Chapter 76 - 74 Landing_1

The Progress’s cargo bay, besides the XC4 sports car, also contained some space exploration equipment. It was scheduled to remain in space for 24 hours before being remotely commanded to return, with an expected landing at Ulanha Mountain Airport.

During this period, the ground center was to conduct complete tests on the Progress’s cabin airtightness, air circulation system, and other aspects.

The H1 type space shuttle has two configurations: the Progress is the cargo version with a smaller crew cabin that can accommodate a maximum of 4 people. The rear half is widened to carve out a larger cargo bay. The second craft, the Unity, is the manned version, able to carry up to 6 people with a much more spacious crew cabin. The trade-off is a smaller cargo bay that can only accommodate 2100 kilograms of cargo.

The former does not allow for spacewalk activities, while the latter has a narrow transition section that allows two crew members to change into their space suits and depressurize, then exit through the top hatch.

Both configurations have a 0.9X0.9 meter circular node at the top of the crew cabin that can be used for future docking missions.

At 9 a.m. on June 16th, Lin Ju received the results of the Xin’an car reveal event:

Within the first 16 hours of the presale, users had ordered cars through phone and the internet, breaking through 20,000 people, and this number was still soaring. It was expected that in 24 hours, it would reach around 25,000 people.

To know, even after receiving strong subsidies from the government, the XC4’s price was still as high as 490,000 yuan. To reach this figure in sales through marketing in 2015, and without any inflation of numbers, was enough to prove the success of the space reveal event.

Moreover, it was expected to take another five months before New Yuan Aeronautics could construct the first prototype vehicle of the Xin’an XC4. The intelligent driving system existed only on the list at the System Research Institute!

The disadvantage of New Yuan’s short-handed staff became more apparent, and they were brewing another round of recruitment.

B-level Base would be completed in 20 more days, and most of the construction had already been finalized. New Yuan was gradually taking over, estimating it would be September or October before they could fill this colossal base and tap into its full potential.

That automated silicon carbide chip production line would also not be adjusted until July, and a batch of chips would take 30 days to produce. This meant that genuine ternary chips would not be available until August.

To get this huge base operational, the preliminary funding reached a staggering 1 billion, and some remaining renovation parts had yet to be priced.

But for Lin Ju, funding was no longer an issue. New Yuan Aeronautics already had a strong enough profit-making capability.

At 1 p.m. on the 16th, the Progress tilted its body as the hydrogen-oxygen engines at the rear began to work, reducing the shuttle’s speed bit by bit.

After continuous deceleration, the Progress rapidly descended in altitude and headed toward the atmosphere.

The method of reentry into the atmosphere was certainly not done by plunging headlong into it; instead, it involved using the thickly insulated bottom to make contact with the atmosphere at a 40-degree angle, gliding across multiple times like skipping on water, until it passed through the atmosphere.

This process was lengthy and covered a wide span. It had to rely on the nation’s ground-based tracking and guidance stations and satellites for navigation, because even a slight error could lead to a deviation of thousands of kilometers.

For example, America’s returnable satellite launched last century was expected to land in Hawaii but veered off course to Siberia, a whopping distance of more than 8,000 kilometers, which, in space, is merely a short stretch.

In its high-speed descent, the Progress’s underside continuously rubbed against the dense atmosphere, and the 1,600-degree Celsius heat made the insulation layer’s exterior start to turn white, forming long, white-brown streaks as tiny particles scour its surface.

The long and perilous glide lasted approximately half an hour. At 1:50 p.m., ground control detected the Progress moving into China’s airspace.

After descending to 30,000 meters, military regions across China continuously dispatched fighter jets to accompany the flight of Progress, monitoring its attitude. If there was a tendency to crash into densely populated areas, it was to be shot down in an appropriate area.

Fortunately, despite enduring high temperatures and severe tremors, Progress remained in good condition, systematically supersonic flying past one air force identification zone after another, finally reaching the airspace of the Northern Military Region.

By then, its altitude was less than 5,000 meters, and the nearby J-8F reconnaissance planes took off from the airport to escort and guide its descent.

At this point, Ulanha Mountain Base was entirely at ease, since they had conducted countless atmospheric flights and landings. Like always, Progress entered the field at a high angle, glided for a distance, and then slowly stopped at the end of the airport.

A group of ground crew rushed forward to attach a tow and push the shuttle into a maintenance hangar.

The footage of the Progress making its high-speed approach was also leaked, and that evening CCAV reported as usual, proclaiming to the world that China’s space shuttle had successfully returned and landed.

After completing preliminary checks, Progress would be mounted onto Drawing 154 and flown back to New Yuan Aeronautics for refurbishment. Next time, it would wait for its first manned spaceflight.

New Yuan’s manned flight plan progressed methodically, applying significant pressure on parties worldwide.

NACA announced that Nevada Mountain Company’s "Dream Chaser" small space shuttle would complete its maiden flight by December of 2015. They stated that the future of small space shuttles would not be a continuation of the STS (Space Transportation System program from the late ’70s) but a brand new type of reusable spacecraft with great prospects.

In the original timeline, Dream Chaser had a test flight in 2016, but it was neglected due to Ma’s development of reusable rockets. Its planned missions were almost entirely replaced by Ma’s Second Generation Dragon Spaceship, becoming a long-term unfinished project.

But now NACA clearly hoped to support "Dream Chaser," with its 20-ton takeoff mass and up to 7 crew members, it seemed perfectly capable of competing with the H1.

Ma had not yet become sufficiently alert to this, still reveling in the successful recovery of Falcon 9 and actively planning subsequent launch missions and the Heavy Falcon project.

In China, the aerospace bureau expressed congratulations but did not disclose whether they had any related plans. A certain top-secret research institute, however, showed growing interest in the H1, continually submitting reports to their superiors.

Beyond that, with Abe there, many others desired to get their hands on the H1.

The first to come knocking was... JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, hoping to purchase an H1 for a high price of 2 billion US dollars and launch it from their Tanegashima Space Center, under the same conditions as Abe.

Lin Ju promptly refused.

He certainly couldn’t sell it. Abe might be possible because of his complicated situation and weak technical capabilities, but next door to the Island Country were two American carrier strike groups. Would he be crazy enough to sell a space shuttle to them?

Then Korea also came knocking with similar talk, which he fended off in the same manner. Don’t ask—getting too close to America was their original sin.

Besides these two, no other country in Asia could afford to put up that much money. Europe might have the funds but was proud and haughty. The remaining smaller countries could only cautiously inquire about future flight plans, willing to pitch in some money to send one or two of their astronauts into space.

Of course, what mattered more was the wealthy beginning to inquire about the price of going to space with New Yuan Aeronautics, and surprisingly, some were from within the country.