Chapter 532 - 521 Plan Five_1

Texas.

When Musk saw the external photos taken after entering orbit, he was no less shocked than the average person witnessing the rocket recovery technology for the first time.

Just as ordinary people find it hard to understand how such a long rocket can be recovered and brought to a steady stand on the ground, he found it hard to comprehend how Cloud Ascend managed to send such a massive body into space.

Unlike rockets that typically have a thrust-to-weight ratio of over 10, filled more with payload than structure, the empty weight of Cloud Ascend’s body was absolutely not low. Limited by wing area, the fuel it carried was only equivalent to a medium-sized rocket. Yet, it miraculously put the heavy body into space, and it must carry at least 5 tons of fuel for operation, which was simply unimaginable.

From receiving the news of China’s trial flight of the aero-space plane to witnessing Cloud Ascend enter orbit, there was less than an hour, and he still found it hard to believe that it happened right before his eyes.

Although the aero-space plane and the Starship were completely different in design philosophy and areas of advantage, judging by the way Cloud Ascend entered orbit, the cost of launching once must be extremely cheap, at most one million US dollars, something rockets could never achieve.

Even if they charged other parties 10 million US dollars, the ticket price for 10 passengers would only be one million. This would be a devastating blow to all the orbital space tourism services in the world, including their own.

The "Gravity Dragon" spacecraft had been in low Earth orbit for a month, during which it conducted four tether deployment and retrieval tests, with the longest continuous operation time exceeding 16 days without any faults. This made SpaceX and NACA extremely excited.

Musk had already planned the next Moon tourism service, where two Falcon 9 rockets would send a "Gravity Dragon" and a booster, respectively, to stay around the Moon for about 7 to 15 days, and tourists could even enjoy comfortable gravity, which would certainly attract more visitors with this selling point.

However, although Cloud Ascend couldn’t go to the Moon, just the low Earth orbit tourism service alone could allow them to make a killing in a market that would increase by dozens of times, even potentially monopolizing the low Earth orbit business. In this regard, no spaceship could compare in cost-effectiveness.

What was more frightening was that SpaceX had absolutely no accumulation of aviation technology and was powerless to compete in space, rendered unable to counterattack at that moment.

He thought of Tom, who gave him confidence whenever he was unsure, and was about to get up to look for him when the latter had already pushed open the door and knocked a few times.

"I know what the key to his success is, it’s the aerospikes, aerospikes engines!

Cloud Ascend’s engine nozzle used annular aerospikes engines, so they could always work in the most efficient range to save fuel."

"Tom, but an aero-space plane needs more than just aerospikes engines. Even the atmospheric technology in America cannot achieve that."

"It’s just not available now. Cheer up, I’m sure NACA is already preparing to call us in.

Besides, the aero-space plane can only take a portion of our business in the short term. It’s a destructive blow to others, not us."

...

Capital.

Academician She circled around Lin Ju, who had just disembarked from the plane, two or three times, clicking his tongue continuously while sizing him up.

The latter was confused and started turning around as well:

"What is it, you don’t recognize me after just half a month?"

"I don’t recognize you."

Academician She replied seriously:

"If it weren’t for the fact that I’m tied up here, I would have gone to your place. To be honest, I had some disbelief even when Cloud Ascend entered orbit.

It seems like your Xinyuan Company can do anything. You’re not an alien in disguise, are you?"

"..."

"Cough, even if I’m an alien, I’m an old friend of the Chinese people."

"That’s true, there’s no parade this year, otherwise, with this achievement, you should be standing on the city gate tower, right in the center."

"We can make up for it in a couple of years, I remember."

It took a good while before the young and the old stopped their playful banter and left the extremely crowded airport due to the Golden Week holiday.

Both were in very good spirits, and so were the people across the country and the officials above.

This was different from previous space missions. Whether it was space stations, Moon exploration, or space tourism, they had little to do with the common person, as even the "inexpensive" few tens of millions of yuan were out of their reach.

But the aero-space plane was different. It sounded much more approachable than rockets, and cheap impressions of it had already been left in past science fiction novels and movies, making it hard not to stir up people’s imaginations.

Even if it cost ten times the price of an airplane ticket, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of yuan, there would be at least a hundred million people in the country who could and would be willing to spend that money, making it truly "for the masses."

Just in time for the seven-day holiday, people busy planning their trips naturally also wondered:

Aside from the overcrowded Zhangjiakou and Jiuzhaigou, could we go somewhere less crowded to see all the nation’s scenery at once?

The comments under the official Weibo accounts of several space agencies were basically such messages. The possibility of "ordinary people going to space" was a topic of interest to the earnest population.

But Lin Ju and Academician She knew it was still far off. In the early stages, the few aero-space planes would be tied up with official missions alone, and there was almost no limit to their demand. Using them for space tourism would actually be a loss, at least until 10 units were mass-produced was there any possibility of implementation.

Besides, they needed to protect their own manned spaceflight services, and several private space companies were tinkering with manned spacecraft/aero-space planes. They didn’t want to kill off their own allies along with their enemies, like a battleship does.

This is concerning you: Evergrande.

Evergrande Space was now making some impressive progress. The "Tianma" small space plane’s atmospheric test vehicle had already flown, and Xu Jiayin publicly announced that the first flight would be conducted before the New Year. They needed to be careful not to suffocate the unborn Tianma.

So Lin Ju came over largely to reassure other enterprises that were shocked and scared. Just as Xinyuan Company no longer took on many small and micro-launch missions, the Aerospace Development Committee wouldn’t meddle with Cloud Ascend either.

The other reason was to adjust the upcoming space plans, especially for Mars and Moon exploration missions. The budgets for these two heavy spenders would be cut if possible, and cheaper vehicles would be used whenever possible. Still, it was estimated that the probe’s size and weight standards would need to be redefined.

"Sir She, how did the assessment for Plan No. 5 turn out?"

"That?"

Academician She pondered for a moment and finally said:

"This proposal caused a lot of controversy, mainly regarding two issues. The first is whether the lifespan and operating conditions can meet the requirements, and the second is about the degree of impact on subsequent manned missions.

If humanoid robots are used for large-scale construction in advance, it would indeed be of great help. But the societal impact and the associated planning adjustments are quite complicated."