Chapter 609 - 597 Columbus

Texas, Houston, George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Victor Glover walked down the boarding stairs and immediately spotted the NACA welcoming fleet.

But he wasn’t the slightest bit delighted; instead, he turned and cursed at the Canadian, Jeremy, behind him:

"Fuck, I haven’t even seen our nuke explode, nor have I been to the red-light district!"

"Victor, but our launch date coincides with the missile launch date, so we wouldn’t see it anyway.

But you really didn’t go to the red-light district? Where did you run off to all of yesterday then?"

"Huh? The place I went to yesterday was way more interesting than the red-light district, flying over the nuclear blast central zone—that was literally hell!"

The two of them chatted as they got into the business van one after the other, and it took another two hours to arrive at the Houston Space Center.

Vice Commander Wiseman, who was part of the Artemis III mission, had arrived here two days earlier. He had just watched the nuclear blast and then flown back.

It wasn’t long before the three of them gathered together that they were called to Robert’s office, where Deputy Director Jim was also present.

"We’ve got the final five days, guys."

Without any small talk, Robert directly addressed the main issue, raising his five fingers:

"The Artemis III will still launch as scheduled, with only 5 days to go, while our experts in China said they could be 10 days away from departure.

’Origin’ has already made a successful landing and returned to the ’Gateway’, a new fuel module has already been launched to fully refuel it, and I believe this has to be a successful mission.

Victor, because of the Artemis II’s excellent performance, you have become the mission commander. Wiseman will support you, but I will make every effort to ensure you don’t need to repeat the last miracle."

Despite the serious tone, Robert didn’t seem as tense as he was making out.

The improved ’Origin’ lander had carried out an unmanned landing mission after arriving in lunar orbit half a month ago, and this mission was quite successful, already proving its reliability.

NACA, which had been under stress for five months, launched a Heavy Falcon with astonishing efficiency to refuel it, then immediately decided to carry out the moon landing mission.

The entire Aerospace Agency wished for Artemis III to clear the gloom since July, so they decided to let the experienced old crew execute the mission again, which was virtually foolproof.

The moon mission this time would also set a new record. With the ’Origin’ lander being larger than any previous lander, it could support two astronauts to stay on the lunar surface for 7 to 15 days—finally they could carry out some more complex tasks.

Robert clearly remembered the terrifying capacity data of Chapter 9; he understood that NACA did not have the construction ability to match it, so he wisely shifted the target to the Guanghan Palace Base of the Huayin Organization treaty.

Compared with the industry-recreating Yushu Base, Guanghan Palace Base was more like the science research stations conceived in the past. NACA, which had already mastered SL-X, could also start building it immediately.

Robert proposed the ’Columbus’ science research station plan, with a scale even larger than that of Guanghan Palace. The Artemis III mission was to scout and prepare the way for it.

The total scale of the ’Columbus’ station would be controlled at over 200 tons, to be built through at least 10 SL-X launches. Just from the rocket perspective, the main construction could be done before 2019.

The troublesome part, however, was the supporting equipment. But no matter what, it’s still easier to solve than rocket capacity.

Victor and the others, of course, were fully aware of these plans and Victor was very confident about them, even making a joke:

"I hope our departure won’t coincide with the third hydrogen bomb. Maybe when we’re accelerating around Earth, we can still see the mushroom cloud."

"But, for the aerospace community, the third hydrogen bomb has already exploded on the Moon."

Robert raised an eyebrow and turned his computer monitor around, which displayed the CGTV YouTube channel. He clicked to continue playing:

"... (Translated) Chapter 9 successfully landed about 3.5 kilometers south of the Krum Impact Crater. It has unloaded more than 80 tons of equipment and supplies, and it is estimated it will take six more days to fully settle everything..."

"Look at those engineering vehicles; maybe they can form a construction team on the Moon, and then we can hire them to help build the ’Columbus’ camp."

Listening to Robert’s self-deprecating remark, Victor’s eyes were glued to the screen, watching the engineering vehicles emerge in a convoy like a train, and he couldn’t help but flash a white-toothed grin.

"Damn! Mr. Lightfoot, we don’t just have a shovel in our landing equipment, do we? With excavators, they only need a few days to set up a camp!"

"Victor, why are you looking at the least technical thing, the excavator!"

Robert jabbed vigorously at the screen:

"These, these! The real deal is equipment that can continuously produce fuel and oxygen. With them, you could stay on the Moon for 70 days instead of 7.

These are the nukes the Chinese People left on the Moon. If all goes well, you might spend about 1 to 2 days on the Moon with the first batch of United Mining landers, so try to record how they work. It’s only a 10-kilometer distance, and the lunar rover can easily get there."

"Are we going to copy these machines?"

"Of course not."

Robert shook his head:

"Copying these machines is meaningless. We want to find out how they divide the work, how to command and manage these engineering vehicles. This can save us a lot of time. Otherwise, the trial and proof will take a long while."

"I’ll do it, and Wiseman is also a skilled hand."

The usually reticent Wiseman nodded. Both he and Victor were Navy pilots and had the meticulousness and acuity needed for reconnaissance tasks.

Wiseman: "Then how should we interact with them? The chance of meeting is over 99%."

"Play it by ear."

Robert’s reply was very brief, which also revealed that he wasn’t overly worried about this aspect.

It was impossible for hostile relations to occur on the Moon, especially as the first batch of landers included their own personnel, so there was no need to prepare too much.

"However, I suggest you... uh, keep an appropriate distance. All recordings will be documented and reviewed, as required by Congress."

"Then they’re going to be busy in the future."

Victor immediately quipped; after all, the chosen location for Columbus base was only about ten kilometers from both Yushu and Guanghan Palace bases—it was feasible to visit back and forth daily.

"..."

The others quickly grasped what he meant, and Robert’s face immediately darkened:

"Victor, American heroes are not gossipy heroes.

If Armstrong had half your social skills, he wouldn’t have ended up that way. I prefer you save these comments for the Chinese."