Chapter 652 - 636: Exchange

"I’m Pedro Dick."

"I’m Shen Bili."

"We are now inside the second-generation Gravity Dragon Spaceship, ’Isaac Newton’. 330 years ago, Isaac Newton first discovered gravity, and from then on we knew why apples won’t drift skyward when they leave the branch.

In 1961, humanity first freed itself from gravity, and 57 years later, we brought it into space."

Shen Bili raised his right hand holding a baseball, and upon releasing it, the baseball dropped straight down onto the carpet, bouncing a few times before rolling to the side.

It was the time for their live global webcast, with countless netizens around the world watching their gravity demonstration through streaming platforms. Just throwing a baseball had already been performed no less than ten times, yet the popularity did not diminish.

Although some still questioned the point of going to space if not to experience weightlessness, the Isaac Newton had indeed sparked a huge noise around the world, hailed as a revolutionary epoch-making advancement in astronautical technology.

Unexpectedly, even more people were looking forward to seeing the March in action, with the interest reaching such a pitch that it became a hot new topic. Lin Ju couldn’t help but reply below the trending topic with "Working on it (new folder)...".

After that, he turned off his phone, and when he looked up, he saw the large screen of the Jingcheng Command Center.

On the screen was a New Yuan No. 3 rocket, with a much reduced diameter on its upper stage, carrying the second fuel section for the Black Rabbit Space Station.

The launch site was at Jiuquan Launch Center. Besides this rocket, a newly built launch site also housed a Xinyuan-2B rocket, which had added a third stage and would launch a 20-ton lunar habitat module the day after tomorrow.

Another habitat was being launched from Qiongzhou. The separation was due to Qiongzhou being affected by another typhoon, and with tight timing, only one launch mission could be guaranteed.

Lin Ju was present at what was deemed a "routine" launch event mainly because he was accompanying foreign dignitaries:

Yuri Borisov, the head of the Rusia Space Agency, had visited China yet again.

But this time, he wasn’t just representing them; he was sounding out on behalf of other member countries of the Huayin Organization.

The impressive scale and smooth conclusion of the Skylight III mission made other countries green with envy, especially the Huayin Organization which had promised to build a Moon Base, and they became even more anxious.

However, the Aerospace Development Committee had been playing coy, taking the visitors on tours and sightseeing trips, with the next few days scheduled to watch the launch missions.

Not far away, Zhong Cheng was having an enthusiastic exchange with Yuri, both faces filled with sincere smiles. They nodded in agreement from time to time, seeming to be in good spirits.

Yet, Lin Ju believed that Yuri’s mind was undoubtedly filled with "Sukabule," as the Aerospace Development Committee was deliberately acting high and mighty, consistently demanding benefits.

The progress of the two lunar bases, "Guanghan Palace" and "Yu Shu," was distinctly separate. The progress of Guanghan Palace Base remained at the stage of the Dawn III mission, strictly speaking, it had nothing.

The launch of Dawn IV was originally scheduled for December to continue the lunar mission, but then the Aerospace Development Committee crunched some numbers and decided to give up decisively.

Following the process of Skylight III, taking an Aero-Space Plane to the Tiangong Space Station, then transferring to the Dawn Spaceship to head to the Moon, and finally landing with the Chapter 9, the cost and effort of three transfers and moving between four spacecraft were far less than that of traditional spaceships. Comfort and payload capacity were also greatly improved.

Moreover, the expansion of the Jingu Rocket Manufacturing Base proved its worth after the successful moon landing, with the remaining two CZ-10 rockets already completed. One of them was sent to launch pad one at Qiongzhou Launch Site, ready to launch the Dawn IV Spaceship at any time.

Another unit of the Dawn V was also in the warehouse at Jingu, with the space agency boasting two complete sets of Moon landing spacecrafts and rockets in storage, which gave them plenty of confidence when speaking.

The space agency was vigorously developing the CZ-5 rocket, hoping to make its maiden flight in October, with the much stronger CZ-9 likely having to wait until 2020.

The Huayin Organization, however, was eager to start constructing the Cold Palace Base as soon as possible, and of course, they did not want to see such a "wasteful" act of extravagance, so they continued to urge for a speed-up of the process.

They did have the confidence to do so, as the European Space Agency had just successfully carried out the first flight of the reusable Veneto Rocket, and although Rusia’s "Hurricane" was still in development, the "Zenith" booster could be used independently and could make a significant contribution.

The official Dawn series plan of the space agency had become a negotiating chip ready to be cashed in, while United Mining’s "civilian" Skylight series had become the main force in the construction of the Moon, a role reversal that was indeed thought-provoking.

Lin Ju could not help but poke He Tang’s shoulder next to him, lowering his voice to ask:

"What are you guys planning to get this time, you’re not thinking of selling Dawn IV and V, are you?"

He Tang hesitated for a second or two, then revealed a mysterious smile:

"Selling is perhaps an overstatement, but we can discuss the positioning. If the price is right, it might be possible to give up all eight spots."

"As for what to exchange for... After all, the space agency only takes money from the central government, what to exchange is their decision, but I’ve heard it has something to do with cars."

"Cars?"

"More precisely, new energy vehicles."

He Tang said this with a bit of a wink:

"Your Xin’an, as well as BuildYourDream and other companies, don’t they want to expand the foreign market a bit?

I even bought one of your X6 series large SUVs. Your smart driving really is impressive, the state has just issued a grading policy, and I think it’s beyond L2.

It’s just your what... ’aerospace-grade quality battery,’ when is it going to be officially released? It’s been promoted for so long, but I still haven’t seen the actual product."

Thanks to Xin’an getting a head start and focusing on smart driving as a development advantage, the local performance of new energy vehicles in China was much better than on the original world line, and the related regulations were also quickly perfected. The "Automobile Driving Automation Grading" that was supposed to be proposed three years later was implemented on January 1st, 2018.

At the same time, smart driving became an important selling point for new energy vehicles, and domestically, efforts were being made to press down on joint ventures and increase export volume around these advantages.

Moreover, exporting new energy vehicles had another advantage: smart driving features required a complete ecosystem for support, and the significance of Chinese cars with high penetration and easy, smart, ecological reliance available around the world spoke for itself.

Previously, under pressure from America, Xin’an had been completely blacklisted, but now the higher-ups hoped to make a breakthrough in Europe first, especially breaking through the local trade protection policies and achieving true free trade.

Not just small-scale parallel import or gray market smuggling, but to officially enter the competition with local brands in a fight to the death, bringing the good practice of intense internal competition to Europe.

He Tang, having experienced the quality of Xin’an’s cars, was very confident, but Lin Ju, recalling the incidents a few years later on the original world line where Chinese brand exports faced repeated setbacks, was not as optimistic.

However, exchanging rockets for car export quotas... did evoke a sense of disparity reminiscent of trading billions of shirts for Boeing airplanes.