Chapter 94: Giving Birth To The Bright Moon
Although Spitz Company’s “Mars Project” was progressing vigorously, no matter what, the people who had calmed down finally turned their attention to Xinghai Aerospace Base.
Within a few months, Xinghai’s Star Transport Series Rockets were successively launched into space.
Meanwhile, in the lunar synchronous orbit 300,000 kilometers away, an orbital space station nearly 30 meters long and wide was slowly orbiting the Moon.
“Calling ground, this is Moon Orbit Command Center, respond if you hear, over.”
About two seconds later, a response from Earth’s Xinghai Aerospace Base came through inside the space station.
“Xinghai Base received, over.”
Li Jian’s gaze fell on the black dots below the space station glass, faintly visible like ants in size, and his face was beaming with joy.
“The basic support base has successfully arrived at the predetermined landing point, with good landing posture. Our two astronauts can land on the moon surface at any time to carry out the next work.”
Over this period, after dozens of spacewalk missions, the Moon Orbit Command Headquarters had been fully constructed and could now enter autonomous operation.
However, according to the plan, there must always be one astronaut stationed here in case manual takeover is needed in the event of an accident.
Thinking of this, Li Jian’s eyes showed regret.
“Received. Star Transport 345 ships are expected to arrive in three days. Tomorrow you can select 2 astronauts to land and carry out the support base construction work according to the predetermined plan.”
“Moon Orbit Command Headquarters received. The plan will be carried out by He Guozhang and Shi Xianliang for the landing mission.”
“Received. Wishing you complete mission success in advance, over.”
The space station fell quiet. Li Jian, floating above the chair, quickly retracted the expression on his face.
The cabin door behind him slowly opened.
“Ground data mapping completed, risk level extremely low.”
The speaker was He Guozhang, about 45 years old. At this age among astronauts, he was still considered young and strong, and he indeed had several successful aerospace records.
“Captain He, just contacted ground. Ground has approved our landing request. The remaining three ships will arrive in three days, at which time these ships will rely on the intelligent control system to autonomously enter the predetermined landing orbit.”
He Guozhang nodded with a smile. He greatly appreciated this young man whom Commander Liu valued highly—steady, not arrogant or impatient, extremely self-disciplined, and mature.
“Alright then, get ready. Tomorrow you and Shi Xianliang will go down.”
“Yes, Captain He. Huh? Captain He, what about you? I mean the original plan was for you and Xianliang to go down.”
A look of surprise appeared on Li Jian’s always steady face.
“Cut the nonsense. Times have changed. It’s not our era anymore when all operations were manual. Xinghai’s intelligent control system is truly impressive; it can even autonomously complete moon surface landing.”
Hearing Captain He mention Xinghai, Li Jian couldn’t help but smile.
These were all his brother’s handiwork, and he felt proud.
“Captain He, you and Xianliang go down. I’m still young and will have plenty of opportunities.”
He understood the other’s intention—this was giving him the opportunity worthy of being recorded in history.
He Guozhang released his grip on the fixed pole, his body floating up accordingly. He stretched his body, his gaze falling on the pitted gray moon below the glass, remaining silent for a long time.
Once upon a time, he hadn’t even dreamed of this scene.
Now, 300,000 kilometers from Earth, the Moon was within reach.
It would be false to say he wasn’t tempted; that’s simply impossible—nobody could resist.
But he knew even more that this opportunity was how precious for this young man whom Commander Liu had specifically cultivated.
He Guozhang narrowed his eyes. Perhaps innate, he greatly enjoyed this weightless environment, like a fish returning to the river and sea, feeling an indescribable freedom throughout his body.
“I’m at ease with your steady demeanor, kid. You were the best in all pre-training assessments, even not inferior to me. Young man, don’t be wishy-washy. It’s settled.”
Li Jian wanted to say something more, but seeing the other’s extremely enjoying expression, he couldn’t help but laugh along.
Though he was always taciturn, he wasn’t foolish.
“Yes, Captain He. Rest assured, I absolutely won’t let down this opportunity you’ve given me!”
The next day, which was the Mid-Autumn Festival evening Earth time.
At this family reunion moment, the Xinghai Aerospace Base command center was packed.
At the same time, 300,000 kilometers away, on the real-time footage from the Moon Orbit Command Headquarters, two “fully armed” astronauts were steadily seated inside the Star Transport One spaceship cabin.
“Spaceship status check completed, requesting detachment from command headquarters.”
Li Jian’s voice reached the Moon Orbit Command Headquarters, then was transmitted via the communication system to the Earth-Moon orbit relay satellite and all the way to the Xinghai Base command hall.
This time, no one in the base command hall responded.
“Detachment approved. Good luck.”
This voice belonged to He Guozhang, from the Moon Orbit Command Headquarters.
From now on, all moon-side command authority was handled by the Moon Orbit Command Headquarters.
Today in Great Xia, streets were deserted.
Households unanimously turned on various live streaming media, tensely watching this real-time footage from 300,000 kilometers away.
At Li Jian’s command, the spaceship initiated the detachment procedure.
From the outside, it looked like a huge block-shaped object detached from the Moon Orbit Command Headquarters, then slowly descending toward the pitted moon surface below.
As the spaceship’s descent speed increased, Li Jian and Shi Xianliang inside the cabin gradually felt a slight gravity acting on them.
“Descent speed normal, continue with intelligent control system operation.”
As if unaccustomed to being quiet for too long, Li Jian softly reported.
“Received, continue to maintain.”
As if guessing his thoughts, He Guozhang’s voice sounded from the spaceship’s speaker.
The Moon’s outer layer had no atmosphere, and due to low gravity. During the spaceship’s descent, there was no intense high-temperature friction with the atmosphere like on Earth, and the landing speed wasn’t fast.
Li Jian could feel that this descent process was not as violently shaky as the predecessors described for Earth landings.
It was really steady.
And as the system controlled the rocket engine ignition, the spaceship’s descent speed slowed again.
If someone were looking up from the moon surface ground at this moment, they could clearly feel the spaceship in the sky being dragged by some invisible force, slowly falling downward.
“Distance 20 kilometers, landing posture normal.”
The mechanical voice from the intelligent voice system came through.
Li Jian slightly closed his eyes.
“Landing imminent, posture normal, retro-thrust engine starting.”
He and Shi Xianliang felt as if pushed hard from behind, followed by a slight vibration as the spaceship touched the moon surface.
“Spaceship has landed, posture normal. Initiate hatch exit procedure?”
Li Jian’s eyes suddenly opened. He had already felt the most real gravity from the Moon.
“Initiate hatch exit procedure.”
