I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?

"Is this the foundation of the Celestial Kingdom?"

Yuzen Sōyu and Okada Masashi stood on the beach outside the launch tower together, and the latter murmured to himself.

On May 8, at the Qiongzhou Space Launch Site, a Xinyuan-5B rocket was erected at Station 3, with Chang'e-4 on top.

The Xinyuan-5B rocket...how should I put it, looks a bit shabby.

This Xinyuan-5B is also a model worker. It has carried out three satellite launch missions and one H1 launch mission this year. In addition, it was the seventh reusable flight last year.

Since the Seven-hand rocket has been ablated by the atmosphere many times, the surface will leave similar burnt marks every time. Even if it is repainted later, it will be difficult to deal with.

As a result, the stains on the surface of the rocket became heavier and heavier. Until the end of last year, the formula of Xinyuan's heat-insulating coating changed. The color was very light and almost transparent, and it was cheaper. As a result, the appearance of the reusable rocket became worse and worse. .

Fortunately, as the number of launches of reusable rockets gradually increases, the media has also changed from being surprised at the beginning to being indifferent, and now they only occasionally complain.

This is not an isolated case, recyclable rockets are like this all over the world.

Let’s not talk about Ma Yilong’s Falcon 9. After participating in NACA’s Artemis program, the funding became more abundant. Falcon 9 kept launching and recovering, and the surface was too lazy to be processed. The charred shell looked still from a distance. I thought the rocket was painted in black.

The space agency has made some futile efforts. Since the success of the Long March 6 Yaosi rocket mission, they have used their "Yunkai" recovery control system to conduct four recovery missions in succession, failing once and succeeding three times.

In the beginning, of course, the rocket was brought to a clean state according to China's management, but after only the third launch, it was discovered that although the cost of the trouble was not too high, it had no impact on the performance, so it was simply left alone. .

Just be dirty if it's dirty, as long as it can be used.

Needless to say, after the Long March 6 was successfully recovered, the space agency was surprised to find that the cost of recyclability was significantly reduced, and then it could no longer be discarded.

At the level of Long March 6, it can be repacked and launched again in four to five days at the earliest, and the cost is directly reduced by 60%. How dare you think of this in the past? R\u0026D costs are no longer an issue.

The space agency seems to have opened the door to a new world. Now it is actually thinking about how to carry out secondary recycling. Even the fairing can be fished out of the sea and tried to be reused. In this way, it is almost the entire rocket that is recycled to the end, and 90% of the components are recovered. If recycled, the cost will be even lower.

Too far away...

Although Xinyuan-5B looks a bit like that, it was the Steadfast space shuttle that undertook the first commercial manned launch mission on May 10. It only carried out an unmanned flight more than ten days ago. It is a good product and is in good condition. Brand new, is it a kind of compensation?

The Steadfast can carry up to 10 people, but there are only 5 people on this mission, including Xinyuan professional astronaut Hu Dong as commander, Xinan Automobile executive Chen Jun, two coal bosses and wealthy island country friends, as well as 800 kilograms of supplies and supplies. Five sets of extravehicular space suits.

Now, the training has ended for Yumae Seito, and he is with Masashi Okada, the chief engineer of JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H3 rocket, who came to China in a low-key manner from China.

Okada Masashi came here quietly on his own. He had long wanted to see with his own eyes the great achievements China had made in aerospace in the past two years, so he entered the country secretly in the name of tourism without reporting it.

He was received by a friend before he was born, and invited him to come to Qiongzhou to watch the rocket launch and watch him go to heaven.

"Okada-kun, look at it. China has built Qiongzhou into a huge aerospace base. Compared with it, the Tanegashima Space Center is really stingy."

During the continuous space launch missions, Xinyuan continued to increase the number of engineers in Qiongzhou in order to facilitate the maintenance and adjustment work after rocket recovery. Later, it was found that the number had reached more than 100 people, plus more than 200 other personnel, so it was simply established here. A branch base was established.

Even some industries are transferred here, and the sub-base here can complete some manufacturing work.

This is just a direct impact. Qiongzhou’s economy is now based on tourism and aerospace, which is moving steadily and quickly. This feature can also be felt in the local area. There are aerospace elements in the streets and alleys.

Seeing this, Masashi Okada could only sigh. JAXA is not well regarded even in China.

Perhaps due to historical reasons, they have a perverted obsession with "bigness". They insist on using the name "big rocket" if the launch mass is more than 400 tons, and they are also trying their best to develop truly large spacecraft.

But I don’t know why, this kind of plan always fails, no matter which aspect of scientific research.

The scientific research of the islanders can often be very good in one aspect, or even relatively advanced in several directions, but when combined, it turns out to be third-rate stuff, which is puzzling.

For example, their large transport aircraft project C2 uses the CF6 engine provided by Aramco. A single unit has a thrust of 26 tons, two units have a thrust of 52 tons, and four units of the C20 transport only have a thrust of 62 tons.

The Y-20 has a maximum load capacity of 66 tons and can fly 2,000 kilometers when loaded with 53 tons of cargo.

The maximum load capacity of C2 is 37 tons, but in fact, if it is loaded with so much, there will be strength problems and the structure cannot bear it. The maximum load is 20 tons, and the range is barely more than 1,000 kilometers.

This performance makes people doubt that the aircraft was designed by the Army Red Deer.

The same is true for rockets. The H-series rockets have good parameters for their hydrogen-oxygen engines, but they use an old open cycle with only 140 tons of thrust. It’s hard to say how advanced they are. The launch quality depends entirely on the solid rocket booster.

In this way, the H-series rockets always failed to launch, and the success rate made JAXA unable to stand up in front of the media.

Okada Masashi doesn’t think H3 will be successful, even if the $1.9 billion in funding was passed last year.

US$1.9 billion can buy an H1. In what way is the H3 rocket comparable to the H1?

The An-1250 made its maiden flight just over 20 days ago. As soon as this super-large aircraft, the largest in Asia (emphasis added) and the largest in the world, was born, countless young people from island countries burst into tears overnight.

In the world, island countries always believe that they and China represent Asia and the yellow race, so a strong sense of identity always pops up in inexplicable places.

Such as sports, scientific and technological achievements, etc. When the first Asian took to the sky on a rocket made in his country in 2003, the island countries were also happy and felt that we, Greater East Asia, were the most powerful.

The same goes for the An-1250, the world's number one super transport aircraft. The people of the island gave it the nickname "Flying Yamato". Many people petitioned to buy one in China, and they were even asking about the history of the second An-1250 aircraft, B4143. Regarding the specific location and time in the southern part of the island country, I went to the Chinese Internet to leave a message, hoping to fly lower so that I could admire the glory of Asians.

Okada Masashi also has this recognition in his heart. As the person in charge of the H3 rocket, he knows very well that the H-series rockets are destined to be full of difficulties and have no achievements. The real stage is in the East.