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

In addition to Dream Chaser, specaX also announced its own manned Dragon spacecraft.

Lao Ma planned his second-generation Dragon spacecraft three years in advance, and went straight to the manned version first.

After the NewSTS plan was handed over to Sierra Nevada Corporation's Dream Chaser, Lao Ma announced that the second-generation Dragon spacecraft would make its first flight before January 2017, and it would be a manned version.

This is a full two and a half years earlier than the second-generation Dragon spacecraft in the previous timeline, and there are only minor changes in the configuration.

It still has a maximum weight of 15 tons and can accommodate 7 people. It does not need an escape tower and can use its own 6 "Super Draco" engines for escape.

The seat cost planned by different veterans has been reduced again, from US$25 million to US$15 million.

Although it looks much more expensive than the Dream Chaser space shuttle, it is also much more likely to be realized.

In order to reduce costs, the second-generation Dragon spacecraft will all use reusable Falcon 9 for launch. In terms of materials, the proportion of expensive materials will also be reduced as much as possible. Two of the eight "Super Draco" units in the previous world line were cut off, all for Move closer to low cost.

As for the other two commercial players of Aramco, they have also achieved considerable achievements in the competition with Xinyuan.

Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic mainly operate suborbital manned flights, which means they do not enter orbit, and some even cannot fly to the Karman Line. They fly out of the atmosphere and then briefly experience weightlessness for 3 to 15 minutes before returning.

This is the case with Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket. Although it has not yet carried out manned flights, the New Shepard rocket has been successfully recovered two or three times. Jeff Bezos is shouting on Twitter that he will also fly on the New Shepard rocket. Pad goes on a space flight.

The other is Virgin Galactic, which is actually a transportation company. Their route is to have a transport plane carry a small plane equipped with a rocket engine into the sky, and then also stay in suborbital for a short time, but it is faster than Blue Origin. Much cheaper, a seat is only US$250,000, while the latter is US$25 million.

Virgin Galactic's spacecraft (a small plane equipped with a rocket engine) failed miserably and crashed once in 2014, but it has made a comeback this year. The new "VSS unity" spacecraft has been built ahead of schedule and is preparing for the next test flight.

According to statistics from some media, as of May 1, 2016, the number of commercial manned missions undertaken directly or indirectly by Xinyuan Aerospace Power, specaX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic has exceeded 50. Interested parties may More than 500 people.

And compared with last year, the cost of space tourism is expected to have dropped by more than 70%, indicating that the potential user base of space tourism may have expanded by about 100 times.

Among them, the media focused on the Oriental International Space Hotel, which has the largest number of people signing contracts. Rich people from seven countries have chosen this space tourism company.

Driven by the race to land on the moon and commercial manned spaceflight, the aerospace industry this year is quite crowded. There will be no less than four types of giant rockets expected to be launched. This is something that was not even seen during the Cold War half a century ago. The grand scene.

Many media are saying that this is a sign that the second space race is far superior to the first, but this is only in terms of technology and scale. The bigger impact comes from a policy announced by the Chinese government, and the impact will even be exposed later. The mass defection of JAXA engineers is even bigger.

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On May 13, after the Chang'e-4 lander successfully landed at the predetermined location, the space agency boss was suddenly notified to go to Beijing to discuss a policy.

Four days later, it was stated that a new talent system reform would be carried out within the space agency. The theme of the reform is: "Proposal to Expand Group Understanding of Space."

The initiative believes that in the current world, space has become the inevitable destination of mankind in the future. It is necessary to invest more resources in the space field and strengthen the understanding of space by practitioners in the field of space development, and deeply understand the value and great significance of developing space. ;

After discussion, it was decided that a low-cost space travel plan would be used to send 1 to 5 senior scientists, cadres in key positions, and chief designers of the space agency to stay in low-Earth orbit for varying lengths of time every year and conduct other space activities;

During the space training, everyone must carefully summarize their understanding and feelings about space, as well as the inspiration and opinions on the future direction.

This will be included as part of the personal resume. The superiors will specially approve 400 million yuan in funds every year to improve "space awareness", and will be adjusted year by year based on the actual situation.

The first "space training" mission will be carried out this year. The preliminary list is: engine technology expert Tang Weitian, recovery control technology expert He Yun, space technology expert Zhao Ju, space technology expert Shen Zuozhou, and space technology expert Yang Hong.

The spacecraft carrying exactly five people is currently undergoing internal bidding within the Aerospace Development Commission and is expected to carry out a flight mission around December this year.

The oldest among them is Tang Weitian, but since Zhou Rui can go up there, he doesn't have a big problem. At least the indicators in his physical examination last year were quite good, so there is no big trouble.

The five experts in the four fields of engines, rockets, satellites, and space stations are all important figures in the current space agency, but they will all undergo space training and are expected to stay at the space station for about 3 to 7 days.

Lin Ju happened to be still in the capital and listened to the entire content of the proposal and observed the reactions on the faces of the people who heard the news.

They were shocked, puzzled, excited, and also looked at Lin Ju with novel eyes.

Because after reading this proposal, it feels very similar to Lin Ju's statement some time ago about sending engineers from Xinyuan Company into the sky. Even the reasons are very similar.

It’s hard to say that this proposal was not influenced by Lin Ju, at least it got inspiration from here.

And although it is said to be a proposal, even the people have been selected. Doesn't this mean that it must be implemented? And it will be launched by the end of the year!

There is also a special person among the attendees, and that is the person involved, He Zhuang.

While He Ruang continued to improve the "Yunkai" recovery control system and perfect the Long March 6, he also received an order from the Space Administration to develop 5-meter core-level recovery technology for the Long March 5 and the overall integration of the Long March 7 and Long March 8. Bundle recycling technology.

These three types of rockets were all undertaken by the First Research Institute, and He Ruang simply flew to the capital, just in time to communicate with the team researching the new generation of manned test spacecraft.

The new generation of manned spacecraft, that is, the spacecraft used by the lunar lander, has the same configuration, but the details are changed according to the purpose. The old version of the escape tower needs to be modified before it can adapt.

Unexpectedly, there was a sudden meeting and he was about to go to heaven?

Facing the focused gazes from all directions, He Ruang hesitated for a long time and finally said:

"There's... there's still no need for the organization to spend this money. Plus, we won't be able to do the work for several months after training, and what should we do if we leave the project?"