Chapter 585 - 573: Centaurus

"Arrange for me to see the President immediately, immediately!"

When Sullivan met Claire, the latter had just disembarked from the plane, and in spite of crossing time zones over a dozen hours of intercontinental flight, had rushed to the Presidential Palace without even time to adjust, clearly there was an urgent matter.

Claire’s original travel plans included going to India to discuss manned spaceflight cooperation, but now those plans would definitely have to be delayed or someone else assigned.

However, Sullivan knew the reason for his sudden change of itinerary and understood completely.

"Please follow me."

The two walked quickly and quietly into John’s office, where four or five other people were seated, all of whom were officials whom John frequently contacted and trusted.

The first thing Claire said after sitting down was:

"We are five years behind."

"Looking purely from a technical perspective, to reach the technological level of the CZ-18 and the ’Chapter 9’ spacecraft, NACA needs to work hard with full support from the Federation for at least five years just to barely manage it, and it could even take longer.

This is not just a matter of them building a bigger rocket, it means their overall aerospace technology level and thought processes are almost a generation ahead of us, maybe just like we were in 1969 compared to the Union, only the roles are reversed."

This was the first time Claire specifically and sincerely admitted the fact that aerospace technology had been surpassed, although the others present were mentally prepared, they still felt a catch in their breath.

There was no need to doubt, under nearly two years of growing pressure, everyone had unconsciously begun to be more pragmatic, especially since Claire himself was an extremely professional aerospace expert.

His opening made the atmosphere in the office instantly become solemn, and everyone sat in silence, not knowing what to think.

The day before yesterday, the successful maiden flight of the CZ-18 was broadcast live to an estimated 2.7 billion people worldwide through different channels, which almost covered the entire population of the main economic and cultural regions.

The most popular image on Twitter recently was of the Yuanwang Seven survey ship observing the splashdown recovery of the Core Stage One at close range, the size of which was nearly half that of the 27,000-ton ship, with Lin Ju standing on the mast, a mere speck in comparison.

Other images included unmanned boats approaching the launch area at sea, capturing close-up views of the ocean, with dense and regular waves rippling for several kilometers around during rocket launch, giving a sense of exaggerated power.

The CZ-18’s nickname on the external networks, previously "Canglong," was swiftly replaced with "Phoebus," because it was launched just as dawn was breaking, with a tail flame as bright as a rising mini sun.

But this was more attributable to the four solid rocket boosters that provided more than 11,000 tons of thrust; indeed, the noise and visual impact of solid rocket engines are quite shocking.

However, the greatest significance of the CZ-18 did not lie in these aspects, but as a symbol of a new milestone in the most cutting-edge space technology.

Contrary to the optimism on the internet, which started to believe that the golden age of space was upon us, real spacecraft practitioners felt more of a sense of bewilderment.

Although, aside from The Three Honored—in fact, only The Two Honored—all other space institutions’ developmental ceilings were just that, seeing colleagues push chemical rocket technology to the limit meant that the vast majority of them were continuing down a dead end, which is quite dangerous for the space endeavor that values ideals and beliefs highly.

Of course, there was also a sense of powerlessness, just like the launch of Apollo 11 in 1969, the launch of the Chapter 9 also displayed an insurmountable technological gap, with the rest of the world unable to replicate a similar feat.

Moreover, unlike the space shuttle or reusable rockets, Chapter 9 and the CZ-18 represented a completely new domain, with nothing similar to be found in the limited history of human spaceflight. If it were not for the limited contribution in deep space exploration due to lack of heritage, CADC could almost have taken on the title of the light of civilization.

"It’s happening too fast, and we are utterly unprepared."

Sullivan shared his thoughts, and the others expressed their agreement with their eyes.

It was really too fast, just like from 1966 to 1967, that year marked a watershed in the Cold War space race.

Before that, the Union had achieved many honors, such as the first artificial satellite, the first astronaut, the first spacewalk, etc., while NACA was simply playing catch-up with a tarnished reputation.

But in 1967, when the first Saturn V rocket appeared on television, the Union’s lead in space was quickly diminished and eventually surpassed by NACA, which maintained a lead into the end of the Cold War.

For the Union, the perceived time was also about two years; after the fourth N1 rocket explosion, they had almost given up on the idea of competing head-on with NACA.

John nodded most vigorously, he’d been in office for just over ten months, and the overall lead that was evident before his campaign had now completely turned on its head, sometimes he even thought he was dreaming.

This was not what he had expected!

NACA was not at all prepared to be drawn into the competition; they were compelled to catch up in haste, which almost resulted in the most tragic space disaster in history. The congressional investigation into the Artemis II incident was still not over...

John, "So what should we do? Admit defeat?"

The others quickly shook their heads in unison, even Claire, who appeared most pessimistic, urgently persuaded:

"This gap is nothing; we’ve been through this before.

Think about over fifty years ago when the Union called our Mercury spacecraft a ’Grasshopper’s leap’, but what happened after that?

The Gemini Program allowed us to launch 12 spacecraft from 1964 to 1966, sending 20 astronauts into space, performing a manned launch every 8 weeks, increasing our space flight time to 2000 hours, while the Union had only 500 hours.

With our current capabilities, we should be catching up just like the Gemini Program."

"Oh, now we can perform a manned launch every 4 weeks, with a crew size that’s three to five times that of the Gemini spacecraft."

John immediately thought of America’s current manned launch capacity, with an active fleet of three Dreamer Space Shuttles and three Dragon Spacecraft, all reusable, far surpassing the Gemini Program without much effort.

"..."

"Of course, we should not just be sending people into space now."

Claire seriously doubted John was pretending to be ignorant, but nevertheless spoke her true thoughts:

"Our goal now should be the Moon. From Apollo 11 to 17, the missions spanned 42 months, with an average of one manned lunar mission every 6 months.

In the future, we need to conduct a lunar mission every two months; we now have reusable spacecraft and cheaper rockets, two months is reasonable.

I request that you, like the Gemini Program, authorize us to start a new plan, to become thoroughly familiar with and prepare for lunar missions. Starting from March 2018, there should be American astronauts landing on the Moon every two months.

I call it: the Centaur Program."