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

On June 14th and 17th, the Aerospace Development Commission and NACA conducted a large-scale launch mission respectively:

The first is Great Wall 1. As the fourth nuclear-powered aircraft of the H2N series, it was successfully launched in Qiongzhou. Its payload was the "sky survey" space telescope that had been in operation for almost two months.

Two days later, NACA launched the modified "Endeavor" space shuttle, and Aramco officially had a large nuclear-powered space vehicle.

Two nuclear-powered space shuttles were launched almost right next to each other, which led the outside world to believe that the space race has entered a new node. Combined with Aramco's sudden attack on the joint mining blasting operation last month, everyone is speculating whether the conflict will further intensify.

The failure of China's missile test launch a few days ago is still unfolding. China frankly stated that the failure was caused by a "technical failure", while the Hexagon is chasing after it to stir up public opinion. Everything seems to be heading towards The path forward as expected.

While there were divergent opinions from the outside world, Xu Rang was tasting fragrant tea in his manor in New York.

It was here before that he and Sullivan had been arguing about the laser satellite issue for half a month with no results, but now they were here to discuss the preparation charter for jointly responding to the extraterrestrial crisis...

The day before the missile interception test, he was suddenly and urgently asked to return to China to report on his work. He went to Zhongyuan for two hours and then hurriedly flew back to New York.

As a front-line negotiator, he basically knew most of the content and knew what his mission was.

There was no instruction on how to inform Sullivan of his knowledge. The act of just saying that sentence was mostly after careful consideration, and a small part was to express his depression.

Due to the need for confidentiality, no one else knew what he was going to do. The country also ordered him not to communicate over the phone or online. After completing the contact, he returned directly to the country to report on his work.

During this period, he was the only one who decided everything. This kind of pressure always made him have to brace himself, and he locked himself in his residence until Sullivan notified him.

When he came to this manor again, Xu Rang found that his treatment was much better. The waiters seemed to have received instructions in advance and basically received him with the highest etiquette.

It stands to reason that it is not normal for a guest to wait for the host first, but Sullivan told him that an "important person" would be present, and Xu Rang had already guessed who it was.

When the temperature of the tea changed slightly, he heard the sound of large footsteps outside.

The moment the door opened, John's figure appeared in the room. His clothes and hairstyle were obviously dressed up, but there were some wrinkles. He must have just attended some event.

"Welcome, Xu."

John's height of 1.9 meters was very imposing. After shaking hands with Xu Rang, he sat down directly.

Sullivan, who followed closely, explained in a low voice:

"This meeting was conducted in secret. The president has just completed an inspection of a nearby air force base and does not have much time."

Before Xu Rang could respond, John had already taken the initiative to ask:

"Xu, how long has it been since you discovered the signal?"

The staff who were familiar with Chinese immediately translated, but Xu Rang understood it completely and answered without hesitation:

"When you find out."

John didn't seem to expect the other party to answer so readily. He paused briefly but quickly covered it up.

However, it is obvious that the other party is unwilling to say more, and of course no one is willing to take the initiative to reveal more information on this kind of matter.

John: "We are not fleeing. This is an unfounded accusation."

Xu Rang: "We are just stating the facts."

"..."

John: "Then what do you want? No matter what the reason is, the deployment of lethal weapons in space is firmly resisted."

Xu Rang: "The determination of the Chinese people to resist all foreign invasions is also unshakable."

John: "Ami will not sit back and let her safety be threatened."

Xu Rang: "We never threatened anyone, everything we did was just for self-defense."

"..."

The conversation stopped abruptly, John was silent for a while, and suddenly looked at Sullivan:

"Have I not visited China since I took office?"

When John took office, he was catching up with the climax of the first round of the space race. He was originally scheduled to visit in September last year, but it was postponed indefinitely due to the accident of Artemis 2.

After a silent exchange with Sullivan, John pondered for a moment before saying:

"I plan to make a routine visit within the next month, and I hope you can convey this to me."

Xu Rang grabbed the key word for a routine visit. It was not because of anything, but a routine visit after taking office, so it was completely open and reasonable.

"Of course, I will convey it to China immediately. Please give us a specific time as soon as possible."

"It will be soon. I believe you can't wait."

John no longer had the interest to continue talking. Sullivan immediately stood up and said that the president needed to rest. After a simple courtesy, he hurriedly left. The entire conversation did not even last more than 15 minutes.

However, both John and his party and Xu Rang seemed to be relieved. At least it was basically clear that the two sides could have further contact, which was already a good result.

…

"Tsk, after working on it for a long time, SLS still hasn't been retired. Boeing can really delay it."

The successful launch of Endeavor greatly boosted NACA's confidence. There was no BONG explosion in the two days after it was launched into space. In the past few days, there has been news everywhere that Endeavor is still a treasure.

However, Zhong Cheng was a little disdainful of this - mainly because Boeing, the big vampire, had received a large number of orders.

Naturally, the space shuttle can only be launched with the old orange tank + SRB booster, which is basically the same size as the SLS. NACA previously said that it would completely retire the SLS. However, with the return of Endeavor, the SLS has been reincarnated as the new STS. .

Due to changes in the space shuttle engine and center of gravity, the nuclear-powered Endeavor launch will definitely not be the same as before. More than half of the entire launch system needs to be redesigned.

This STS launch system can still only recycle the solid propeller shell of the SRB, and the launch cost is similar to before, so it is basically equivalent to Aramco putting the space shuttle back into service...

In addition to Endeavor, according to public information, Atlantis and Discovery are also undergoing nuclear power transformation, and the only three remaining Cold War artifacts will be resurrected.

In this way, Aramco has maintained four giant rocket launch systems, STS, SLX, NOVA (Saturn 7), and Starship at the same time. NACA's plan to reduce launch expenditures has ceased to exist in name only.

Although it can now be considered that Aramco is sparing no effort to defend against aliens, according to domestic think tanks’ predictions on Aramco’s current situation, something very interesting will happen in 2020:

Due to the rapid growth of the national debt, in the near future, Aramco’s national debt interest figure will be equal to the total military expenditure of the year.

In other words, in a few years, the interest paid by Aramco on the national debt will be equivalent to the huge military expenditure, which is very likely to reach trillions of dollars.