He Bin was born in 1939 and is now long past the retirement age. However, he is still struggling on the front line of aerospace, using his own enthusiasm to write the legend of astronauts.

"He Lao, on behalf of Mingzhou Group, I would like to thank you for your support of our Starship Company." Qin Tao walked up and held the other party's hand.

"Mr. Qin, on behalf of our astronauts, I have to thank you and Starship Company. If you hadn't developed the aerospace industry in Qiongzhou, our space launch center would not have been built so quickly." Mr. He said: "I am very proud of you." This project has been busy for many years, and thanks to your Starship Company, this project can be approved and started as soon as possible."

“He Lao, you have been engaged in aerospace, right?”

He Lao shook his head: "No, I started out as a maker of atomic bombs."

 Scenes from the past flashed through Mr. He's mind. In 1962, he graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and was assigned to work in the Second Department of the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to participate in the research and development of the atomic bomb project.

 The living conditions at that time were very difficult. We didn’t even have enough to eat, and everyone was almost doing scientific research on an empty stomach. However, everyone worked hard with the spirit of not being afraid of hardship and not being afraid of death, even though He Lao was just a bomb on a two-bomb and one-star research and development machine. Screw is also very motivated.

After completing this project, Mr. He was transferred to the Control Engineering Research Institute of the Eastern Institute of Space Technology, and then to the 502 Institute. Over the next twenty years, he was inseparable from aerospace work, and he participated in many projects , growing from a young college student to a mainstay.

In 1988, Mr. He returned to China after an overseas inspection and met the leader of Qiongzhou. The leader persuaded him to work in Qiongzhou. At that time, He Bin refused directly: "I am an aerospace person, what can I do in Qiongzhou?" Later, after After repeated persuasion by these people, he came to Qiongzhou to join the airline company here.

A year later, the Space Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology of the island country led an inspection delegation composed of six major consortiums to visit Qiongzhou. The island country experts at that time were very satisfied with Qiongzhou’s unique space launch conditions and decided to invest US$40 billion to build Asia’s largest spaceport in Qiongzhou. .

 However, the superiors did not agree. After all, the aviation industry at that time had not yet conducted large-scale international cooperation, let alone aerospace.

At that time, Mr. He's wish was shattered. He waited until the Starship Company was established in Qiongzhou, and Mr. He became active again. If we don't do it, the Starship Company will do it. In the future, we will have to rent starships for space launches. Company venue!

 The superior leaders were persuaded, and Mr. He completed the feasibility study report and project proposal for the Qiongzhou New Century International Commercial Space Port, and formally submitted it to the country. After state approval, the project started and is now complete.

In this way, Qiongzhou has become the fourth space launch base in China. Mr. He's long-cherished wish has finally come true. All this is thanks to Mingzhou Group and Starship Company. How can Mr. He be unhappy?

"You, the older generation of scientific researchers, are the most worthy of our respect." Qin Tao still held He Lao's hand and respected him very much.

“The waves behind the Yangtze River push the waves ahead. The development of our aerospace technology still depends on the younger generation and even private aerospace.” He said.

“Yes, we still have to look at our private aerospace industry.” Max said, “Director He, do you want to join our Starship Company?”

For Starship Company, Max poached a lot of people. There is a reason why NASA and Max broke up: you have poached all the capable people, how can NASA still operate?

Now, Max actually wants to poach people from Dongfang Aerospace again, which makes Qin Tao a little bit dumbfounded.

He Bin shook his head: "No, I will not join the Starship Company."

"Only those who join our starship company will have a future. Director He, look at Eastern Aerospace. They have launched a manned space flight. In more than ten years, they have not yet manned a man into space for the first time. It is much slower than our progress. What is this? All projects must follow the path of the market in order to be viable.”

"Yes, you are right. Therefore, our Eastern aerospace department also plans to reorganize, establish a private aerospace agency, and follow the market-oriented path." He Bin said: "I may join the domestic private aerospace industry. When the time comes, we will But it’s a competitive relationship.”

Max was stunned: "You also want to do it yourself?"

 After a moment, he became excited again: "Okay, you can do it yourself. If you need anything, you can come to us, such as rocket engines, and we can sell them to you."

 Max started a business.

Qin Tao continued to look around. The entire launch command hall was quite spacious. Rows of LCD monitors were placed on the table. On the front wall, there was also a huge splicing screen. At this time, the screen was displaying the Huge rocket sight.

 The new journey of Starship Company will start from here!

  February 4, 2002, the beginning of spring.

The beginning of spring before the Spring Festival has a bad reputation among the people. It is generally said to be the Year of the Widow. However, for those engaged in aerospace, this day is even more joyful. The first manned spaceflight in the East is about to begin. !

 The launch window is at night, but since early morning, countless people have been busy. On the huge launch pad, technicians began to fill the rocket with liquid oxygen and kerosene.

 Once the rocket is refueled, it almost means that the launch has entered an irreversible process. If you want to give up the launch, it will be quite dangerous to pull out the fuel.

Several cars drove into the launch site, and a large group of people got out of the cars. They looked at the rocket and the spacecraft on top of the rocket with complicated eyes.

“We still haven’t caught up.” The white-haired Mr. Qi lamented: “It would be great if our spaceship can take off this year, and the Starship Company’s spacecraft will take off tonight.”

"They don't take safety too seriously." A subordinate nearby said: "Such an important project is treated like a child's play. It was only launched once, and it was a cargo spacecraft. This second time, people were asked to go up. The one below The rocket has been reused several times, aren't they afraid of failure?"

"Xiao Jia, don't say that. Conquering space depends on this brave spirit. The estimated success rate of the Americans' Apollo spacecraft back then was only 50%. In the end, the Americans didn't go up there seven times. , succeeded six times, and came back once failed.”

“Mr. Qi, we...”

"We have to come with the spirit of learning, not with pink eye. If this is the case, then we might as well not come." Mr. Qi said.

Xiao Jia didn’t speak anymore, but his eyes were still filled with unwillingness.

They were unwilling to give in. They had been working on it for so many years, but they were overtaken by a newly emerging aerospace company! If they launch again in the future, they will no longer be the first. Can they not feel aggrieved?

What's more, this spaceship looks more advanced.

“Mr. Qi, welcome.” Qin Tao walked up to us: “Our technical team is still busy, so I’m here to receive you and take a look around with you.”

Max is not busy, but he is unwilling to come out and receive these people. He is afraid that he will not be able to control his emotions and continue to brag about himself, which will make the people in front of him feel inferior. Max takes good care of everyone's feelings.

“Mr. Qin, your starship company is really engaged in aerospace, flying at the speed of a rocket.” Mr. Qi said with a smile: “We lost in this game.”

"No, this is not a competition at all. One is privately run and the other is state-run. The two are different. Even if it is a competition, we are a friendly match. There is no need to distinguish the winner or loser. As long as it can improve the strength of our country's aerospace industry, it is enough."

Mr. Qi looked at the people behind him with emotion: "You all heard it, right? Realm, this is the realm. Don't focus on competition. We are all here to improve the aerospace level of the motherland!"

The other party is the one with the advantage, so of course you can say that. If we have the advantage, we can also say the same! Everyone is still unconvinced.

“Mr. Qi, let’s go. I’ll take you around. What do you plan to see first?”

"Rocket."

"Does this spacecraft really not use parachutes, but only landing engines?" Mr. Qi asked as he walked: "What if the engine fails?"        If you are engaged in other projects, then you only need to think of the best solution. Make the project the best it can be, but not in aerospace. In aerospace, you must always think about backup. If something goes wrong with a certain device, is there a backup plan?

"So this spacecraft uses eight engines. Even if one of them fails to ignite successfully, it will not matter. If two of them fail to ignite successfully, as long as they are not on the same side, it can ensure a safe descent. Moreover, although the spacecraft has been used many times, this kind of The engines that land are replaced with new ones every time." said Wan Zhenfu, who was following behind Qin Tao. As his deputy, he ran out to greet everyone, and he happened to be introduced as a technical expert at this time.

 After each landing, the engine is used up. For safety reasons, it is inevitable to replace the engine with a new one. It may be reused in the future, but now it is still for safety reasons. In many aspects, they are still very careful.

“This kind of engine is so special that it doesn’t even need an escape tower.”

Whether it is a Soyuz spacecraft or a Shenzhou spacecraft, there is an escape tower at the top. Once the rocket below explodes during launch, the escape tower above will take the entire spacecraft away, at least ensuring the safety of the spacecraft and the astronauts inside.

But now, the Dragon spacecraft has directly installed this kind of side wall engine, which can directly replace the function of the escape tower. After flying away, it can also land nearby, which can be said to be more scientific.

“This kind of engine is very expensive, isn’t it? Is the manufacturing cost high? If you replace it every time, it will waste a lot of money, right?” Some people are also concerned about the cost.

"In order to reduce costs, we use various advanced manufacturing technologies, such as 3D printing." Wan Zhenfu continued: "The most important combustion chamber on the engine is made by a metal 3D printer, using Inconel alloy , with excellent strength, toughness and breaking performance, first-class quality and cheap price.”

 3D printed engine? The guys were very surprised.

  Traditional engine parts are processed using various lathes. In order to ensure strength, a whole piece of material needs to be cut into the corresponding shape, which wastes raw materials and does not necessarily guarantee the success rate of processing. It may be a waste product.

3D printing technology is much more advanced. However, only innovative companies like Mingzhou Group dare to boldly use these special materials. Moreover, this technology is developing too fast. Not only titanium alloys, but also other Alloys can actually be 3D printed.

“This kind of engine can be started multiple times, and the thrust is continuously adjustable between 20% and 100%.” Wan Zhenfu continued.

 The success of the Dragon spacecraft is inseparable from this engine. This is also the first engine developed by their starship company. It is extremely advanced and they are very proud of it.

 “You really don’t use a parachute?” Everyone still didn’t believe it.

“Considering safety redundancy, we still bring it, but there is probably no chance of using it. We will completely remove the parachute in the future.” Wan Zhenfu said.

They claim to not use parachutes, but in fact they still carry them. For safety reasons, there are even landing sites on the sea as an option. After all, landing on the sea is easier than on land, and the impact is smaller, but it is just more difficult to search.

 The landing site is the landing site near the water, which is the landing site of the Shenzhou spacecraft.

Although the Shenzhou spacecraft has not yet officially carried people, the previous unmanned spacecrafts have required a landing site. Naturally, this site was designed on the grassland, with a home field and a backup landing site. At the same time, it also has a landing site at sea. A third alternate site was created.

Of course, the alternate landing site at sea is left to the navy. The navy can train in nearby waters. If necessary, it can use the navy's shipborne radar to discover and track the target, and then salvage it.

 It's just that those are backups. Judging from the confidence of the Starship Company, there is a high probability that they will not be used.

“You should not get too close, liquid oxygen and kerosene are currently being refilled.” Wan Zhenfu continued: “There may be some dangers.”

 Everyone stopped a few hundred meters away from the launch pad, looking up at the entire assembly, feeling filled with emotion.

“The performance of the liquid oxygen kerosene engine is good. We are currently developing it, but it has not been developed yet. In the future, our rockets will not need to use toxic fuel.”

The Shenzhou spacecraft uses the Long March 2. The fuel of this rocket is dimethylhydrazine and nitric acid, which are toxic first-generation rocket fuels. After all, the Shenzhou 2 is an improvement of the former Dongfeng-5. This rocket engine has Seriously out of date.

The rocket in front of me uses NK-33, or it may be the NK-43 improved by the technicians of the Kuznetsov Design Bureau. This rocket engine is very advanced and uses staged combustion technology and oxygen-enriched fuel. Pre-combustion drives the turbine pump, and since liquid oxygen and kerosene have similar densities, only one rotating shaft can drive two pumps, giving the NK-33 a vacuum thrust-to-weight ratio of up to 136.

 The rise of Starship Corporation rests on the shoulders of giants, and this giant is the Red Empire.

“This kind of engine has fallen behind. In the future we will use liquid oxygen methane engines, which are more advanced and more environmentally friendly.” Wan Zhenfu said.

As a result, everyone was even more speechless and kept falling behind!

"There's no point in watching here. Let's go to the launch command center. You can also see the astronauts preparing to go to space." Qin Tao said: "I think you will also want to see their heroic appearance before departure."

Although the astronauts usually train, they often communicate with the spacecraft designers, telling them about their training experience on the spacecraft model, and even putting forward some ideas for improvement. Now that the astronauts are about to go to space, they should go and meet. What if by chance you win, you won’t be able to see her again?

“Okay, let’s go take a look, but are they busy?”

 The spacecraft is preparing to take off, and the astronauts are also doing pre-takeoff work, so they should be very busy.

"Because they have to fly at night, they slept a little longer in the morning. Now, they should be up and active."

 Go to bed early? Can you sleep?

You can imagine how excited the astronauts who are about to take off are.

In fact, Zhao Dong and Deng Ming were indeed very excited. They slept in a single room last night, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep until twelve o'clock. Therefore, they did not get up until after eight o'clock in the morning.

After getting up, of course, I do various routine physical examinations and eat afterward.

 Six astronauts were eating together and chatting about the news they had just heard.

"The sea diversion is also ready. After you take off, the remaining four of us will split up. Two will go to the grassland and two will go to the sea, waiting to pick you up." Pan Chun said: "Zhao Dong, Deng Ming, what do you two want to see first when you come down? Flowers? Applause? Or beautiful women?"

"Fuck you, we want beautiful women, can you get them?" Deng understood him and said, "What we hope most at that time is that we can't climb out by ourselves and don't have to be carried out. That would be too embarrassing."

“Okay, then we’ll give you a chance. We’ll go there with a camera and film you stumbling, standing up and falling again.”

"We don't need anything." Zhao Dong said: "We just need to leave our Chinese footprints in outer space!"

In terms of global aerospace, there are only two superpowers, namely China and the United States. Others such as the European Space Agency have to stand aside. For a long time, Oriental Aerospace has not been taken seriously by people because there are only two of them. There is manned space technology.

 Now, Dongfang is finally going to become the third one!

Zhao Dong and Deng Ming have never worried about danger. As long as they can go to space and leave the footprints of Eastern people in outer space, that is enough!

"Yes, it is enough to go up and announce to the world that we have also joined the manned space flight club. However, after we come back, we cannot be hidden in the snow. We have to continue flying a few more times." Deng Ming continued. .

 At the door, Mr. Qi stood there with the others, listening to the discussions of the people inside. For some reason, the corners of his eyes began to moisten.

Xiao Jia was also very moved. When he first came here, he was still unconvinced. Those big words and clichés did not shock him, but now, he is really moved in his heart. Yes, no matter who launched it, it was our Dongfang People go up there to leave the footprints of us Easterners in outer space!