Chapter 454: The Closed Loop Of Fate
Compared to the bustling Houston, it was somewhat quiet here.
Also a bit diverse.
Over in Houston, it was all white men, regardless of whether the workers included those of Chinese descent; in the end, the only ones appearing on camera besides foreign guests were white men.
Here, the main faces were of Indian descent, followed by black people, and finally white people, who were mostly Donkey Party politicians.
NASA’s moon landing was Elephant Party achievements, White House achievements, a flamboyant act named after the president.
And here was the true hope for America’s rise in aerospace, with talent from all over the world working together.
The above was what the Donkey Party and its supporters thought.
At present, the mainstream media controlled by the Donkey Party all came out in force, shaping Bezos into the aerospace hero of this era, single-handedly fighting against the evil forces of the White House.
Because Bezos was loyal enough, loyal enough to the Donkey, not only did his Washington Post maintain a state of open hostility with the big T White House for a long time.
There were other cases to testify, like when big T hosted Silicon Valley big shots in the Rose Garden after the White House renovation; Zuckerberg went, Tim Cook went, Bill Gates went—these were all staunch supporters of the Donkey Party before.
Only Musk and Bezos didn’t go; the former was busy at NASA (in reality, because they had a falling out), the latter purely out of loyalty.
Even Bill Gates could attend, the biggest critic of the big T era, saying big T had short-sighted vision and harmed America’s long-term interests.
The most opposed was the virus outbreak; Bill Gates fiercely criticized during the virus outbreak, but at the White House dinner, he said Mr. President’s warp-speed action mobilized public and private resources in an extremely short time to successfully develop the COVID vaccine.
Completely opposite to his attitude during the virus outbreak.
Bill Gates could still swallow his pride, grit his teeth and take back his words, turning past criticism into present praise, holding his nose to flatter big T.
As for Bezos? He just flat-out didn’t go, flat-out didn’t give face.
In the Donkey Party’s view, what spirit was this? This was great loyalty, persistence and defense of science, freedom, and diversity.
Including why Tata was willing to foot the bill to work with Bezos instead of General Aerospace, the Donkey Party had done work behind the scenes.
Natarajan Chandrasekaran, president of the Tata Group, shook hands with Blue Origin’s CEO David Limp and said in a low voice: “This is the glory of us Indian engineers.
We will prove that we can not only manufacture the world’s best software, but also the world’s most reliable lunar module.”
Yes, the lunar module was handled by India, named “Shiva’s Wing”.
Completely designed and manufactured by Tata Advanced Systems under the Tata Group, incorporating India’s technological accumulation in materials science and redundant systems.
Also present was the chief scientist from META, Nilanjan.
This figure of Indian descent in America had thrived thanks to his mentor Lin Ran’s status, at the cost of only spending a year in prison.
Nilanjan smiled and said: “This is a perfect example of cooperation between the eagle and the elephant! I believe that in the near future, we can also build a moon base.”
He didn’t say where.
South Pole or North Pole, or perhaps the Sea of Tranquility.
After brief pleasantries, the rocket launch.
The “Odyssey” launch was equally spectacular.
The roar of the F-1 engine was even more penetrating; the rocket, carrying the Tata-manufactured lunar module, precisely completed first-stage separation and second-stage ignition.
Houston control center, Blue Origin area.
The engineers erupted in cheers even more fanatical than over at SpaceX.
In their view, they were fighting the world.
The White House didn’t look kindly on them, and China was an even more demon king-like competitor.
In the field of aerospace, weren’t those two the world?
“Odyssey” successfully sent three astronauts and the lunar module into low Earth orbit and completed trans-lunar injection orbit at the scheduled time. This was a complete victory in the rocket launch phase.
Tata executives began hugging each other, celebrating another milestone in Indian aerospace history.
However, after entering the trans-lunar injection orbit and the rocket body retiring from its main role, disaster quietly descended.
The astronauts’ task was to prepare to depart from the transfer orbit and perform spaceship attitude calibration, in preparation for final lunar orbit capture.
At this moment, the spaceship’s autonomous system needed to wake up the lunar module’s core, propulsion and attitude control systems.
Astronaut communication: “Houston, we’re having a problem here.”
The entire Houston control center suddenly fell into dead silence; perhaps the astronauts’ mentality was even better.
The astronauts on Shiva’s Wing could still joke about Jack Swigert’s line from Apollo 13.
When the other side discovered the oxygen tank explosion, he said: Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here.
Bezos’s face turned ashen; he didn’t speak.
He knew that speaking at this moment was useless; he wasn’t an expert. All he could do was arrange the right people to do the right things and provide sufficient resources.
Now, he could only pray, pray for a good outcome.
Natra Patel, the chief engineer of the lunar module propulsion system dispatched by the Tata Group, was staring fixedly at the flashing red warning light on the main screen.
The warning message was unusually concise: PACS: LOX/LH2 Mixture Sensor Fault. Valve Lockdown Engaged.
Simply put, propulsion and attitude control system: liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen mixture sensor fault.
Valve self-lock mechanism activated.
“Report! Astronauts’ remote unlock attempt failed! Main valve locked by hardware-level security protocol!” a young American engineer shouted hoarsely.
Patel rushed to the console, pulling up the sensor data with trembling fingers.
Patel muttered: “No, impossible. To achieve the ultimate dry mass ratio, we eliminated the redundant backup for that sensor.
We performed thousands of cycle verifications on its reliability; it shouldn’t fail.”
Moments later, he realized the problem wasn’t physical failure.
“This isn’t physical failure! It’s the sensor completely powered off or core chip failure!” Patel’s voice carried the urgency of an Indian accent.
Lisa Carter, Blue Origin’s chief engineer, calmly commanded: “Immediately pull up the sensor’s external structure vibration logs and installation records. Our top priority now is to know why it lost power.”
The data stream analysis results came out quickly: the sensor readings instantly dropped from normal range to zero, followed by a minor vibration sensor recording a tiny, unexpected jolt.
The executives sat on the sofa stunned, with heads occasionally coming to report the latest progress.
Obviously, none of these messages were very good.
Blue Origin’s live broadcast room remained peaceful; the black female anchor calmly told the audience how remarkable this launch was, how many black people were involved, and how unprecedentedly many black engineers appeared.
She wasn’t clear on the fault, but she vaguely sensed something odd because the backend central control hadn’t given her new content for a long time, just letting her ad-lib.
She even started singing those space-related parts from American southern black folk songs that were widely circulated.
Like “Space is the Place,” by Sun Ra, a black jazz singer.
In this song, he saw spaceships and interstellar travel as tools to escape Earth’s racial oppression and create a new black civilization.
In the tense air, an engineer specifically responsible for Tata supplier reviews suddenly captured an unbelievable detail.
The engineer reported tremblingly: “Chief, found it.
Vibration records show an extremely tiny displacement in a fixing interface around the sensor before the fault! This likely caused an instant disconnection of power or data lines!”
Patel strode over.
He saw the high-definition assembly diagram of the lunar module propulsion section.
The faulty fuel mixture ratio sensor was secured to the propellant line by a three-millimeter special alloy screw.
Lisa Carter roared: “Check the screw procurement and installation records. Why would such a critical sensor loosen?”
Patel’s face turned deathly pale.
Because he knew what this was.
To keep project costs within budget, the Tata Group adopted ‘localization’ and ‘cost optimization’ strategies for non-critical fastener procurement.
Patel explained in a low voice: “Chief, that was an alloy fixing screw provided by our Indian local Mumbai subcontractor.”
Lisa Carter instantly understood, “Did you hand-polish them? Instead of using high-precision CNC machine tools for integral forming?”
Patel didn’t answer, but Lisa Carter had gotten the answer she wanted.
The huge vibration at launch caused this cheap defective screw to loosen first, leading to instant poor contact in the critical sensor it secured, causing the system to judge fuel mixture ratio out of control, thus triggering hardware self-lock.
In the massive control hall, everyone understood the severity of the problem: the lunar module’s main propulsion system was scrap metal.
In deep space with no atmospheric drag or rescue base, they had lost braking capability.
Problem identification was quick; positioning was completed in one hour.
But this hour was torment for the astronauts.
Inside the “Odyssey” spaceship, Commander Carl Jansen and his two crew members stared fixedly at the alarm lights.
The spaceship was hurtling toward the Moon at tens of thousands of kilometers per hour.
Jansen had never regretted taking this moon mission so much.
He was a former astronaut, leading two black female astronauts to the Moon.
This moon landing was him and another black woman.
His emotions were a mix of anger and despair.
As an astronaut, he was prepared to sacrifice inside, but not for such a reason, not for such a moronic fault.
Jansen didn’t know the specifics, but his professional knowledge told him it must be a very low-level problem to cause lockdown during flight.
He’d rather die failing during landing than starve drifting in space—what kind of despair was that? Just thinking was painful.
“Houston, confirm our orbital parameters. If we can’t brake, what can we do?” Jansen forced himself to calm down.
He had to buy time for himself and his crew.
Ground control center replied: “Commander, based on current orbital calculation, you will fly past the Moon and enter a high-eccentricity heliocentric orbit.
We are urgently calculating rescue proposals.”
Flying past the Moon meant they would completely leave Earth gravity-dominated space and enter the deep solar system.
They were becoming a ghost ship in space.
The control center’s atmosphere became subtle.
The lines between American engineers and Tata engineers blurred, but were filled with accusations.
“Mr. Patel, why no redundant design?” Lisa Carter’s voice was low but carried strong oppression.
Patel closed his eyes and answered: “To meet the payload-to-thrust ratio required by the contract! We had to reduce weight! This was the risky design by us Indian engineers in pursuit of ultimate performance!”
The accusations lasted only briefly, minimal throughout the process.
An hour and a half later, Lisa Carter brought the emergency plan to see Bezos and Natarajan Chandrasekaran.
The two billionaires’ faces were as sunless as the far side of the Moon.
They were facing the fatal crisis of the Odyssey mission: three astronauts drifting toward deep space.
Lisa Carter said:
“Gentlemen, we’ve confirmed the Shiva’s Wing lunar module fault: sensor failure leading to permanent propulsion self-lock. The spaceship will fly past the Moon into an irreversible heliocentric orbit.
They must abandon ship immediately.”
Then Lisa projected a briefing onto the screen, titled prominently: “Stardust Plan: Trans-lunar Survival Maneuver.
“Our only hope is China’s aerospace capabilities.” Lisa stated bluntly; Bezos and Chandrasekaran’s faces stiffened simultaneously.
“Shiva’s Wing has a lightweight escape pod, originally for emergency ascent; we must hope this lightweight escape pod hasn’t failed.”
Lisa couldn’t help adding the latter part.
“If the lightweight escape pod has another problem, then we can only watch the astronauts go to the Lord’s embrace.”
Then she pointed to the lunar module structural diagram: “Astronauts must blow open the main cabin before lunar gravity potential peaks, i.e., within T+6 hours after launch, and perform an emergency separation with the escape pod.
The escape pod’s main propulsion thrust is minimal, with fuel only for minor attitude adjustments.
It must ignite near the apex of the main spaceship’s orbital parabola, pushing itself into a free return trajectory captured by Earth’s gravity.
This is an operation with an extremely narrow window and extremely high calculation precision requirements.
If it fails, the escape pod will follow the main spaceship into deep space.
Our astronauts must also bear risks: during acceleration, they will endure high G-forces, and the cabin’s life support system can only sustain 72 hours.”
Natarajan Chandrasekaran keenly caught the issue in Lisa Carter’s words: “Since we can get it captured by Earth’s gravity into a free return trajectory, why cooperate with China?”
Lisa’s voice rose, her tone becoming anxious; she was dissatisfied with this Indian billionaire and found the question unprofessional.
But she suppressed her emotions: “Even entering a free return trajectory, the escape pod can’t return to Earth’s atmosphere on its own; it lacks sufficient heat protection.
If we let it come back alone, it will burn up in the atmosphere into a firework not even beautiful enough to mention.
We must capture them on orbit.” Lisa’s voice slowed, emphasizing the key part.
“SpaceX and our rockets need time to prepare.
Only China has ready, tested manned capabilities and experience with complex operations near the Moon.
Their launches are frequent enough, launching every month; going to the Moon is as simple as going home. It’s not that only China can do it, but only China has the highest chance of success.
Considering the astronauts’ safety, it’s best we seek China’s help.”
Bezos clasped his hands tightly, looking at Natarajan Chandrasekaran.
For the first time, the expressions of these two business giants were so similar: pain, humiliation, yet helpless.
Natarajan Chandrasekaran said difficultly: “So, we spent 50 billion US dollars to build one of the most complex rockets in human history, and now we must ask our biggest competitor for help?”
Jeff Bezos’s gaze was complex; he thought of big T’s possible mockery, and more of that young man from China.
Bezos felt it more painfully.
Because there had clearly been an opportunity; at Harris’s campaign video party, that young man named Lin Ran had clearly approached him to chat, even showing intent to acknowledge him as boss.
But he had been careless then, thinking the young man talking about replicating Saturn V was joking.
Now after going full circle, Saturn V had launched, but it still had to trouble that young man.
If he’d known it would take this much effort, he should have agreed back then. Not to mention the young man only wanted 100 million US dollars for feasibility verification; if he could go back, 10 billion or even 100 billion, he wouldn’t blink.
Lisa watched her boss’s face change faster than the weather.
Bezos finally closed his eyes, sighed deeply after a moment: “I’ll go talk to Randolph; I believe he’ll help me.
Prepare a public press conference to announce the problem we encountered this time.”
He stared straight at Natarajan Chandrasekaran: “This problem must be exposed; it’s your responsibility, and in public opinion, it must be your responsibility!”
At this point, Bezos’s gaze sharpened.
He could accept this scandal, but the blame had to be shifted to the Indians.
Natarajan Chandrasekaran gladly accepted; wasn’t that what we did? “Of course, of course it’s our problem. With the Boeing example ahead, the public will accept it easily.”
Indian-made stuff having a small, negligible problem leading to big consequences.
It had played out once two years ago, with astronauts drifting at the space station.
Bezos finally stood: “Lisa, make sure to bring the astronauts back. I’m going to contact Randolph now.”
At the door, Bezos said without looking back: “This may not be all bad.”
