensible only to professionals regarding what it represented.

Similarly, Susanna, who had also studied up on space knowledge, covered her mouth in shock, while the photographer closest to her was still confused. He had only a vague understanding of spaceflight and did not grasp why they were reacting so strongly.

"Heider...have you ever seen the Royal Space Army?"

"Oh, of course, I’ve seen the whole series."

Susanna shook her head in disbelief, looking toward the Aero-Space Plane inside the airport:

"Then you must remember that scene where they fly the space plane from the ground into space, right?"

Heider: "I certainly remember; that one... lacked fuel and thrust, right? I know a space plane is just a shell, it couldn’t reach space on its own even when filled with fuel."

"But Cloud Ascend can; it made the impossible possible. It took off completely from the ground, no help from other rockets needed, straight into space.

This is the future, something that only happens in the future and in sci-fi movies! We are witnesses to the future, witnesses to a miracle!"