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

“Are Yankees crazy!”

"Even Mars can no longer satisfy these people. Do they have to go to those ghost places with only rocks and ice?"

"Damn, I hope this is just a bluff..."

"..."

It was launched from the Qunu Launch Center in Guyana.

A group of ESA experts stood not far from the launch tower and chatted animatedly, not even paying much attention to the scorching tropical sun.

Even the Veneto 1 rocket, which was about to be launched and carried all the hopes of ESA for the future, was temporarily left out and could not catch up with the big melon they had just heard.

With an extremely high development foundation and all mature subsystems applied in the engine and recovery system, the Veneto-1 rocket finally made its first flight as planned before February 2018.

However, Veneto 1 is an innovation in the rocket industry. For the first time, two different types of engines are used in the core stage. This still tests the skills of the design team.

In addition, Veneto 1 is the most powerful rocket owned by the entire European aerospace industry. Although the thrust is slightly smaller than that of the Ariane 5, which is on the verge of retirement, its transport capacity is much higher. The transport capacity during recovery is as high as 32 tons, even closer to 40 tons when not recycled. There has never been such a rocket in Europe.

Later, two solid boosters were bundled to increase the transport capacity to more than 60 tons, which can carry the Europeans' dream of independent moon landing.

But for most of the ESA design team, they are not very proud. In addition to the key subsystems coming from outsiders, the main reason is that there have been too many monsters in the aerospace industry in the past year...

The Long March 18 was launched more than a month ago. Its terrifying capacity is even enough to launch the fully fueled Veneto-1 into space, so that it is difficult for aerospace experts to classify this super monster. , after all, the Saturn V is not as heavy as a fraction of it.

There is no need to worry about the success rate of the first launch of Veneto 1. This rocket has been supervised by the Chinese team from the time of design. Every improvement must be sent to the Sichuan wind tunnel and simulated testing. Chinese experts nod. To continue, otherwise insurance companies will not sell commercial insurance and technical support will be limited.

However, the advantage of this is that there is no doubt about the reliability. The indirect technical guidance has also brought a lot of valuable heavy rocket design experience to the design team, which is barely acceptable.

Design experts were busy complaining about John's anniversary speech, and other senior ESA officials were talking about the same thing, just at a higher level.

"I have a feeling John won't let us do nothing."

"I think so too. They have always wanted the Selene Project to take action on Artemis, and they also asked us to take on more maintenance tasks for the ISS. They want to get rid of all the mess!"

Battis and Antoine complained about NACA's inhumane behavior, the most common of which was to blame everyone.

Since most of its energy is focused on extraterrestrial objects, NACA has no time to take care of the maintenance and expansion tasks of the ISS, and simply leaves them to ESA and Lucia.

At the beginning, NACA's intention was to wait until it was free to do these "minutical details", but then they invested less and less energy in the International Space Station, which made ESA feel something was wrong.

Especially after Musk's Gravity Dragon spacecraft was frequently tested, there were gradually rumors that NACA would start from scratch and build a rotating space station like the Advance that can be used as both a space station and an expedition spacecraft. Some looked down on the ISS, which has limited potential.

The European Space Agency, which had just heard this rumor, scoffed. No one knows better than them how much effort was spent on the ISS. Apart from anything else, how many giant rocket launches are needed to build a new space station? Does NACA have this launch capability?

But the situation turned bad when the first SL-X was launched. After inquiries from many parties, the European Space Agency found that the price of SL-X was not much higher than Veneto 1!

Although the goal when the Veneto 1 project was established was that the comprehensive cost of a single launch should not exceed US$300 million, the current situation is that the rocket cost can indeed be controlled at US$280 million, but with other costs such as support and fuel, It costs about US$450 million at a time.

Compare this to the SL-X's public launch budget of just over 600 million U.S. dollars. For NACA, which has deep pockets, it can fully launch with all its strength, and SpecaX has also proven that it has sufficient production capacity and theoretically has the ability to build a rotating space station. Ability.

If NACA really ignores the ISS, then ESA will not be able to afford its operation and maintenance costs, nor will Lucia.

The suppliers that provide maintenance spare parts for the ISS are all big profiteers. In addition, the spare parts are almost all unique products specially developed and supplied, and the prices are even more expensive.

If we transfer the concept of the parts-to-part ratio of auto parts, the accumulated maintenance, operation and upgrade costs over the years have accounted for almost half of the ISS cost.

Whether or not to take over ISS is a question.

If not, how much more money will be squeezed out of joining NACA’s new space station plan?

As for the possibility of staying out, most people wisely choose to ignore it.

The two people were thinking sadly about how to avoid being killed by NACA. Finally, they were interrupted by the staff and asked to go to the safe area. Veneto 1 had already started to refuel and was preparing for its first launch.

The payload this time is a full-scale technology verification prototype of the Hermes space shuttle. It has no reentry capability and no engine. Its main function is still as a counterweight.

The actual research progress of the space shuttle is only about halfway. Dassault, who is responsible for the power part, hopes to imitate the H1 and use hydrogen and oxygen power, but it is very troublesome for fuel storage. If it is not possible, it can only abandon it and choose a more conservative one.

The European Space Agency has set a first flight date for the Hermes space shuttle before October, and a successful test mission must be conducted by at least 2019.

"ten, nine..."

In an eerie atmosphere, the nine engines of the Veneto-1 rocket were ignited one after another, and under the watchful eyes of stationed domestic experts, it quickly lifted off under the strong sunshine of South America, trailing long flames.

For them, the first flight of Veneto 1 was nothing worthy of special attention. The rocket performed the separation procedure step by step as if in a supercomputer. While the upper stage continued to send simulated payloads into space, the first stage The rocket broke away and entered the return route.

Since Guyana is relatively close to the equator, there is no need to build a special offshore recovery platform for recovery. The recovery site of Veneto 1 is still on land, only a few kilometers away from the launch tower.

A few minutes after the full-scale prototype of Hermes entered orbit, Veneto 1, whose rocket body was extensively ablated, returned smoothly and reappeared in people's sight.

Antoine celebrated with the others, and suddenly he had an idea and grabbed Battis' arm:

"I know, I know who can take over...contribute more to ISS."

"who?"

"Indians, maybe they need it!"