Military Technology

Chapter 2367 Arrows Falling into the Sky (Part 2)

Compared with the landing of the first-stage rocket, the landing and recovery mission of the two fairing halves is relatively much slower.

First of all, they rely on paragliders to slow down and land, so their speed is relatively slow. Secondly, the fairing itself is a relatively large and light object. When it falls downward in the air, it will also encounter large air resistance, thereby achieving its own deceleration effect. This is like an iron ball and a plate of the same weight falling downward at the same height at the same time. The smaller iron ball will definitely hit the ground first. The larger plate will fall faster because of air resistance. Much slower.

The recovery of these two half fairings has been carried out dozens of times. At present, both the measurement and control team and the helicopter team on standby for recovery have accumulated very rich experience.

Therefore, no one was too surprised by this process, or the performance was uneventful.

The two fairing halves were seen entering the predetermined position one after another, and the three helicopters immediately began the recovery work. A drone towed the hook of Changchun and approached the paraglider with half of its fairing hanging from behind. Then with a hook, the tow hook was directly hung on the paraglider. The paraglider deforms and loses lift, causing the attitude of the fairing below to change. As the helicopter lifted, the entire fairing was hung on the hook together with the paraglider, and then the helicopter was transported to the landing site for unloading.

Using the same recovery procedure, another helicopter also successfully hooked the paraglider on the other half of the fairing, then hoisted the fairing and began to fly towards the landing site.

In this way, the recovery work of the first-stage rocket and fairing has been completed. Now let’s look at the performance of the protagonist of this experiment, the second-stage rocket.

At this moment, the second-stage rocket has pushed its payload through the atmosphere and into space. The operating status of the second-stage rocket and its flight trajectory can be clearly seen on the large screen.

Now everyone is waiting for the final moment, staring at the countdown numbers on the big screen.

Amid everyone's expectations, the broadcast that everyone was looking forward to came on the radio.

The second-stage rocket shuts down and the components separate!

Bang bang bang bang...

In the command and control hall of the Northwest Launch Site, warm applause erupted instantly. Everyone in the hall stood up, applauded and cheered.

For them, most of the mission has been completed at this moment, and the launch mission has been basically completed. Next, it is necessary to control the upper stage to release the two satellites in the relevant orbits.

However, this is satellite measurement and control work, which is handled by a professional team. Wu Hao and the others don't have to worry. Now their eyes are focused on this two-stage rocket.

Yatuhai, the second-stage rocket successfully completed its launch mission. Now the measurement and control rights are handed over to you. I wish you success!

Yatuhai understands, thank you, thank you for your hard work!

The second-stage rocket attitude control engine is ready for ignition in ten seconds!

Three, two, one, fire!

As the order was given, the flight attitude of the second-stage rocket began to be adjusted on the large screen. It was flying upward before, but now it needs to turn around and fly downward along the same path it came from.

This requires complex orbital attitude control, all of which relies on the small attitude engine on the second-stage rocket. In fact, these attitude engines are not real aerospace engines. Due to the special environment of space, what they eject is compressed gas. The posture is adjusted by the thrust of compressed gas.

What really adjusts the orbit are the orbit control engines. These orbit control engines will be responsible for the entire return journey of the second-stage rocket in space.

Among the several window pictures are real-time pictures taken by several surveillance cameras on the second-stage rocket. In the picture, the sky and the earth are turning, with the dark starry sky on one side and the bright light blue earth on the other. The angles of the two are constantly changing, indicating that the two-stage rocket is changing orbit at this moment.

How long does the entire return and landing process take? Wu Hao looked at the pictures and data parameters on the big screen, and then asked Yu Chengwu who was accompanying him.

Yu Chengwu smiled and replied: "The entire return process takes about thirty minutes."

So long, this one is much longer than the entire launch process. A girl who followed Wu Hao and the others couldn't help but be surprised. But when he said the words, he immediately covered his mouth, realizing that he had made a mistake and should not have spoken out on such an occasion.

The girl glanced at Wu Hao and Yu Chengwu with a guilty conscience, and was about to breathe a sigh of relief when she saw Shen Ning cast a serious look, which extinguished the joy in her heart again.

Hearing the girl's question, Wu Hao and Yu Chengwu smiled. Wu Hao glanced at the girl, and then said to Yu Chengwu: "The girls have already asked, so you can explain it to everyone."

Okay, let me talk about it. Yu Chengwu found a ballpoint pen on the table, and then gestured to the girl and everyone: "Setting up this ballpoint pen is the second-stage rocket in space at the moment. What we are doing now is to turn it in a direction, and then let it Fly back along the trajectory you just ascended.

When it flies to the predetermined position, we need to change the orbit again, let it slowly descend, and then start to pass through the atmosphere.

During this process, due to the dense atmosphere, the flying wings on the second-stage rocket will automatically bounce away. Then under the action of the lift of the flying wing, the descent speed of the second-stage rocket will continue to slow down, and then rely on the flying wing to begin a long-term glide in the atmosphere.

After reaching the predetermined airspace and altitude, a parachute will be thrown from the top of the second-stage rocket. This parachute can not only continue to decelerate the second-stage rocket, but also adjust the attitude of the rocket, allowing the rocket to slope upward from a slope. In the glide state, it becomes a parabola, which is a downward trajectory.

After adjusting the attitude of the second-stage rocket, the vector engine at the tail is ignited, and then gradually decelerates, landing smoothly and slowly like the first-stage rocket just now. This is why the entire landing process is much slower than the launch process. "

"Is it so complicated?" Seeing that things were already like this, the girl immediately became bolder.

"Haha, aerospace engineering itself is a complex project. There are many projects that are not complex and difficult." Yu Chengwu replied with a smile.

The girl originally wanted to say a few words, but when she saw the stern look Shen Ning cast, she gave up the idea and stopped talking.

As for Wu Hao, he smiled at Shen Ning and waved his hand, indicating that it was okay, and then turned to look at the big screen.

Compared to this difference, he is obviously more concerned about the two-stage rocket in space.

At this moment, the attitude adjustment of the second-stage rocket has been completed and it is beginning to land downward along the preset trajectory.

In the hall of the command and control management center of the Yatu Sea Landing Ground, everything was quiet. Everyone was staring at the big screen intently, for fear of missing any moment.