Chapter 734 - 708 Time Waits for No One

"The Aerospace Development Committee disclosed the first close-range flyby photo of Mars."

"Traversing 75 million kilometers in 40 days, the ’Typhoon’ sets a new record for the fastest human spacecraft."

"Mars flights are about to become a reality—can aerospace planes cross interstellar space?"

"Accompanied by the Director of the Aerospace Administration and the Chairman of the Development Committee, Zhong Cheng, John praised the achievements of Mars exploration during his visit to the Capital Aerospace Command Center."

"..."

On July 2, the Typhoon, the latest of the aerospace planes to depart, swooped past Mars at a stunningly high speed from just 16,000 kilometers away, gaining a slight increase in velocity through Mars’ gravity.

In fact, for the Typhoon, passing by Mars was merely convenient. Under the propulsion of its nuclear engine, it didn’t require gravitational assist—unless dealing with a giant planet like Jupiter.

This behemoth was the heaviest and fastest "probe" in human history, breaking several records in succession.

But for Robert and his peers in China, what shocked them even more was the extreme reliability of the engines on the Typhoon.

As the only other nuclear-powered aerospace plane besides the H2N, the Endeavour had been launched half a month before and had already undergone a series of tests.

Although it had not yet performed long-duration continuous flight tests, JFT made it clear to NACA that the Endeavour’s engine had a maximum single ignition duration of only eight hours, not to mention the Endeavour’s fuel tank was not particularly large either.

During their visit to the command center, Robert and David wished they could transform into human-shaped scanners, meticulously observing every detail on the screens.

These actions were all seen by Zhou Jie, a member of the accompanying group, but he exhibited no vigilance, only a bit of scorn in his mind.

He thought, not only can’t NACA copy it, but even domestic efforts can’t replicate it!

Last year, the Aerospace Bureau 101 was split off from the Aerospace 6th Institute, and personnel were drawn from the Nuclear Science Institute and Aerospace Bureau 9 to form Bureau 110, tasked with the development of space nuclear propulsion systems. Subsequently, Zhou Jie became the head of Bureau 110.

What did Zhou Jie do before? He used to work for the EAST Team...

From the outset, Bureau 110 was pragmatic. They shamelessly used partial test data from the Northwest Nuclear Engine Testing Ground for the A100 and NPAE, then became despairing:

Bureau 110 could only design such a high-performance engine on paper; they couldn’t begin to manufacture it.

A year had passed, and all Bureau 110 managed was to produce a prototype of the core machine, with a specific impulse of only 1400 seconds and a thrust of 8.5 tons, and the manufacturing costs were even higher than the internal quotes for the A100...

As for the progress of engines used for near-Earth shuttling, it was even worse; to be prudent, they adopted the same pintle nozzle technology as NPAE, then got stuck in nozzle design and were still optimizing the shape.

Bureau 110 didn’t lack resources or funding, so such outcomes only illustrated that domestic technological levels could only go so far...

The visit to the command center wasn’t lengthy, and soon John and his group were taken elsewhere. Zhou Jie also decided to leave.

He happened to be here on a whim, and his visit to the Capital was to gain support from the Nuclear Science Institute.

However, before he could step out, he was stopped by He Tang.

"Director He, what is this..."

Recently, Directors Zhong Cheng and Shen Zuozhou had no time to manage the Development Committee, so He Tang was temporarily in charge.

He stopped Zhou Jie, looked around, and then led him to an empty conference room.

"Director Zhou, this matter should have been discussed with you by Director Zhong, but as he is not around, he asked me to convey it:

The Aerospace Administration and Xinyuan Company have reached a cooperation, purchasing the complete patent authorization for the A100 engine. Now the decision has been made for you to take charge, replicate it, and continue the research for a high-performance nuclear engine based on it.

This matter is still secret, and I needn’t remind you of the confidentiality rules. The engineer from Xinyuan Company is also in the Capital; when you head back, you’ll go with him. We will also coordinate with you."

The words sounded like an explosion in Zhou Jie’s ears, incredibly unbelievable.

That such advanced and highly sophisticated technology would so easily be sold to the Aerospace Administration?

Could it be...

Seeing Zhou Jie’s expression turn strange and wary, He Tang immediately understood what he was thinking and explained:

"Don’t overthink it. This is a willing cooperation, there’s no underhand dealing, it’s a normal business transaction."

"But..."

"Let me divulge something else to you, the relationship between the Aerospace Administration and Xinyuan is much closer than you think. It’s not just the nuclear engine; a large number of technologies have reached patent authorization or technology exchange agreements, costing hundreds of billions," He Tang shared.

Zhou Jie’s mind nearly crashed, utterly incapable of understanding how such arrangements could lead to these outcomes.

However, He Tang wasn’t inclined to explain further. Leaving Zhou Jie alone in the room, he returned to his office, where a plethora of work awaited him.

Several senior members of the Aerospace Development Committee, including himself, were now fully aware of the alien civilization and were exceedingly busy every day.

The alien technologies acquired by Xinyuan Company, after negotiations, had all been covertly purchased in the name of the Aerospace Administration, with a tremendously high markup.

All these purchasing costs were deposited into dedicated accounts owned by Xinyuan Company, but nobody voiced any objections.

After all, these funds would ultimately flow into the space industry and accomplish the mission of acquiring new technologies. In general, it was merely advancing the expenditure that would have had to be made in the future, and placing it somewhere else.

In this system, Xinyuan appeared less like a company and more like an unofficial public organization and could not be regarded in the conventional sense.

"All" alien technologies would be sorted by a specially constituted group of experts and disseminated to different research institutes for in-depth study, thereby maximizing the utility of these advanced technologies. After all, Xinyuan Company alone could not be omnipotent and omniscient.

Although the Aerospace Development Committee was not directly involved in these tasks, it needed to absorb a substantial amount of advanced technology. How to reasonably distribute it without affecting work efficiency was one of He Tang’s most vexing issues.

The key challenge was the high level of secrecy involved, which meant they had to personally manage nearly everything; one can only imagine the complexity.

While He Tang continued to be buried in his laborious work, his secretary brought in a new document. The first line he saw upon opening the document envelope was:

"A call for suggestions on further expanding the range of applications for aero-space planes and accelerating the training of space personnel."

Above the title was a red star, and upon closer inspection, it was an internal call for suggestions issued by the military. The core idea of the document was to significantly increase the production of aero-space planes, even to develop nuclear-powered aero-space planes, aiming to train a reserve military force for large-scale entry into space, while also providing support for the newly established, albeit not yet publicized, Space Force.

The document even boldly proposed to decommission most spaceplanes with a carrying capacity of less than 30 tons, Mars included, to be replaced by cheaper and more reliable aero-space planes.

Given that the ideas in this document had a significant impact on aerospace efforts, the Aerospace Development Committee received a copy too.

After reading the document, He Tang quickly grasped the submitter’s intent.

The higher-ups were in a hurry, urging everyone to start running forward.