Chapter 672 - 653 Outsourcing

Ye Changsi held his breath, intently watching the large screen and the alarm panel in front of him. He was far from as reassured as his boss.

Although there was definitely no problem with Androff’s blueprints with the aid of the system, the manufacturing and usage processes were not guaranteed to be flawless, with uncertainties still present.

Fortunately, no unsecured items had been flung around to trigger the alarms, nor had any fragile connection points been torn, causing structural damage. According to the data relayed back by March’s flight computer, everything was as perfect as in the simulations, with the center of gravity deviation at 3%, well within the range of the balancing system’s adjustments.

He opened the flight computer’s projected trajectory. March’s current rotation would still result in a certain amount of drift, skewing the original "figure-8" trajectory slightly, but this was inconsequential.

As for the current gravity, at just one-tenth the rotational speed, it was only 0.27% of standard gravity, less than one percent of the full value, an extremely weak effect.

But this was already completely sufficient. Ye Changsi calmly continued to command,

"Maintain the current gravity for 24 hours. Choose an opportunity to conduct the next phase of testing!"

Behind him, Lin Ju was no longer feeling sleepy; his eyes unblinkingly focused on the status of March.

Mild rotation was just a simple start; the major dynamic testing tasks would be handled by the control center at the base.

The six Robotic Housekeepers would conduct activity tests at every gravity gradient, mainly involving vigorous movement inside the space station, imitating various human actions to shift March’s center of gravity.

Over the next two months at least, the six human-shaped robots would test all functions, many of which could only be activated under gravity conditions and had not been tested before.

According to the previous plan, March was to be officially delivered by July and would serve many more purposes after that, such as short-term voyages between Earth and the Moon.

Thinking of this, he asked Zhong Cheng,

"Is the date for the first hydrogen bomb test really set for April?"

"No, it has been postponed."

Zhong Cheng’s expression remained impassive:

"You know we still have some other minor tests to conduct. America and Russia are roughly in the same boat, probably up to the same things as we are. All these preparations take time."

Lin Ju: "A one-month delay is fine, but if we cannot complete the nuclear test soon, United Mining’s progress will be too slow. Astronauts on the Moon are burning money every minute."

"But these are conditions that United Mining must fulfill to use hydrogen bombs on the Moon. You know, those people are planning to make a bomb of that yield!"

Zhong Cheng raised two fingers and shook them; he even felt reluctant to utter that number.

"Well, Director Zhong, you mentioned that Huayin had become the highest-level defense contractor. Is there any chance we could take on this project too? We have nuclear experts as well."

"..."

...

Andhra Pradesh, Sriharikota Island, Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

On April 20, 2017, the Gaganyaan-1 spacecraft was launched into space by the GSLV MK3 rocket.

It was an imperfect test. Although the main body of the spacecraft had no issues and returned successfully, the solar panels failed to deploy fully, making the test process very troublesome.

The subsequent Gaganyaan project then faced many external shocks. First, after Russia joined the Huayin Organization, its interest in bothering ISRO gradually waned, so they significantly reduced their assistance.

Then Kishimoto was assassinated, leading JAXA to withdraw from the Star of Asia project. Later, NACA tried to intervene in the Gaganyaan project.

Despite these setbacks, the Gaganyaan project stubbornly survived, for, despite India’s previous bluster about grandiose plans, they were very pragmatic in clinging to Gaganyaan, indeed obtaining from Russia the technology to build the second-generation spacecraft.

In the span of ten months, ISRO worked on improvements while also assembling two more Gaganyaan spacecraft along with their corresponding GSLV MK3 rockets.

The originally planned April launch of Gaganyaan-2 was moved forward to March 1st, with the following Gaganyaan-3 slated for one month later, on April 1st.

In this regard, ISRO emulated their Russian mentors’ past policies: if the unmanned launch of Gaganyaan-2 had no issues, immediately Indian astronauts would venture into space aboard Gaganyaan-3, joining the ranks of nations capable of conducting independent manned launches.

Xiven Samarkand was inconspicuous among the excited crowd of young spectators, hands clasped, praying to the god Shiva.

After the failure of Gaganyaan-1, the Russian Expert Group was regaled once again. In their opinion, the previous launch suffered from lax quality control. If there had been even a single diligent and responsible employee in the quality inspection or final assembly stages, such a basic mistake would not have occurred.

The quality inspection for Gaganyaan-2 and Gaganyaan-3 was entirely conducted by Russian experts, who also strictly supervised the entire process of transferring them from the workshop to the rocket.

After that, the head of the expert group, Nazilaze, withdrew from further involvement, instead chatting enthusiastically with Xiven about recent big news:

"...you really should join the Huayin Organization. Seriously, you have more funding than we do, and the Chinese would welcome you.

Did you see their March? They just conducted their first rotation test yesterday, and in a week it will be in full operation. That’s a real gravity device. In front of it, NACA’s and our gadgets look like crude washing machines.

RKA is trying to get some of March’s test data from the Aerospace Development Committee, and we also plan to gradually build space stations like that in the future."

Xiven Samarkand:

"Respected advisor, we do not have the authority to make such decisions on our own. The conditions for joining the Huayin Organization are too stringent, far beyond the capabilities of ISRO. We can’t just command the Ministry of Defense.

I’d prefer to discuss the ISS with you. There’s some very good news. Montal privately informed us that they are willing to include the Gaganyaan spacecraft as one of the designated transport vehicles for the ISS, making India an important partner in the International Space Station.

We also plan to send our own modules and transport our astronauts. In the future, the ISS will be jointly composed and maintained by America, Russia, and India."

"..."

Nazilaze managed to suppress the urge to roll his eyes. NACA had dug such an obvious pitfall, yet ISRO was still leaping in without blinking an eye.

However, he had no intention of cautioning them, merely nodding casually before changing the subject:

"Maybe that’s the case. Your two astronauts have completed their isolation training. Although they have 1:1 mockups there, they should be back now."

"Certainly, the people of India are eagerly awaiting their heroes."

The innocent light in Xiven’s eyes sparkled, reflected by the GSLV MK3 rocket igniting for launch. Under the action of the solid boosters, it swiftly ascended, carrying their dreams of manned spaceflight into the cosmos.