Chapter 554 - 542 Running_1

Forward Space Station.

At an altitude of 540 kilometers above the ground, the Forward Space Station and its massive assembly with two spacecraft were hidden in the shadow on the far side of Earth, the small portion that was visible appeared even more majestic.

Li Sheng was the commander of this Storm spacecraft mission, and he was now suspended 100 meters away from the space station, tethered by only a safety belt to a centrifuge module of the Forward.

To remain stable in this position, his spacesuit was specially equipped with a jet device.

He was waiting for a perfect sunrise, while the other 11 astronauts were manipulating the two mechanical arms of the spacecraft to install the last service module.

Perhaps because it was the last space station installation mission, the two crews were extremely enthusiastic about their work, completing a module and the installation of all the station’s trusses ahead of schedule, with the combined mass of the two spacecraft nearing 1700 tons.

The ground control center wanted to record this historic moment and finally decided to attach the last Dog Cabin module during the sunrise.

"Today is November 5th, suitable for moving into a new home. Comrades, we’ll soon be able to live in the brand-new space station and comfortably take a hot shower."

"Brother Li, it probably won’t even be up and running until next year."

"..."

After the launch of the first set of service modules for the Forward, it had already begun to power the entire space station. Over two months, it had consistently output 5MW of power, thoroughly resolving the station’s "electricity drought."

The ground also seized this opportunity to begin testing each module since the earliest ones had been in orbit for nearly a year, and many systems had not operated in space due to lack of power.

Once the entire space station was assembled, the Forward would need at least two months to meticulously inspect the 14 main modules and 19 structural modules before considering rotating them to generate gravity, possibly even waiting until the Spring Festival.

After all, this was a super-structure costing hundreds of billions, unprecedented in size and weight. Any accident during operation would be an irreversible and significant loss.

"Hongbo, if you’re so eager to bathe, you might as well sign up to work for United Mining. You can definitely take a shower on the Moon, and since they can produce water, you won’t need to recycle the bathwater."

Another somewhat weathered voice over the radio immediately resonated with the others. Although both the space station and the spacecraft had extremely advanced recycling systems, using recycled water... even those professionally trained couldn’t help feeling a bit squeamish.

Just the fact of not having to use recycled water was enough reason for astronauts to stay twice as long.

Li Sheng: "You two stop chatting. The sun will rise in a few minutes. It’s a bit blocked from my angle. Move the Dog Cabin a bit to the left so when I take the photo it has more depth."

From his perspective, the Forward already displayed a complete large ring, and because of the full layout of the 12 modules, it didn’t have the thin look of traditional space stations at all.

The sun quickly rose from one side of the horizon, and Li Sheng immediately adjusted the camera, pressing the shutter when the entire front of the space station was almost fully illuminated.

After taking dozens of photos, he began to have people retract the safety line.

His relative position was now at the 6 o’clock direction of the Forward’s "Mouse Rabbit" module. The Forward was like a skyscraper that reached to the heavens, emanating an indescribable sense of inclusion against the dark backdrop of space.

The installation of the "Dog" took four hours, exhausting all of the astronauts’ work time for the day.

From now on, the Forward was officially complete.

All 12 astronauts finally entered the space station, six remaining in the navigation cabin and the utility module, and the other six were each responsible for a service module and a living module.

The flight computer in the navigation cabin finally detected all the modules and began a self-check of each module’s electrical system, while also distributing power among the six service modules.

This process also took two hours, and the ground also used another computer to recheck everything; all passed.

At 6:10 p.m., Li Sheng activated all the equipment of the entire space station.

Facilities in the power-hungry living modules could finally be fully powered up; the decibel level of the ambient sound rose a bit, no longer the somewhat eerie absolute silence from before.

All the white modules on the laser holographic display turned green. Li Sheng gently flicked his finger on it, and it immediately displayed the position of Earth below.

This was the Sun System’s internal navigation system installed on the flight computer, capable of zooming in to display the coordinates of almost all known orbital celestial bodies to humanity. However, it could currently only provide precise navigation services between Earth and the Moon.

"Reporting to Command Center, Forward Space Station assembly complete, overall operation is good!"

"Command Center copies! 01, you may proceed with the commemoration event!"

"Yes!"

Li Sheng immediately floated towards the "Mouse" module with the camera fixed to his chest. He would travel in a circle over 460 meters long following the zodiac order, ending back at the starting point, with the whole journey expected to take around 5 minutes.

This was an exhausting process, but it was profoundly significant.

In the ground command center, Shen Zuozhou, watching Li Sheng start to "run" along the cabin wall, lamented:

"Director Lin is not here, otherwise he would definitely suggest holding a space sports meet. We’d have at least the track and field events covered."

Big Shot: "He’s probably thinking about how to arrange for those 100+ scientists to go to space now. Do you know the reaction of those foreign research institutions and universities when this news gets out?"

"Resistance? After all, that’s a lot of elite physicists."

Big Shot: "No, we received even more membership applications. Many, many people want to take this opportunity to go to space, it’s over 1000 now."

Shen Zuozhou: "..."

"Aren’t they afraid of these scientists having accidents? That would be a significant loss."

Big Shot: "If it were elite technicians in applied technology of course they couldn’t get this close to us, but these are people with big names but less practical significance. And surely they know that we are the ones who are more afraid of accidents.

And look, New Yuan is going to spend a lot of money again. She is currently at their base, and Chapter 9 has rolled off the line and is undergoing testing. Next year will see explosive growth in the Moon plan."

Shen Zuozhou: "Then we also need to be prepared. The nuclear-powered service module manufactured by New Yuan has already been delivered to Qiongzhou, urging us on our command module."

Big Shot: "That’s not a problem. The new ferry command module has seen many improvements, and with it, we can execute a Moon mission every four to five days. If we launch three, we could even have a Moon shuttle every day."

Shen Zuozhou: "That’s great. Does that mean we can bring more instruments to the Moon to build a universal observatory center?"