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

Texas.

When Musk saw the external photos taken after entering orbit, he was no less shocked than ordinary people who saw rocket recovery technology for the first time.

Just as it is difficult for ordinary people to understand how to retract such a long rocket and stand firmly on the ground, it is also difficult for him to understand how Tengyun can send such a huge body into space.

Unlike rockets that often have a dry mass ratio of more than 10 and are very large, the empty weight of Tengyun's body is definitely not low. Due to the limited wing area, the fuel it can carry is only equivalent to a small and medium-sized rocket. However, it is incredibly capable of carrying It is simply unimaginable to send a heavy body into space, and at least 5 tons of fuel must be carried inside to use it.

It had only been less than an hour since he suddenly received the news that the Chinese were test-flying an aerospace aircraft to when he saw Tengyun entering orbit. He still found it hard to believe that it was happening right in front of him.

Although aerospace planes and starships are two completely different ideas and have almost no overlap in their upper limits and advantageous areas, judging from the orbit entry method shown by Tengyun, the cost of a launch must be extremely cheap, with a maximum of only 1 million U.S. dollars. This is a rocket It can never be done.

Even if they charge US$10 million, the ticket price for 10 passengers is only US$1 million. This is a devastating blow to all orbiting space tourism services in the world, including themselves.

The "Gravity Dragon" spacecraft has been in low-Earth orbit for a month, during which it conducted four cable retraction and retraction tests. The longest continuous operation time was more than 16 days without any failures, which made both SpecaX and NACA extremely excited.

Musk has already planned the next lunar tourism service. Two Falcon 9 rockets will send a "Gravity Dragon" and a thruster respectively. They will stay on the moon for about 7 to 15 days and still enjoy comfortable gravity. , using this as a selling point will definitely attract more tourists.

However, although Tengyun cannot go to the moon, the low-Earth orbit tourism service alone has allowed them to make a lot of money in a market that has increased dozens of times. They may even monopolize the low-Earth orbit business. There are no spacecrafts here. The price/performance ratio is comparable to that.

What’s even more frightening is that SpecaX has no aviation technology accumulation at all and is completely unable to compete in the space field. For a while, it was unable to fight back.

He thought of Tom who would give him confidence every time he couldn't make up his mind. Just as he was about to get up and look for it, he saw that the latter had already opened the door and knocked a few times.

"I know the key to his success is the air tip, the air tip engine!

Tengyun's engine tail nozzle uses an annular air tip engine, so it can always work in the optimal efficiency range to save fuel. "

"Tom, the aerospace plane needs more than just aerospace engines. Even the atmospheric technology cannot be achieved by Aramco."

“It’s just not happening now, cheer up, I’m sure NACA is already preparing to call us.

Moreover, aerospace aircraft can only encroach on part of our business in a short period of time, and it will be a devastating blow to others. "

…

Beijing.

Academician She circled around Lin Ju who had just gotten off the plane two or three times, looking up and down while making "tsk tsk" sounds.

The latter was confused and started to spin:

"What's wrong? You haven't seen me for half a month and you still don't recognize me?"

"do not know."

Academician She said seriously:

"If I hadn't been unable to leave here, I should have gone to your place. To be honest, even Teng Yun didn't believe it when it entered orbit.

Why do you feel that your Xinyuan company can do everything? You must not be an alien pretending to be you. "

"..."

"Ahem, then even if I am an alien, I am also an alien who is an old friend of the Chinese people."

"That's true. There will be no military parade this year. Otherwise, I would have to stand on the city gate tower and lean in the middle."

"Just make it up in two years, I'll remember it."

It took a long time for the old man and the young man to stop joking and leave the airport, which was extremely crowded due to the National Day Golden Week.

Both of them are in a very good mood, as is the mood of the people across the country and above.

This is different from previous space missions. Whether it is a space station, lunar exploration or space tourism, it has little relevance to ordinary people. Even a "cheap" of tens of millions of dollars is out of reach.

But the aerospace plane is different. It sounds much more friendly to the people than rockets. In addition, it has left a good impression of cheapness in previous science fiction novels and movies, and it is difficult not to arouse people's imagination.

Even if it is calculated as ten times the air ticket, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of yuan, there are at least hundreds of millions of people in the country who are able and willing to spend this money, which can be called "for the public".

Just in time for the seven-day long holiday, people who are busy traveling naturally want to ask:

Apart from the crowded places in Zhangjiakou and Jiuzhaigou, is it possible for us to go to places with fewer people and see the whole country's scenery at once?

The replies on several aerospace official WeChat accounts are basically the same. "Ordinary people going to space" is expected to become a reality, and the simple people are still very concerned about it.

But both Lin Ju and Academician She know that this is still far away. The early aerospace planes are inseparable from official mission requirements alone, and there is almost no upper limit. It is actually very costly to use them for space tourism, at least the same amount. Implementation will only be possible after 10 aircraft are produced.

Furthermore, we have to protect our own manned space services. There are several private aerospace companies that are tinkering with manned spacecraft/space shuttles. Don’t really kill your own friendly forces like a dreadnought.

It’s you: Evergrande.

Stellar Aerospace is now very impressive. The first "Pegasus" small space shuttle's atmospheric verification machine has flown through. Xu Jiayin publicly announced that it will make its first flight before the New Year. Don't accidentally press the unborn Pegasus. Half dead.

So Lin Ju came over again to give some relief to other companies that were surprised and frightened: just like Xinyuan no longer accepts small and micro launch missions, the Aerospace Development Commission will not disrupt the situation with Tengyun.

The other thing is to adjust the next space plan, especially the Mars and lunar exploration missions. The budgets of these two big money eaters can be compressed as much as possible. If they can use cheap vehicles, they will never use expensive ones, but it is estimated that they need to redesign their exploration missions. Dimensions and weight standards.

"Mr. She, what is the result of the verification of Plan 5?"

"that?"

Academician She thought for a while and finally said:

"This plan has caused a lot of controversy. There are two main issues. The first is whether the sustained service life and operating conditions can meet the requirements. The second is about the impact on subsequent manned missions.

If humanoid robots are used for large-scale construction in advance, it will indeed be of great help, but the social impact and related supporting planning will be troublesome. "