Chapter 77 - 75 Business_1

The "Progress" spacecraft landed safely, and there were rumors online that Li Wei had piloted the Progress, which gave the people of China great confidence in it.

On June 16th, a Rolls-Royce with a plate from Jin Province drove into Xinyuan Company.

A somewhat portly man got out of the car and strode towards the reception area of New Yuan Aeronautics.

During the subsequent introductions, Xinyuan’s external manager, Hu Bo, learned that his name was Chen Weizhang, 59 years old, engaged in mining, commonly known as a coal magnate.

His publicly disclosed assets alone were worth tens of billions, ranking him among the wealthiest in Jin Province.

"I am an uneducated man, who in childhood envied pilots, and later on, envied astronauts—they fly even higher than pilots. I have one wish, to go up to the heavens and take a look. If I could do that just once in my lifetime, even if I died immediately afterwards, it would be worth it.

You at New Yuan Aeronautics are a high-tech aerospace company, and I understand it costs a lot of money to do this. As long as you can fulfill my dream as soon as possible, you name the price."

Chen Weizhang put forward his intentions in a simple and straightforward manner, his ultimate dream, after half a lifetime of dealing with the earth, was the farthest space. Before coming to New Yuan, he was in Qiongzhou, having witnessed two rocket launches in their entirety.

Moreover, thinking that New Yuan Aeronautics was a private company and that making space shuttles must be profitable, he decided to try his luck.

Faced with this wealthy and dream-filled magnate, Hu Bo did not dare to neglect him, and Lin Ju soon came out to receive him.

"Chairman Lin is truly a young hero. At 23, I was still underground, whereas your 23 is spent looking up at the unseen sky!"

"Mr. Chen is too kind. I have only been lucky to be born in a good era," Lin Ju responded modestly, and after exchanging pleasantries, he got straight to the point and took out the travel plan previously designated by Androff.

"New Yuan Aeronautics has always had its own commercial manned flight plan, and we currently have two options available.

One is to take a direct flight on the H1 type space shuttle, which can stay in low Earth orbit for 12 to 16 hours, requiring 8 months of preliminary training. A single flight mission only costs 400 million RMB, with 5 seats available, and for each additional person, an extra 50 million RMB in training fees is required;

The second is our upcoming 7-day space station tour project. The space shuttle cost remains at 400 million, the space station can accommodate four people, with three passengers in addition to the mission commander. Beyond the training costs, an additional 280 million RMB is needed to cover space station maintenance and launch expenses, making the total cost for one person booking the entire flight 680 million RMB;

Additionally, both options may include extra-vehicular activity, which is quite expensive because the spacesuits have a limited number of uses and need to be custom-made. The EVA package adds an additional 50 million per person, with the option to exit every 24 hours. The second plan is more cost-effective.

Although both options still lack some elements, if you sign up now, I can assure that by the end of the 8-month training, everything will have been completed, which can be included in the contract with penalties for breach to ensure delivery."

After listening to Lin Ju’s introduction, Chen Weizhang took the brochure in silence and flipped through it.

Since it was aimed at ordinary people for commercial space travel, the brochure did not contain complex or professional data, only beautiful illustrations and price tables that clearly explained the time and costs involved, making it easy to understand.

Chen Weizhang looked up and saw Lin Ju’s confident smile.

Lin Ju had a good idea of whether domestic tycoons would be willing to spend this money; in the year 2019, a foreign company came to China to sell spaceship tickets, pricing them as high as 150 million US dollars, and yet a double-digit number of people indicated their interest.

His reasons for lowering the price were twofold: first, to stimulate the aerospace industry and second, to greatly expand the pool of potential customers by attracting wealthy clients to share the cost. This not only saves the lifespan of the space shuttle but also earns more money. It aligns with the concept of democratizing aerospace, allowing more people to experience it.

Therefore, Lin Ju did not think Chen Weizhang would give up due to the price factor.

Indeed, that was the case. Although years of business ups and downs had left Chen Weizhang unfazed, his hands were already on the table, clearly ready to make the deal.

"Mr. Lin, to be honest, my lifestyle over the years has been a bit irregular, and as one ages, some illnesses are inevitable. I’m not sure about going into space..."

"Rest assured," Lin Ju turned his head and instructed, "Hu, go call the person in charge of the life-sustaining system." He then picked up his phone, brought up a photo, and said:

"Our space shuttles are different from ordinary spacecraft. Aside from some g-forces during launch, the rest of the time you can treat it as a regular airliner. As long as it’s not a major illness associated with high altitudes, minor ailments are no problem.

Take a look at Professor Zhou Rui, he will be going to space this time too, and he happens to be your age. He’s also preparing for space travel."

As Lin Ju explained, the person responsible for the space shuttle’s life-sustaining system also came in with a case, gave Chen Weizhang a preliminary check-up, inquired about his medical history, and then declared that Chen Weizhang completely met the passenger criteria.

Relief finally appeared on the latter’s face as he said to Lin Ju:

"To be frank, Boss Lin, I checked how much foreigners spent on space travel in the past—it cost tens of millions of US dollars ten years ago, and I figured it would cost two to three hundred million now to go once.

However, New Yuan gave me a huge surprise; just six or seven hundred million for one person to play in space for 7 days, plus the ability for three people to go together. Including the spacewalk, it averages just under three hundred million. If I weren’t worried about my family running into trouble, I’d definitely bring my two sons along.

Let’s do this, Boss Lin, we’ll go with Plan B. I’ll find two other old guys to join me, at the price you quoted. If there’s anything you need my help with in the future, just say the word—I’ll make sure it’s taken care of!"

Chen Weizhang’s unique boldness and confidence of that era were apparent as he reached a tentative agreement on the spot. Even though Lin Ju had someone take him for a more thorough visit to understand better, Lin Ju himself was thinking about rushing to arrange the business plan.

Currently, the C-level Base only had one System Engineer, and the other three were at the B-level Base. Lin Ju had just arrived when he learned that the office had received another inquiry from a wealthy client interested in going to space, this time a Japanese entrepreneur.

Mae Mayu, an entrepreneur from the island country, founder of a fashion e-commerce platform with a net worth of nearly 2 billion US dollars, has always been passionate about space tourism.

In the original historical timeline, he would have taken a ride on Ma’s Second Generation Dragon Spaceship. Now he too had been preemptively snatched away.

The Japanese entrepreneur’s money was still money. Lin Ju directly instructed to stick to the standard external quote—a fixed price with no special treatment, considering there was not much difference with the Saudi clientele.

Um, not including Lin Ju’s "steadfast friend" Crown Prince Hamand.

For the sake of his safety, Crown Prince Hamand’s space travel date was set considerably later, possibly after two to three commercial flights, before daring to take the risk. Of course, another goal was to enter New Yuan’s space tourism station.

The design of the first space station module had been finalized, with an expected maximum width of 7.6 meters, length of 36 meters, launch mass of 41 tons, and an internal livable volume of 620 cubic meters. It contained four separate bedrooms distributed on two sides, two bathrooms, an observatory, a dining/bar area, transition chambers, etc. The station was entirely designed for commercial tourism.

One end of the space station featured a spherical panoramic observation capsule, while the other end had a cubic node module with five docking ports: four large square ports each measuring 2.5 by 2.5 meters, and one side-located odd-shaped port with a 0.9 meter diameter for docking with the H1 space shuttle.

The module, yet unnamed, was internally referred to as XS-62 and was to be manufactured at the B-level Base. It was scheduled to be launched into space before November.