The sun rises to the sky and then slowly slides to the west. When night covers the earth, the entire center of Wenchang is still bright.

More and more guests are coming, including veterans of the domestic aerospace industry, the local government of Qiongzhou, CCTV reporters from the capital who cannot refuse, and big bosses from the military.

 That's right, although Starship Company is a private enterprise, Starship Company does not dare to refuse leaders from the military.

The leader of the Navy is headed by Wu Shengli. He wants to come over and see. Which middle-level leader of the Mingzhou Group dares to say no? As for the leaders of the Air Force, astronauts are selected by the Air Force. Even if the current astronaut corps is no longer part of the Air Force, they are still trained by the Air Force. Therefore, if the leaders of the Air Force want to see their children go to space for the first time, can they stop them? ? As for the Army, the current establishment of astronauts belongs to the Army. Yes, although it belongs directly to the General Assembly, their military ranks and other things follow the Army's path. Therefore, the leaders of the Army have to look at it. , they cannot refuse.

Just like that, a large number of people crowded into the launch center, some wearing suits, some wearing blue overalls, some wearing white coats, and some wearing military uniforms.

 They were all looking in the direction of the astronaut apartment.

The astronaut apartment is not only a place for astronauts to live, it is also a place for a large number of astronauts' medical tests and pre-departure preparations. Otherwise, there would be no need for a building to provide for astronauts. These are the building facilities of the Wenchang launch site. , after all, this place was originally prepared as a manned space base.

Finally, a group of people came out of the astronaut apartment. They included guards in military uniforms and medical staff in white coats. They surrounded two men in space suits.

  Zhao Dong and Deng Ming came out!

The white space suit is inlaid with blue stripes. There is a bright red logo on the left shoulder, which looks very eye-catching. There are brown name tags on the blue **** the left chest, which write the names of the two people and the Chinese pinyin respectively.

 The two of them did not buckle their helmets, revealing their black and white hats, with resolute expressions on their faces.

 They were carrying a small box in their left hand, which contained a portable life support system.

Although the Starship Company has also announced that it will develop its own in-vehicle space suits, even extra-vehicular space suits and even Mars suits, after all, these require a lot of energy. Under the existing conditions, it is more appropriate for them to directly use ready-made ones.

 Amid warm applause, the two men walked in front of the crowd in military uniforms.

“Report, astronaut Zhao Dong.”

 When Zhao Dong said this, he suddenly felt a little embarrassed.

 What to request? Of course it was a request to go on an expedition.

 But, to whom should I apply for this request?

If it is flying the Shenzhou, of course he will be the commander-in-chief of the manned space project. Mr. Cao, who is in military uniform in front of him, is certainly the candidate to apply.

However, they are flying the Dragon spacecraft this time. This spacecraft belongs to Starship Company and the Mingzhou Group! The two then looked at a group of suits other than military uniforms and looked at Qin Tao.

“You are astronauts trained by our motherland, so of course you must report to your direct leaders.”

Mr. Cao smiled and said: "Mr. Qin, they are flying the Dragon spaceship. They should report to your Mingzhou Group."

 Actually, we didn’t originally plan for so many people to visit, so the report must be to Mr. Qin, Max and others, and there was nothing easy to arrange. Now such an unexpected episode suddenly appeared.

 “Let’s go together.” Qin Tao stood next to Mr. Cao.

“Report, astronaut Zhao Dong.”

 “Astronaut Deng Ming.”

“All preparations for takeoff have been completed, please take off!”

As the two people reported, Mr. Cao raised his right arm in return and said in a loud voice, "You can take off!"

“Let’s realize our Chinese nation’s great flying dream!” Qin Tao said.

"yes!"

The two of them were filled with pride and walked towards the commuter car nearby.

There were mounted police officers driving motorcycles before and after escorting the flight crew to the launch tower. This grand scene was recorded by a camera on the side. I shouldn’t be able to catch up with the news today, but tomorrow’s morning news, or even tonight’s night news , there will be this spectacular scene.

 The two astronauts arrived at the launch pad by car and took the elevator to the twelfth floor of the tower.

There is also a platform on the ninth floor, which is prepared for the Shenzhou spacecraft. The Dragon spacecraft and Starship MK1 are higher, so you have to go all the way up to the twelfth floor.

In fact, when the Dragon spacecraft stood here, they had already entered the cabin twice. The first time they went in was just to confirm and familiarize themselves with the process. The second time they went in, it was a full system drill, wearing full cabin work clothes. Get familiar with the entire operation process inside. The first two times were just preparations, but this time it was official flying.

When he came to the platform, Zhao Dong suddenly discovered that a camera lens was temporarily added in the corner of the platform, so he said hello to the camera.

Here, everyone has arrived at the launch command hall. The movements of the astronauts are displayed in the hall, and Zhao Dong's greeting is displayed on one of the screens.

"Zhao Dong's quality is very good." Mr. Qi said, "It's so easy to go to space for the first time. It seems that our Shenzhou's first launch..."

Hearing what Mr. Qi said, Qin Tao quickly shook his head: "Mr. Qi, for our Dragon spacecraft, the astronauts we selected have been busy training here, and they must be unfamiliar with the operation of the Shenzhou spacecraft. The remaining people have been training hard, so for the first manned launch of the Shenzhou, we should choose from them."

Every astronaut is qualified, no, they are all excellent, but there are not many opportunities to fly. Therefore, Qin Tao selected these people from his memory to make up for his regrets, but if it affects The remaining space heroes were putting the cart before the horse, and he didn't want to do that.

As long as this flight is successful, then Zhao Dong and Deng Ming will be the first two Eastern astronauts to fly into the sky. They have enough aura, and they have experience in space flight. The next launch of Shenzhou may also Prioritizing them would be a huge disappointment to the remaining astronauts.

Qin Tao can't do this kind of thing, and the reason he put forward is also very legitimate: the training of any astronaut is not easy. They must be familiar with all operations of the spacecraft and be proficient in all emergency operations. Now These Flying Dragon spaceships are definitely not as familiar with the Shenzhou spacecraft as those who have been training to fly the Shenzhou spacecraft.

Mr. Cao smiled at the side: "Old Qi, do you know what it feels like when your daughter gets married? Although Zhao Dong and Deng Ming were trained by us, we made wedding clothes for the Starship Company."

Obviously, the Starship Company is moving faster and can accommodate more people on the spacecraft. Therefore, Zhao Dong and the six of them will only need the Dragon spacecraft in the future. This spacecraft can be reused and the frequency of launches will be very high. In the future, They will also take many tourists to the sky, and the six of them may be too busy.

“It’s all for the development of our Eastern aerospace technology.” Qin Tao said from the side: “We are the first to go to space, can’t we also verify the performance of the space suit and other subsystems?”

"Mr. Qin is full of truth." Mr. Cao smiled. Just as he was about to say more, someone shouted again: "They have already entered the cabin!"

The Dragon spacecraft can seat up to 7 people, but that is only in passenger mode. Under normal circumstances, there will be four seats on the upper floor of the Dragon spacecraft, and the lower floor is used to stack various cargos. When needed, additional seats can be added to the lower space.

At this time, only two people were seated in the cabin. The cabin of more than ten cubic meters seemed very spacious. Zhao Dong sat on the left and Deng Ming sat on the right.

 Preparations before takeoff have officially begun!

The two people held the clips in their hands and began to compare the preparations before taking off, one by one. In front of the two people, that is, on the top of the spacecraft, there was a large-area display screen with various data displayed on the screen.

Compared to the messy cabin of the Shenzhou, the spacecraft in front of us is obviously much more pleasing to the eye.

“The interior of this spaceship is so simple.” Mr. Cao couldn’t help but sigh, it was like a product from two eras.

“Yes, we have always pursued simplicity. In the future, ordinary people who have been trained can also complete the driving task.” Max said.

The meaning of his words is very obvious: Don't think that you will suffer a loss after training a few astronauts for us. This is all temporary. In the future, our requirements for astronauts will be even lower. An ordinary person can go up, so you don't need to do that. Test more.

 “Thirty minutes countdown.” A voice sounded in the hall.

“The launch tower personnel are evacuated and the launch pad is deployed!”

Only the rocket is left standing there, waiting for the final moment of ignition and liftoff. On the big screen, the shiny stainless steel shell of the starship is very dazzling, like the brightest star in the night sky.

“Please read the instructions. The unmanned recycling platform is ready.” Another voice sounded.

  “What?”     This kind of name would never be given in the East. Everyone was surprised to hear this voice and was very curious.

"In order to recover the spaceship, we modified an offshore drilling platform. Everyone was very busy at the time. Some accidents occurred during the modification. Later we found out that the reason was because we did not read the instructions. Therefore, this recovery platform was named Please Read the Instructions. No." Max explained.

 What’s so weird about this? We want to tell you that you must read the instructions!

 “Ten minutes countdown!”

 “Five minutes countdown!”

The time is getting closer and closer, and the atmosphere in the launch hall is getting more and more tense. However, when everyone looks at the big screen, you can see that the two people in the cabin are still calm and composed.

 They are confident of victory!

 “Three minutes countdown!”

 “One minute countdown!”

 Qin Tao glanced at Max and suddenly found that Max's right hand seemed to be shaking involuntarily. What's going on? Is this guy unsure?

 “Ten, nine, eight…two, one, light the fire!”

The rocket shrouded in night was quiet just now, but now it suddenly became violent. The sound of the turbopump suddenly sounded, and wisps of white smoke came out from the bottom of the rocket. The white smoke quickly spread to all sides, wrapping up the entire rocket. The launch pad burst into flames amidst the white smoke.

 Ignition successful!

If it is an ordinary rocket, as long as you see white smoke and flames, you can determine that it has been successfully ignited. But for a starship, this is not necessarily true because its first-stage rocket has eighteen engines. With so many engines, it can Is it guaranteed to be a successful ignition the first time?

“Engine 13 did not start!”

 “Turn off the corresponding two stations!”

These conversations are so fast that the people next to you can hardly hear them clearly. Only the insiders know what happened: one of them has no ignition. In order to balance the thrust, both symmetrical ones are simply turned off!

 Lao Qi and others are all frowning, okay?

This is the most rigorous space launch. Even if there is a small mistake, the launch needs to be suspended for inspection. But now, the rocket shuts down three engines and then continues to ignite and lift off?

Before they had time to interfere, the entire launch pad shook. Under the surging thrust, the huge rocket lifted the Dragon spacecraft and slowly rose.

This is being typed out?

Max whispered in his mouth: "Damn it, even if you come to the East, you can't escape the curse of thirteen!"

"Then the number of this engine will be called 12A from now on." Qin Tao said from the side: "Actually, the number 14 is not good, so we might as well call it 12B."

“Okay, I have to change the name.” Max nodded and continued to look at the screen. At this time, the rocket was accelerating and all data was normal.

 The whole Qiongzhou was boiling.

They had long heard that a rocket was going to be launched, but they could not get close to the launch site and could only watch from a distance. The scene of rocket launching at night was even more spectacular. In their field of vision, the huge rocket dragged a long flame behind it. Appeared in front of their eyes, and then the rocket continued to rise, and the flame continued to elongate. The flame below could still appear in their brains due to the persistence of vision, so the flame became a line.

 A bright line shoots out from the launch site, shoots straight into the sky, and shoots into the vast dark night, leaving a shining beam of light in the starry sky. This scene is so spectacular!

They kept looking up and looking into space, until they saw the space where the light disappeared. This light column extending from the ground to space seemed to be a road to the sky!

 “Holy shit, it’s so beautiful!”

 “Yeah, it’s really spectacular. Did you take a photo?”

 “Starship Company is mighty!”

“It is said that there are still two astronauts. This is our first manned space flight!”

 “Is it going to the moon?”

"Of course not. You look like an amateur at first glance. Manned spaceflight and moon landing are two separate projects. They only circle outside the atmosphere and do not fly to the moon."

To the outside audience, this is already a success, but to the people at the launch center, breaking out of the atmosphere is just one step.

“The first-stage rocket has stopped working, and the remaining fuel is 5%, ready to be recycled!”

 “Secondary rocket ignition!”

 “All three engines are working normally!”

“Our starship MK1, doesn’t the secondary rocket on it have six engines?” Qin Tao was very curious.

"That's right, that was when we launched the maximum payload. Now that the payload has been reduced from sixty tons to fourteen tons, we can't use that much at all." Max said, "So we only used three. In fact, we still do With a certain amount of redundancy, two units are enough.”

No matter how mature the rocket recovery technology is, it is impossible to recover the second-stage rocket because it has already flown out of the atmosphere. If it falls back down, it will be no different from recovering a satellite. It is too difficult.

“In the future, we will also have to use ballistic recovery to bring the second-stage rocket back.” Max continued.

Listening to the conversation between the two, Mr. Qi had some questions: "Don't you care that there are two people above?"

“The two people above are very nice, we don’t need to worry about them.”

There is a special window area on the big screen, which displays the status of the two astronauts inside. Except when there is no signal when passing through the ionosphere, at other times, they sit there steadily and do not use it at all. worry.

 “The starship is separated.”

 Finally, an exciting order came from the measurement and control ship.

 The Dragon spacecraft separated from the rocket behind it and traveled independently into space!

 The solar panels on both sides are unfolded, and it is already an independent sailing spacecraft!

“Easterly wind report, track parameters are normal.”

"The Dragon spacecraft reports that we are in good condition." Zhao Dong's voice came from the distant space. He gently let go of his hand, and the space pen he held in his hand floated.

At this moment, everyone stood up and applauded fiercely.

 Succeeded, finally succeeded!

Although manned spaceflight cannot be considered a complete success until the personnel return safely, now that the spacecraft has been put into orbit, the launch has been a complete success!

Mr. Cao looked at Qin Tao: "Mr. Qin, congratulations to you for successfully realizing our dream of flying to the sky!"

"We are delighted that our astronauts have gone into space, which marks that our aerospace industry has entered a new field." Qin Tao said: "This is just the first step in a long march of thousands of miles. Our future is the stars and the sea!" "

Of course you can say some heroic words at this time, but Qin Tao is still a little curious, what is Max doing?

“Call the unmanned recovery ship, has our first-stage rocket come back?” Max is most concerned about this first-stage rocket, because it can still be used after it is recovered! If you want to enter space at low cost, you must have reusable technology, whether it is to carry people or cargo.

Mr. Qi was sweating: "I just heard that one of the engines didn't ignite, which scared me. Fortunately, there was a near miss in the end. Is the reliability of your rocket high or low?"

 The rockets used by manned spacecraft require very high reliability, more than 99.999%, and there will never be a situation where there is no ignition during launch.

This Starship Company's approach is really scary.

In space, Zhao Dong and Deng Ming looked outside the cabin. There was no refraction in the atmosphere and they could not see the stars in the sky. They could only see the light of the stars when they looked at a certain star. They looked down, You can see the huge outline of the earth, the blue sea, and the outline of the land.

 When it’s daytime here in the motherland, you must take a look at the Great Wall!