Chapter 732 - 706 Space Force

"Welcome, welcome, a warm welcome~"

At Capital Airport, the scene of elementary school students with cheeks painted with blusher lining up to welcome guests appeared once again, waving flowers in their hands as they watched John stride down the gangway.

Lin Ju’s keen eyes caught a glimpse of red between the suit’s lapels, and he reflected that it was indeed the familiar classic attire.

Escorted by the reception officials to the motorcade, John walked with a vigorous presence. His nearly six-foot-three stature also made him quite imposing, which, in the eyes of the public, was primarily due to the successful launch of the Starship.

Just two days before his departure, the SS-5 Starship assembly had been successfully launched into space and had reached a stable orbit at a height of 150 kilometers.

The booster was damaged when it splashed down into the sea, but the main body of the Starship Spacecraft remained controllable, expected to return to Earth’s atmosphere after 15 days.

No matter what—America officially put into service an advanced launch system!

Although there are still many problems to be solved, the Starship was now serviceable, and its super-low cost could bring a lot of help to NACA, more economical, faster, and more than the SL-X.

The outside world believed this success gave a substantial boost to Robert’s team for negotiations in China, justifying John’s arrival in Beijing on July 2 for a three-day visit.

With a hat on, Lin Ju blended into the edge of the crowd, unremarkable. He just wanted to have a closer look at what John was like.

After leaving the airport, he returned to Union Mining Headquarters and encountered someone quite unexpected.

"General Lu, what brings you here...?"

"Oh, I came to familiarize myself with the Skylight Project astronauts’ logs and happened to be looking for you."

The outfit Lu Jianfei wore this time was also peculiar, akin to an astronaut’s uniform in a dark navy blue that tended towards black, but with shoulder and chest patches that were quite different; the arm patch bore a line of small, dense type, and below it, three large characters:

"******* (PLA)"

"Space Force (SAF)"

Space Force?!

Noticing Lin Ju’s eyes suddenly widen, Lu Jianfei explained with a smile:

"Fast, isn’t it? But it’s not so surprising. America and Russia both have theirs; we decided to create our own. This uniform and the arm patch are just temporary. It’s the astronaut uniform but darkened and more black; it’s not quite suitable for formal occasions."

Lin Ju examined Lu Jianfei’s uniform closely and noted that it indeed seemed like the familiar outfit, but the arm patch was intriguing. It appeared to be a cylindrical spacecraft with deployed solar panels, somewhat resembling... Qianjun Rod No. 1?

"This... When did this happen?"

"Three days ago, the Space Force was officially established as a branch independent of the army, navy, and air force. The personnel were drawn from the existing missile forces, cyber forces, and several aerospace research institutes.

Despite being brought in as a leader, in reality, I’m just a platoon leader. Theoretically, the only operational forces I can command are those 26 people up in space and a small ship that is less than 2,000 tonnes."

Lin Ju suddenly understood—there had been discussions about the Space Force before, and he’d heard that the near-Earth orbit was left to the air force. It seemed this was indeed the case; only the March, which had the capability for long voyages, was under the control of the Space Force.

So, apart from other personnel, the Space Force’s immediate "fleet" consists of one ship, with a combat force of merely 26 people, and furthermore, the March didn’t have much in terms of armaments... Thankfully, in contrast to other "Space Forces," this one at least possessed real space capabilities.

One could tell from Lu Jianfei’s expression, despite his verbal complaints, his smile never ceased.

This was the Space Force after all. Even if what had been assembled now was only a provisional group, everyone knew it would be the absolute focus of future development, with countless resources set to pour into this nascent entity.

Just never thought its establishment would be so rapid, faster than one could imagine.

"That’s good, General Lu. I didn’t expect you to be so hands-on. Just a greeting, and we would have sent it over," he said.

"That wouldn’t do. Now is the time to lay the foundation, and I’m a complete amateur here. I could manage rockets, but all these I need to learn from scratch."

The two quickly set aside their initial purpose and began to chat enthusiastically.

It turns out that the reason why the Space Force was established so quickly, besides the swift decision by the higher-ups, was mostly due to a significant reduction in its jurisdiction.

The combat range of the Space Force was clearly designated to be beyond 1000 kilometers of Earth’s orbit; within this range, the Air Force was in command, including the Aero-Space Plane.

Several Aero-Space Planes could be built within a year, but spacecraft capable of leaving Earth were far too expensive and complex. For several years to come, the Space Force could only cling to the "March," and had also to cooperate with the Aerospace Development Committee, focusing mainly on scientific research with military training as a secondary mission.

Don’t forget that New Yuan still owns half of the March; even this "warship" isn’t entirely the Space Force’s.

From this angle, Lu Jianfei genuinely was a "bare pole" commander; he even needed to go through the Air Force or the Aerospace Development Committee to get into space...

Although the future prospects for development were good, they were still far off.

But the higher-ups were already eager to set up the framework of the Space Force first, regardless of the details, tasking Lu Jianfei with the job of starting from scratch to build what would become the most important armed force in the future.

Of course, there was another reason, which Lu Jianfei also shared with Lin Ju:

"We may sign a memorandum with America to form the Solar System Mutual Defense Alliance, primarily to regulate each other’s space forces. So we need to establish the Space Force."

"Mutual defense alliance... ally country? That’s not a good omen," Lin remarked.

"..."

"It’s not called that, it’s just a similar concept. In any case, it’s just a few simple clauses with the goal of ensuring that the developing space forces do not target each other, setting safe boundaries, and clarifying the red lines of our respective actions. This is a basic condition for breaking the Outer Space Treaty.

I think America will soon make their Space Force independent too; otherwise, their Air Force wouldn’t be happy about having an extra restriction for nothing."

"Is this what the NACA Director is coming to discuss?" Lin asked.

"This is just one where both sides roughly agree. There are too many other disagreements. Guess what America wants? They want to open patent exchanges in the aerospace field. Any patent under both sides’ aerospace systems can be used by the other for free, except for commercial purposes.

Moreover, they propose things like reciprocal visa exemptions for talents and unconditional permanent residency rights—it’s quite a smart move."

"This..."

Lin Ju was momentarily at a loss for words. Patent exchanges and visa exemptions for talents were indeed unexpectedly high levels of cooperation. Had it been ten years ago, one might think America had gone mad.

But of course, these seemingly reciprocal conditions could not be agreed to now. Who would lose and who would gain was too obvious, not to mention the many loopholes that could be exploited.

So if America’s proposals were all too absurd, what was John coming here in a hurry for?

"Of course, what America is most interested in is our laser technology. They hope to acquire our laser technology under the pretext of enhancing Earth’s defensive capabilities and aiding in space development, offering a hefty price—they’re really planning to make sacrifices.

We certainly didn’t agree, but we also didn’t want to antagonize them too much, so we proposed an alternative exchange."