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

In 2000, Lao Ma was preparing to enter private aerospace for the first time. He flew to Lucia like Leng Tou Qing and wanted to buy missile technology for rocket research. As a result, he was ridiculed and kicked out.

The humiliated Lao Ma began to tinker in earnest when he returned to the United States, and initially targeted reusable rockets, because at that time he already believed that cheap aerospace was the only way to go.

A few years later, Air Force built a small rocket code-named "Grasshopper". It flew multiple times from 2012 to 2013 and was recovered vertically. The maximum height was only more than 700 meters, which was really like a grasshopper's leap.

After that, Lao Ma was all betting on the Falcon 9 rocket equipped with 9 Merlin engines. Just last month, on September 21, the first stage recovery of the 11th Falcon 9 rocket launch mission failed. , exploding a beautiful firework.

At this time, although there are some people in China who ridicule empty crosses, there are still many cents such as "data collected" and "this is the price of exploring the future".

As for the foreign netizens on Little Blue Bird, the vast majority of them are eccentric, because the matter of recycling rockets feels intuitively unreliable.

Lao Ma has actually been paying attention to China's Xinyuan Aerospace for a long time and is somewhat interested in China's first private aerospace company. However, the poor data of the Xinyuan 1 rocket did not make him too concerned.

The same goes for the K120 engine. Although it was previously claimed to be the best in Asia and its thrust is stronger and more advanced than the Falcon 9's Merlin engine, he is not too convinced.

Everyone in the know knows that the words of private spaceflight cannot be believed. He also said that he would build a Mars city, but he himself was the first to not believe it.

As a result, Lao Ma became interested as soon as Xinyuan No. 1 and B came out, because its recovery route was exactly the same as that of Falcon 9. Regardless of whether it was successful or not, wouldn't it prove that some people still agree with his route?

I am not alone in my ways!

The next day, domestic media reprinted the news about Lao Ma’s interaction on Little Bluebird and forwarded likes. A group of people caught wind of the news and praised the mentality of foreign entrepreneurs.

As for the reaction of domestic netizens to Xinyuan No. 1B?

Of course, they don’t believe it, either they don’t believe that recycling technology is feasible, or they think that Xinyuan No. 1B will inevitably fail.

After all, recycling rockets is too weird. Even America and America can't do it in aerospace, and China certainly can't do it.

Whether it was cynicism or doubtful comments, Lin Ju didn't take it to heart. He knew how much he didn't believe it now would have a strong influence after success.

Think about it, after Lao Ma's first successful recovery at the end of next year, it will really turn the situation around. Even if the subsequent heavy starships fail again and again, no one will say anything bad, because you don't know what will happen if it explodes. What's up?

As for confidence in Xinyuan No. 1B? Lin Ju chose to believe in the system. Anyway, the parameters were given by the system. Now in this universe, the priority of the system is higher than that of physics.

He just needs to do a good job in publicity and increase the settlement gain of the system's final mission.

For example, the live broadcast camera is more high-definition, the launch control room renovation is more sci-fi, and the live broadcast screen UI is more advanced.

To put it simply, copy specaX's homework first, and you still have to do it if you need to show off.

He specifically guided from an outsider's perspective, aligning the layout of the launch control room with that in science fiction movies.

The gray metal console full of buttons was moved to the back, with a neat row of large screens under the camera. Each operator wore headphones and overalls made of black and white elements.

There must be a translucent earth and a glittering rocket icon on the screen, and numbers and line charts flash across the alien-shaped frame.

In the eyes of Guo Shen and other system engineers, they didn't understand why a group of new employees had to watch a live broadcast staring at gaudy pictures with no useful information at all.

The only useful part of the entire live broadcast area is the position where the launch command is read. Simply removing this part can simplify the launch process.

The same goes for the UI used during the live broadcast. It can be understood with just a few numbers but must be changed to real-time dynamic graphics. It is completely unnecessary. Even the arc-shaped rocket flight path is completely messy.

They don't understand, is this the legendary sense of luxury? It seems to be somewhat interesting.

Lin Ju was very satisfied, after all, this was one of the few jobs that he could fully participate in.

"Where's the launch site? Has it been painted yet?"

"It's done, but there's no need for that, boss. The rocket tail flames will turn white as soon as they are burned, and there will definitely still be a plastic smell when they are recycled."

"Chief Commander Guo, as long as it does not affect launch safety, this is a minor problem."

Yes, Lin Ju even painted the rocket launch site and landing site.

What is science fiction? (Look back).

Guo Shen was numb to this. Anyway, as long as it did not affect the safety of the rocket, he turned to talk about other things:

"Xinyuan Town is too small and can only launch small rockets like this, and to be honest, this place is not very suitable for launching rockets.

Both Xinyuan-2 and the space shuttle will need new landing sites and launch sites for their return. We should choose a new place, preferably with a lower dimension, which can increase a lot of transportation capacity. "

As we all know, the earth is not completely round but an ellipse with slightly longer north and south poles. The closer it is to the equator, the closer it is to the orbit, and the shorter the distance the rocket can fly.

Therefore, except for some missions that require confidential launches, rocket launch sites are located in low latitudes as much as possible. This can increase the transportation capacity by a few percent, which is really not a small number for rockets.

Lin Ju agreed with the idea of ​​choosing another launch site, and the answer immediately came to his mind: Qiongzhou.

2014...it seems to be this month. Construction started in 2009. The Wenchang launch site prepared for the Long March 5 has been completed?

Lin Ju searched online and found that it was indeed the case.

This means that Qiongzhou has complete launch supporting facilities and construction experience, and can build its own launch site as long as it spends money.

Let’s take a look at how much money it cost to build the Wenchang Launch Site? When Du Niang searched, the total investment amount was... 20 billion!

Lin Ju covered the screen of his mobile phone and said to Guo Shen:

"Actually, I think the dimensions of Xinyuan Town are not very high, and our rocket has enough transportation capacity."

"..."

Guo Shen was silent for a while, thinking to himself, boss, can't you watch the news more? Pointing to the top of the phone screen, there was the first sentence about the Wenchang launch site:

"...the first launch site that is completely open to the outside world and carries out extensive international cooperation...hiss, does that mean it is possible to undertake launch operations?"

Lin Ju couldn't believe it, but Guo Shen said instead:

"Wenchang launch site has four launch positions. Now the space agency has no launch demand there at all. The rockets they designed to be launched in Qiongzhou have not yet been successfully developed. The launch site is empty anyway, so why can't it be lent to us?"

Guo Shen thought it was nothing. This may be because of his working experience at the Aramco Space Agency on his resume. After all, Aramco is like this. Lao Ma’s Falcon 9 rocket was launched at the Aramco Air Force Base.

But this also moved Lin Ju. He remembered that the first mission of the Wenchang Launch Center will be carried out in 2016, which means it will be empty for two years? Then he could really ask.