Chapter 87: One Hell Of A Skyrocket
Base Cafeteria.
“Cheers!”
Fan Ren rarely showed a relaxed expression on his face. After shouting that, he threw his head back and downed the beer.
Li Jian put down his glass and looked at the two brothers he hadn’t seen in four years, showing a genuine smile.
“Where’s the fourth brother? Have you been in touch?”
Liu Jun’s face immediately fell a bit upon hearing this.
“The fourth brother is living much more comfortably than us now, he…”
“The fourth brother is doing well. He found a local small boss in Linhai and started a family early. His wife at home is a bit more mature in personality than him. She’s probably worried about him fooling around outside, so he doesn’t keep in touch with us much.”
Fan Ren interrupted Liu Jun and explained briefly, then couldn’t help but sigh.
Things had finally changed.
More than four years had passed. Among the four brothers, Li Jian had returned as a Great Xia astronaut, Liu Jun was now a company general manager standing on his own, and the High-Voltage Radio branch under his management was developing prosperously.
As for him, out of 365 days a year, he spent 360 days holed up in the laboratory, quietly climbing the technology tree.
That fourth brother had already established a family and career. Although tightly controlled by his wife at home, his parents had now settled in Linhai, and it was said that the little boss lady was extremely filial to his parents.
Both parents healthy, wife and children to care for, no illness or disaster.
This was pretty good.
In these few years, they had gathered once or twice, but unfortunately things had changed. The fourth brother had changed too much and no longer had the rapport from their university days.
“Isn’t this pretty good? Second Brother is amazing, pulling off such a big project. When our chief told me he was coming to do odd jobs for you, I thought something had happened to you.”
“Don’t say it about me. I’ve followed him for 4 years, and looking back now, it still feels like a dream.”
Fan Ren smiled without speaking and raised his glass to take a sip of wine.
“Don’t talk about me, Big Brother. Everyone knows how hard it is to be selected as a Great Xia astronaut. Haven’t you given us two a big surprise? Impressive!”
Hearing this, Li Jian showed a bit of pride on his face.
Unlike Fan Ren’s achievements that required extremely high scientific talent, he had persisted day after day for four years, truly standing out from thousands through his self-discipline to be selected.
Liu Jun reached out and pinched his arm.
“Solid.”
He nodded at Fan Ren, and the three burst into loud laughter.
One week later, Aerospace City launch base.
Fan Ren stood quietly in the huge launch command headquarters, watching the rocket already standing on the launch pad on the screen.
‘Star-1’ manned transportation launch vehicle.
Length: 100 meters.
Diameter: 3 meters.
Effective payload: 80 tons to low Earth orbit, 60 tons to lunar orbit.
Total mass: 1000 tons.
Not only that, relying on the unparalleled computing power of Star Calculation No. 1, this rocket used launch recovery technology that Great Xia had not yet put into use.
Chief Engineer Yin of Aerospace City initially rejected using this technology on this rocket.
The technology had not been used in practice yet, and no one knew what issues might arise.
But on this point, Fan Ren was extremely stubborn.
Now, all new technologies on the Star-1 Launch Vehicle had already
This also makes the rocket 20% lighter overall, and moreover, due to the large-scale removal of wire harnesses internally, the complexity is actually lower compared to previous versions.
Plus the powerful Star Calculation No. 1 chip, he has confidence that he can successfully recover this rocket after launch.
“General Manager Fan, all the preliminary preparation work has been completed, and there are still thirty minutes until the scheduled launch time.”
Zeng Yingying stood behind him in a fitted little suit, reporting.
Fan Ren nodded, turned his head to look at her, and couldn’t help but secretly find it amusing.
Perhaps because of Dan Qin’s appearance, Zeng Yingying seemed to have a sense of crisis and began cramming various professional knowledge for secretaries. In half a year, she had completely transformed from the initial “nanny” who only binge-watched dramas and studied makeup when idle into her current image as a secretary with a highly professional style.
“Are you adapting well?”
Zeng Yingying was stunned for a moment, then smiled sweetly.
“It’s actually quite relaxed. It’s just recording the things you need to do and reminding you. You’re not like General Manager Jin, who flies around everywhere all day and has a ton of things to handle.”
“That’s true indeed. Not bad, keep up the good work.”
Fan Ren’s gaze continued to fix on the huge display screen, on those various recorded data that were incomprehensible.
Seeing him like this, Zeng Yingying secretly stuck out her tongue, but her naturally charming eyes were filled with little stars.
Which young girl doesn’t harbor springtime longings?
Today’s launch plan is particularly important, as it is the first rocket launch platform test flight independently designed and assembled by Xinghai.
The test plan is to reach 400 kilometers low Earth orbit, and it carries 20 tons of Immortal Palace Space Station supplies.
After that, the rocket and spaceship will separate, the rocket will return to the atmosphere, and recovery operations will be carried out.
It was just such a simple process, yet at this moment, it made all the Xinghai engineers present extremely nervous.
For this reason, there are still many Great Xia Aerospace Department engineers on site today under orders, responsible for on-site checks and fixes, fearing that these greenhorns might make any mistakes.
It can be said that Great Xia Aerospace has given Xinghai truly unreserved support.
“General Manager Fan, rest assured, these kids are all good ones, nothing will go wrong.”
Fan Ren turned his head to look, it was Aerospace City Chief Engineer Yin Shangjin.
He didn’t dare to be complacent, and quickly turned around and stepped aside: “Chief Engineer, how come you have time to come?”
This chief engineer is nearly 70 years old, yet still struggles on the aerospace front line. Although today’s launched rocket belongs to Xinghai, he still came to the site tirelessly.
Fan Ren respects this chief engineer very much. In the half year of contact, this chief engineer has been very amiable and approachable to their Xinghai engineers. Not only does he answer every question, but he also actively arranges for them to enter various departments to learn experience.
Without his help, Xinghai Aerospace Base could not have achieved so much in such a short time.
“Hehe, can’t stay idle, come to the site to keep an eye on things for peace of mind, come with me over there to sit.”
Yin Shangjin smiled and took Fan Ren’s hand, heading towards the elevated observation room.
Half an hour passed in a flash.
“General Manager Fan, don’t be nervous, I feel better than ever. Oh right, you probably haven’t heard, we aerospace people are somewhat more superstitious than most scientists in a certain sense, look, countdown begins.”
The elderly person beside him saw Fan Ren staring intently at the big screen without blinking, so he made a joke to ease the atmosphere.
Fan Ren felt a bit uneasy, as he was nervous like this for the first time, and immediately nodded slightly to Yin Shangjin.
“Launch preparation work completed, entering launch countdown.”
10
9
Ignition!
In the command hall, with the commander’s sharp shout, the front desk operator firmly pressed the big red button.
On the big screen, the tail of the silver-white Star-2 suddenly lit up with a burst of flame.
Immediately after, the flame erupted, and the tail flame at up to three thousand degrees Celsius instantly impacted the heat dissipation pool below.
In Fan Ren’s view, the entire huge screen was instantly enveloped by rising water vapor, a vast white expanse where nothing could be seen.
