Chapter 73 - 71 we did_1

The Space Agency quickly issued a notice to its several institutes:

New Yuan Aeronautics will be involved in the national space program, so research what tasks they can help you with.

Of course, there were tasks.

The first to respond was the Fifth Institute, which swiftly put forward a pile of proposals, the space station being at the top of the list.

According to the original plan, China’s space station was to be developed in three steps. The first step was Tiangong No.1, to validate in-orbit docking technology; the second step was the originally scheduled launch of Tiangong No.2 next year, which was a backup for Tiangong No.1 for further practice; the third step was to build a large space station for China with the help of the CZ-5 rocket.

It was a classic three-step strategy, as well as a pragmatic plan based on the Space Agency’s transport capacity.

But now, with New Yuan-2 in the picture, the Fifth Institute, which was responsible for the space station, couldn’t sit still.

This was a heavy-lift rocket capable of sending 45 tons of payload to low Earth orbit, while the ultimate capability of CZ-5 was only about 30 tons – not in the same league at all.

Tiangong No.2 actually came with a sense of resignation, constrained by the lift capacity of the CZ-2F.

But now that New Yuan-2 was an option, why not leap straight to building the large, third-generation space station?

With a diameter of 6 meters for the New Yuan-2, the space station could be 7 to 8 meters in diameter and up to 30 meters in length with no issue, plus with a weight of over 40 tons, the internal space could easily exceed 500 cubic meters – more than ten times that of Tiangong No.1!

Even the original plan for the third generation space station was limited by the CZ-5, but now it seemed possible to go bigger and heavier.

Without the worry of lift capacity limitations, the Fifth Institute let their imagination fly and quickly churned out several "enhanced" third-generation space station plans; as for Tiangong No.2, it was only a module in the future plans and could be discarded directly if it weren’t for the fear of waste.

Previously constrained by the rocket’s diameter and weight, the space station’s docking ports were designed to be a space-saving 85 cm diameter circular ports, which were inefficient and small. Now, they directly switched to a 2x2m large square port, both beautiful and practical.

The core module only weighs 22.5 tons? Double it straight to 45 tons, plus two hexahedral node cabins, for a maximum expansion capability.

Even Big Shot saw the long-term plan for a rotating centrifuge segment, intended for pre-demonstration of the Mars landing spacecraft???

Big Shot simply skipped that and moved to the next one on the pile, only to be even more startled.

"China’s Manned Moon Landing Project Plan"

He set it down, picked up another:

"Moon Permanent Scientific Research Station Plan"

He set that down, too, and picked up the next:

"Concept and Feasibility Study for the Manned Mars Landing Spacecraft"

Big Shot didn’t bother to continue flipping through; he felt the Fifth Institute was really getting carried away.

He then looked at the proposals from the other institutes.

The First Institute had only submitted two symbolic cooperative tasks, with the main idea still being: Big Shot, please don’t give up on the CZ-5, let us struggle a bit more.

He skipped that, to be discussed later.

Sixth Institute: May we collaborate on developing a new engine?

Reply: Scram, no ambition!

Eighth Institute: Reusability for the CZ-9 is a bit challenging, can we cooperate...?

He closed it and tossed it aside.

That was all, since the other research institutes mainly dealt with sending people off to heaven, and this task didn’t concern them much... What’s this? A certain numeric code research institute?

Big Shot curiously flipped it open, only to discover it was research on reusable spacecraft, also known as unmanned space planes, with military applications.

They had found the technology from New Yuan’s H1 to be very important and helpful to their plan, but as the security level was too high, they had left the decision to the higher-ups.

Big Shot couldn’t make the decision alone, he placed it at an angle on the side and decided to discuss it further when the opportunity arose.

Just when he felt that opening up the issue had brought too many troubles, the office door he had pushed open was suddenly knocked on; it was Li Wei.

Big Shot asked wearily, "Is that you, Captain Li? What brings you to my office?"

"It’s like this: the team members train extremely hard, and many have long met the standards to go to space, but it keeps getting delayed... I heard that H1 can be reused. If we could use it to train astronauts, it would greatly enrich..."

Li Wei talked for a long time, from standing to sitting, then up again, standing in front of Big Shot’s desk.

"Li Wei, we’ll discuss this matter with the comrades from the Manned Space Flight Office, and the higher-ups have already decided to let us adjust the plans, so it’s all possible..."

Finally, after a good while, Big Shot managed to send Li Wei away, and watched as the door closed. He picked up the Progress chief designer’s signed wooden model that Lin Ju had given him during the launch of New Yuan-2, simulating the re-entry route in the air and slowly landing it on what he imagined to be the runway on his desk.

...

On June 6th, the sixth Falcon 9 of the new year was erected again at the Air Force base in Cape Canaveral.

Ma, standing under the scorching sun, was with a group of specaX R&D personnel.

"Can you assure me that this rocket will be successfully recovered?"

"Of course, Mr. Ma Yilong, this time our improvements have reached 25%. This is the most stable Falcon 9 rocket."

Ma nodded, seemingly not very enthusiastic.

The first launch and successful recovery of New Yuan-2 left him with a huge psychological shadow, and he went to NACA overnight to verify whether Guo Shen had taken away the space agency’s top-secret technology. If it existed, he wanted a part of it too.

NACA: I’d like to know where I got this technology from as well.

Initially, he thought the recovery of New Yuan-1 was not too troublesome since Falcon 9 was a medium-sized rocket with a LEO capacity of 20 tons, and New Yuan-1 was not comparable at all.

But the successful recovery of New Yuan-2, which was 800 tons heavier than Falcon 9, struck him hard.

Such a huge rocket, with such an outrageous method of recovery, could it really succeed?

Ma Yilong, who had not yet regained the confidence he had after the Falcon 9’s successful recovery, began to doubt his staff more when he looked at them, and last month he had to fire 7 Indian engineers before he calmed down.

The officers and soldiers at the Cape Canaveral base were already used to it; luckily, all the expensive materials and planes had been relocated, or else they would have been blown away by the Falcon 9 long ago.

The spare parts warehouse that collapsed last time has just been cleared out, and Ma Yilong is already eager to launch another rocket.

The specaX engineers skillfully entered the launch sequence, and the Falcon 9 ascended quickly, then followed the same trajectory as countless times before for recovery.

Already upgraded to the D type, the Merlin 1 engine ignited; the rocket slowed down, the support legs unfolded, the altitude continued to decrease, and the engine shut down.

The Falcon 9 stood on the landing field, and although it was more than ten meters off, it still stood firmly.

Ma, resting his chin in his hand, took a moment to realize what had just happened. As the recovery ended, he got up to leave as usual, head down. After walking a dozen steps, he suddenly turned around, stared in astonishment at the distant Falcon 9, then opened his eyes wide looking at the silent staff, finally understanding.

"W... WOW, wow wow wow! We did it! We did it!"

"We... did it!"

"Ahahahaha!"

At that moment, Ma was almost in tears. Eight months, do you know how I’ve been through these eight months?

Eight months, seven Falcon 9s, to ensure a launch per month, the monthly expenses nearly doubled as the Sky Fork employees worked overtime making rockets.

And now, he, Ma Yilong, could finally say, America has broken through the technological blockade and mastered independent rocket recovery capabilities!

Meanwhile, the netizens watching Ma’s rocket launch also boiled over with excitement. Every launch by Ma was broadcast live, and after blowing up six times in a row, Falcon 9 had actually been successfully recovered?!