Super technology leader

"Mr. President is very angry!"

"He's almost regretting running for re-election now. One terrible thing after another. Returning to the moon was supposed to be the crowning achievement of his second term, and now you've turned it into this!"

"If we hadn't stopped him, Jim, you would have already seen news of your firing on Twitter!"

Kuna, a confidant of the President, pointed at NASA Director Jim through the screen, speaking sternly.

Director Jim opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end, he said nothing.

He accepted it.

It was still a video conference, still the Moon Grand Prix, NASA, and the President's Office, still the same three key figures.

The difference was that the number of people on NASA's side had noticeably decreased. Half of the scientists and engineers who were sitting in the back last time were gone.

Seeing that no one was speaking, Kuna said again, "Such a big rocket, didn't you know about it? You didn't even know their information. How did you come up with your proposal last time?"

"Look me in the eyes and tell me!"

People from the Grand Prix side shrugged their shoulders, their meaning obvious. They were just the ones giving out bonuses, what did they know about aerospace technology?

The director of NASA wiped the sweat from his brow with a handkerchief, sweat caused by the air conditioning, and said, "This, Mr. Kuna, you need to ask those private aerospace companies about this kind of question, or even ask the intelligence agencies."

"Although NASA can discover the secrets of distant stars, we really can't see the secrets inside other people's factories."

"..."

"Sh*t!"

Kuna cursed inwardly, then said solemnly, "I will definitely have the intelligence officers handle this, but what we need to do now is to quell this storm. Do you have any good ideas?"

"..."

Asked about this, both sides fell silent.

Again?

Although this matter started with aerospace, it's no longer just about aerospace. They were truly powerless and could only come out and explain it again, and issue another statement.

But the higher-ups would definitely not allow a Chinese company to become the main contractor for the American moon landing plan, not even a secondary contractor, so they could only issue a similar statement.

This was equivalent to sticking their face out to be slapped a second time.

But if the new statement indicated that the other party could participate in contract bidding, even if only temporarily agreed to, it would prove that they had indeed engaged in conspiracies and backroom operations before.

This was also a slap in the face.

They couldn't be slapped again!

If they were going to be slapped, they couldn't only slap themselves!

Absolutely not!

NASA Director Jim hesitated for a moment, and without asking the scientists for their opinions, he rolled his eyes and came up with a good idea.

"Mr. Kuna, I think it's time to gather the aerospace company bosses together for a meeting. After all, they are the beneficiaries of this situation. The moon landing contract will ultimately go to them, and it's time for them to contribute."

After saying this, he breathed a sigh of relief. Whether it worked or not was another matter, but he had to pull others in first.

With more people, whether it was to come up with ideas or to take the blame, the chances of this confidant of the President paying attention to him would be much smaller.

Now it was just him and the Grand Prix supervisor, and the Grand Prix supervisor was a useless person, so Kuna could only look for him.

Moreover, this was America! How could a government agency come forward to solve problems for private companies!

The major private aerospace companies were the ones who would sign contracts and make big money afterward, so they should contribute to this kind of thing.

How could the government's moon landing contract be so easy to sign?

This meeting didn't produce anything useful and ended hastily, but Kuna felt that he would definitely be able to find a solution to the problem next time.

After going offline, he didn't wait but directly contacted the bosses of those companies and held an online meeting for everyone.

He wouldn't hold any offline meetings.

First, there wasn't enough time. This matter had to be resolved as soon as possible, and they couldn't wait.

Second, to avoid the media discovering that the bosses of the major aerospace companies were gathered in the capital, which would lead to all sorts of conspiracy theories.

Although what they did this time was indeed dishonorable.

Also, he found the head of the intelligence department and gave them a task.

NASA couldn't spy on the inside of the factory, but the intelligence department could.

It wasn't the first time that official power had been used to deal with Chinese private companies.

..................

On the other side of the Earth, in Jiangkou City's Interstellar Pathfinder Company.

Although the temperature in Jiangkou City in December hadn't reached below zero, it was still very cold.

Jiangkou City was located at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and the whole area protruded into the sea. In China, its geographical location was neither north nor south.

It was rainy and humid, with hazy days. There was no biting cold wind from the north, but there were gusts of demonic wind that urged you to die.

But even under such circumstances, the Pathfinder Company, or rather, the Pathfinder Company's construction site, was still brightly lit even though it was almost ten o'clock in the evening. A large number of construction workers and mechanical equipment were working.

The reason why Tang Chao's "Kerbal Moon Landing Team" could assemble the "First Voyage" rocket in its own factory was because of this.

The "Infrastructure Maniac" was easy to say, but it was actually achieved by working so hard.

If you want to get something, you have to work hard for it yourself.

The most ⊥new⊥small⊥say⊥in⊥six⊥9⊥⊥book⊥⊥bar⊥⊥first⊥post!

If you don't work hard yourself, others won't give it to you as charity.

Tang Chao himself had money, of course, he wouldn't treat these builders badly. Because of their own regulations, Tang Chao couldn't give money directly, so he came up with other benefits.

For example, in addition to normal meals, Tang Chao would have Chen Jing add extra meals for them, meat, eggs, milk, fruit, to ensure nutrition.

He also provided extra heating equipment in their temporary prefab dormitories, and paid the electricity bill, to ensure their warmth in this ghostly and cold weather.

But today's protagonists were not these builders, but Tang Chao and Zhao Li, and the things they were trading this time.

Twelve YF130 rocket engines with 480 tons of thrust, two YF90 rocket engines with 220 tons of thrust, and four YF79 rocket engines with 25 tons of thrust.

This was the basic engine configuration and quantity required for a Long March 9 rocket.

This was the issue discussed at the last National Aerospace Conference: allowing private aerospace companies to participate in the Long March 9 mission.

Depending on the situation, it was divided into core orders and peripheral orders, and Interstellar Pathfinder Company got the engine order.

Of course, this was actually a cover. This order was also a backroom operation.

After the higher-ups traded for all the technology of the Long March 9, the rocket engines quickly began to be manufactured in the relevant production units. The time could also catch up with the first flight, but in order to cover up the deeper transaction, this thing was brought out as a cover.

Since the Long March 9 suddenly emerged, espionage activities in China by various countries have increased. China can only clear them while operating "normally".

Anyway, these engines wouldn't go bad if they were bought back, and they would soon be used on the second and third rockets.

The real items traded this time were top-level semiconductor technologies.

This included the entire industry technology, there were new chip framework design technologies, and also physical key parts of top-level lithography machines.

Anyway, with these things, if the other side waved the chip stick again, the country could unhesitatingly decouple from them and no longer buy any of their chips.

These things were all brought over by Tang Chao from Kerbal. Kerbal's technology level was slightly stronger than Earth's, so these technologies were available.

Although Kerbal Space Center also bought these things to use and had to abide by the contract, but once they were transported to Earth, these things were at his disposal.

After letting his subordinates keep an eye on these things and take them away in the shortest possible time, Zhao Li invited Tang Chao to the side.

"Tang Chao, you have to be careful recently. According to our past experience, you may have to deal with the American intelligence agencies next."

Seeing Zhao Li was so serious, but the content was just experience, not concrete intelligence, he frowned and asked, "What? Didn't you get specific intelligence?"

"Yes," Zhao Li nodded, "Because we have experienced similar events several times, we analyzed the current situation and found many similarities, so we came to this inference."

"As for specific intelligence, we can get it before they officially act."

"Don't worry."

The manned Dragon spacecraft launched successfully, and the first-stage recovery was also completed. Congratulations!

(A certain alliance that has been making money from this and a certain sound that has been using this as a mouth-watering piece of meat, cursed and quit the live broadcast room)

Removing those extreme comments that kneel and lick and those that are awkwardly black, the United States regaining its manned space capabilities has nothing to do with us.

However, its success proves that private spaceflight is indeed feasible. Space X, as a trailblazer on the road to private spaceflight development, deserves recognition.

In the future, private spaceflight companies will definitely shine in human space activities, and domestic private spaceflight companies need to work harder.

Let's work hard together!