Chapter 124: How Does He Understand The Revolving Door Between Politics And Business So Well?
“Do you know John Morgan?
I was thinking that you all count as members of the New York tycoon circle.” Lin Ran asked with some curiosity.
“Of course, he’s always been famous. In the past, it was because he won an Olympic championship, recently because he first split General Aerospace and then took over Glenn Martin, and lately he’s gotten involved with international shipping standards.” Jenny said casually, as if it were a matter of course.
This kind of gossip was everyday talk for her.
She continued: “Professor, your fame in the New York circle will only be higher than his.
Everyone says that after he became friends with you, his career started to soar.
Before that, he was no different from other members of his generation in the Morgan family, just doing work at an investment company that anyone could do.
Now he’s already at least a body length ahead of his competitors.”
Jenny could casually bring up rumors in these circles; after all, she grew up in New York.
Jenny paused, then added: “Among those media trying to smear you, there might be members of the Morgan family who don’t get along with John Morgan stirring things up behind the scenes.”
After hearing this, Lin Ran nodded silently. He gained more understanding of why John Morgan would go all out to fight for his interests.
He later reviewed it.
The international shipping standards leading company could gain 5% shares just by relying on patents and first-mover advantage. They said 4.5% to him and 0.5% to Hong Kong shipowners, but in reality, it was all for him.
This proportion was absolutely not low; it must have been the result of John Morgan’s efforts in mediation. From Jenny’s perspective, Lin Ran understood that in outsiders’ eyes, he and John Morgan were already a tightly bound community of interests.
So today, he had to curse the other side harshly.
“John, are you saying you’re useless?”
When John Morgan arrived in the evening, Lin Ran started blasting right away. “This launch almost ended in disaster.
If it had gone wrong this time, with the first astronaut dying in space, even though I wouldn’t be directly finished, my prestige at NASA would take a huge hit.
Could I still decide with one sentence that General Aerospace becomes the supplier like before?”
Lin Ran went full mic:
“The guidance system uses your Burroughs set, and I told you long ago to add full redundancy to the radio equipment. But it wasn’t until two months before launch that problems were found in testing, and you hurriedly redesigned and forced in a redundancy solution.”
The guidance system and radio equipment here refer to the General Electric-Burroughs guidance system from General Electric, which was renamed Burroughs Guidance System after being spun off separately from General Aerospace, specifically responsible for precisely guiding the rocket to ensure orbital flight as planned.
This system mainly relies on radio transponders, tracking and controlling the booster’s position and speed by sending and receiving signals via ground stations.
As early as the General Electric era, their radio guidance had many problems because the radio guidance system failed to lock onto the target correctly, causing the rocket to deviate from orbit or the mission to abort directly.
It was precisely because of past problems that it was redesigned this time under Lin Ran’s push.
“This time, considering that General Aerospace had just taken over Glenn Martin Company, I bundled the heat shield and retropack together and handed them to you.
I repeatedly emphasized that General Aerospace had issues with the guidance system before, so the heat shield not only needed proper design and manufacturing, but the locking device also needed sufficient redundancy.
The result? The heat shield locking device failed again! I’m really fed up with you repeatedly screwing up. If General Aerospace keeps this up, go stay wherever it’s cool and don’t expect to take on NASA’s work anymore.
I need allies who can help me, not puppets like you who only drag me down.”
It wasn’t a heat pack earlier; accurately, it should be called retropack.
The retropack, composed of three small solid rockets, was designed on top of Friendship 7. This retropack was installed above the spacecraft’s bottom heat shield.
It slows the spacecraft’s orbital speed by ignition, allowing the rocket to leave orbit and re-enter the atmosphere.
This retropack needs to be released by dedicated explosion bolts after the mission is completed, i.e., after ignition and deceleration.
Retaining the retropack would increase heat load and aerodynamic complexity during re-entry on one hand, and on the other, the retropack decomposing under high temperature could cause fragments to impact the heat shield surface.
The “burning fragments” seen by John Glenn came from this.
“If I hadn’t forcibly required you to fully redundant the heat shield design and consider unexpected situations, even if the heat shield itself had no fault, it would have caused a failure this time.
Morgan, you don’t really think we can easily snatch the orders from McDonnell Company without paying any price, do you?”
The general contractor for the entire Mercury Program was McDonnell Company, which was already decided before Lin Ran arrived. In 1959, NASA signed a contract with McDonnell Company to build the Mercury spacecraft, and the heat shield’s design and production were part of the contract.
Naturally, this included Friendship 7.
McDonnell later merged with Douglas, becoming the famous McDonnell Douglas Company in later years.
Because the heat shield is an ablative heat shield made of composite materials, able to dissipate high temperatures through ablation during atmospheric re-entry, using phenolic resin and glass fiber composites, and the supplier was originally General Electric.
So Lin Ran, for the sake of integrity, bundled the heat shield and the retropack on it together and spun it off separately to the former General Electric, now General Aerospace.
Just right, General Aerospace needed to slowly digest NASA’s rocket share after acquiring Glenn Martin, and the retropack is also a rocket—don’t treat a 1000-pound thrust rocket as not a rocket.
This actually involved taking back a small slice of the cake already given to McDonnell specifically for General Aerospace.
“If you don’t want to do it, forget about the Saturn rocket for General later.” Lin Ran’s tone was ice-cold, revealing an unquestionable authority.
Jenny sitting beside had never seen Lin Ran like this before. She previously couldn’t understand why newspapers called Lin Ran NASA’s tyrant, but this time she finally felt it substantively.
The atmosphere in the entire room was oppressively heavy; even she, an outsider, was stunned, even though she didn’t understand heat shields, guidance systems, or locking devices at all. In her shallow understanding, what direct relation did these faults have to John Morgan?
Then she watched as John Morgan, looking completely without temper, sincerely put his hands together in apology:
“Randolph, I’m really very sorry. There have been too many real things lately.
Because of the division of shipping standards, the negotiations involved were too complex. I still had to convince them to give 5% shares to Chinese descent people. You know that’s not easy.
I understand the importance of hands-on involvement. Later, I’ll definitely make up the missed homework. I’ve found von Kármán professor to tutor me.
In the future, I will definitely pay personal attention.”
Von Kármán, as a legendary figure in the aerospace field, had already retired at this time. Even with money, it wasn’t necessarily possible to hire him as a family tutor.
With Bezos’s case as precedent, Lin Ran was very clear that in aerospace enterprises, the founder must understand it himself.
If just with an investment mindset and acting as a hands-off boss later, no matter how knowledgeable the professional manager you hire, the overall progress and quality control will be a mess.
Blue Origin is a classic case of starting too early and then being left in the dust by SpaceX, not even seeing the shadow.
Not only Blue Origin, but later Boeing also indirectly proved this point.
After hearing about international shipping standards, Lin Ran sighed: “This time there was no accident.
If there had been an accident this time and John Glenn couldn’t return to Earth, we would have been kicked out of NASA together.”
John Morgan raised his hand and said: “I absolutely won’t let similar things happen again.”
In the evening, Jenny went back to the hotel to rest early, leaving the space for Lin Ran and John Morgan.
John Morgan first teased: “Jenny Hearst, the Hearst family has considerable strength in Washington.
If you marry her, whether returning to New York as a mathematician, continuing to work in the White House, or going into business, you’ll have good resources.
But the Morgan family can give you more. How about it? The Morgan family also has suitable women of marriageable age.”
Lin Ran said helplessly: “I temporarily have no such ideas.
You’ve stepped into the grave of marriage yourself, so don’t always try to drag me in too.”
John Morgan first burst out laughing, then looked thoughtful: “Marriage is a grave? I’ve heard marriage is shackles, but marriage is a grave is the first time I’ve heard it.
Interesting, but if feminists heard it, they’d probably applaud greatly.”
At this time, the second wave of women’s movement was underway, and next year Betty Friedan would publish The Feminine Mystique, critiquing the limitations of traditional marriage and housewife roles on women, pushing the movement to a climax.
Speaking of this, Betty Friedan was in a sense a critic focusing on women’s issues. She had previously written under her real name Betty Goldstein in the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America newspaper—no need to say, just the name shows how left it is.
Lin Ran shook his head and explained: “Maybe modern society will become less and less suitable for the existence of marriage.
Human society has changed forms so many times, but marriage form hasn’t changed much. Don’t you think that’s abnormal?”
John Morgan said: “That has to be left to philosophers and sociologists to think about, then spread by reporters, and finally executed by politicians.
As a businessman, I just need to wait for the trend and then profit from the trend.
Randolph, I still want to ask, Friendship 7 was just launched today—how did you determine what the fault was?”
John Morgan asked curiously: “Many engineers at General Aerospace who’ve worked with you have privately told me directly or hinted that you know Eastern magic—is it true?”
Lin Ran was somewhat speechless: “John, I was at the control center. Any fault on the spacecraft with the astronaut, whether signal or him personally, would contact the control center immediately.
The heat shield you built has heat shield locking sensors transmitting information back to the control center.
When Friendship 7 was preparing to re-enter after three orbital flights, we monitored abnormal signals from the spacecraft via telemetry data.
Right after the retropack ignited and decelerated, the heat shield locking indicator showed the heat shield might not be properly secured.
The heat shield is what you were responsible for building. General Aerospace has the blueprints; I estimate you’ve seen them too. Friendship 7 spacecraft’s heat shield is fixed to the bottom of the cabin via mechanical latches, with sensors above to detect status.
Sensor data showed abnormal heat shield locking signal, suggesting it might be loose or not fully secured.
Actually, not fully secured is impossible; engineers from you to NASA would confirm repeatedly.
This is the most basic, most basic mistake. Like driving without closing the car door properly—ridiculous.
If it’s this kind of fault, then don’t compete with the Soviet Union anymore; better hand aerospace to the Europeans.
Another possibility is loosening, which is possible but less likely, because loosening could only happen after launch due to high-speed operation during that process.
So the biggest possibility is the sensor itself, like the similar fault with your radio equipment before.
Ultimately, John Glenn successfully returned to Earth, proving my guess was right, because if it was loose, he would have been done early.
Electrical equipment is General’s strength, yet you keep having problems one after another.
Repeatedly messing up is what I can’t accept most.”
Host Walter asked: “John, what does space feel like? What did you see in orbit?”
John Glenn answered: “Walter, it’s an unbelievable experience. Weightlessness feels like floating in air. The first time seeing Earth’s full view, I was stunned. I could clearly see coastlines, cloud layers, and the blue of the oceans—truly spectacular.”
After John Glenn returned to Earth and rested briefly, Columbia Broadcasting Company conducted an exclusive interview with him in a special edition of CBS Evening News.
Walter then asked: “We heard some fragments flew by during re-entry. Can you tell us what happened? Were you worried at the time?”
John Glenn answered: “Yes, I heard a few noises and saw burning fragments flying outside the window. At that moment, I was a bit worried because ground control told me the retropack hadn’t separated. I guessed those fragments were the parachute pack disintegrating under high temperature, but the heat shield performed excellently. I completely trusted the professor’s design.”
Walter perked up: “Professor? You mean Randolph Lin?”
John Glenn nodded: “Exactly. I trust him very much and am very grateful he chose me for this flight mission. He helped me a lot both in training and during the flight.”
Walter asked: “I saw newspaper reports saying that within NASA, the degree of trust in Randolph varies, so the way they address him differs too. Those who particularly trust him call him professor.”
John Glenn thought for a moment: “That said, it’s not wrong.”
Walter asked curiously: “So why do you trust Randolph so much?”
John Glenn looked matter-of-fact: “He brought me back to Earth safely. That’s why I trust the professor.
If more detailed, it’s because the professor’s designs always fully consider redundancy. Even in special situations, I feel the professor has a plan B waiting for me.
This time in space, with burning fragments flying outside the window, I heard the professor’s voice and immediately calmed down.”
The conversation between the two on television continued, and in the room, the conversation between von Braun and Schuster also continued.
Both were scientists dug up by Operation Paperclip and were very satisfied with life at NASA.
“More and more people at NASA recognize Lin.” Schuster spoke meaningfully. “Our time is running out. If America can win this space race without German scientists, then our existence necessity is gone.”
Von Braun said: “Why?
Isn’t Randolph also a German scientist? He was trained at Göttingen, maybe even German Chinese descent.”
Schuster held his forehead: “If Randolph is German Chinese descent, that would be even worse.”
During World War II, Germany wasn’t very friendly to Chinese people, especially after 1941.
Von Braun smiled bitterly: “You think I don’t want to find opportunities?
But now the entire NASA is undoubtedly tied to Randolph and James Webb’s chariot.
If we make any move, as soon as we have an idea, it might be placed on Randolph’s desk in a report form.
Why was NASA’s establishment ultimately army-based rather than navy? Because the Vanguard rocket built on navy Viking and Aerobee rocket technology failed, while the Redstone rocket we modified for the army succeeded.
Similarly, not only can Randolph bring success to NASA, James Webb can also bring budget to NASA.
Under such circumstances, how can we fight them? All NASA employees’ salary increases benefit from the budget James Webb fought for.
Suppliers’ contract amounts increasing also benefits from the increased budget.
We now have no capital to fight Randolph and James Webb.
Not to mention they have White House support.
Did you forget Arthur Rudolf’s example?”
Schuster said: “There’s still a way. We can consider breaking up James Webb and Randolph’s alliance.”
Von Braun explained: “You’re too naive.
Do you think why their alliance is so rock-solid? Even if media sees Randolph as NASA’s number one power holder, crowning him shadow director, James Webb doesn’t care at all.
Do you think these voices haven’t affected their cooperation without other reasons?
Randolph even interferes in NASA’s bidding, casually assigning projects to General Aerospace.
Isn’t that because they reached a tacit understanding.
After James Webb steps down from NASA director position, General Aerospace will naturally offer him an executive position and handsome salary.
And Randolph is the link connecting them.
How does a Chinese person understand Washington’s revolving door of politics and business so well?
I’ve been here over ten years and still don’t get how to play, but he figured on day one to cooperate with General and the Morgan family behind it?”
As von Braun spoke, his face was full of depression.
