Cape Dume Estate, an early morning restaurant.

Janet walked in at last, ran to her aunt's side, put her arm around Veronica's shoulder and kissed her on the cheek, then turned to Simon with a smile, grabbed the man over the head and gave him a kiss, and finally sat down next to the man.

The little ones at the table didn't know why, Jennifer, who was holding her stomach and taking care of the two children next to her, couldn't help but roll her eyes, and Veronica lowered her head slightly and pretended not to see it to help Melbourne share the meal.

Janet picked up the cutlery and chased away the waitress who was helping next to her, before asking Simon, "How's going on the East Coast?"

Knowing what the woman was asking, Simon shook his head regretfully: "I just received the news that Scaife has shut down the Pittsburgh Tribune. ”

"It's a pity that the Mellon family retreated so simply this time, and some of our follow-up plans can't be implemented. ”

"Yes, there is an idiom in China called ......"

"The rabbit dies and the fox is sad. ”

"Heh, you are at least level 8 in Chinese now," Simon complimented, and continued: "Anyway, the Mellon family has suddenly retreated so completely, we can't do anything more, otherwise it will make the other old money families in the Federation even more jealous and vigilant, and we can't offend everyone at once." ”

Simon's original consideration was to take advantage of the Mellon financial group incident to take advantage of the situation to attack the Mellon family's interests in other industries and achieve the goal of weakening the Mellon family to the greatest extent.

The Mellon family's sudden and complete abandonment of Mellon Finance over the weekend caught Simon off guard.

The other party did not forcibly resist on the issue of Mellon Finance, and Simon could no longer be aggressive, after all, the Mellon family is not without roots in Washington and Wall Street, and if it is too ruthless for a while, it will inevitably make other old money families sad, and even share the same hatred.

You can only stop it.

Simon's side stopped, and the Mellon family chose to back down, just provoked an investigation into the Mellon family's loan fraud, and it will probably be settled soon.

I don't know what happened behind the scenes, Simon can only sigh at the decisiveness of the century-old Qian family.

Thinking so, Simon said: "Actually, the most regrettable thing is the stock market, last week Mellon Financial led Chevron, Alcoa and other companies to fall sharply for three consecutive days, but failed to pull the Nasdaq down, I initially thought this was a good opportunity." ”

Jennifer said on the other side: "Mellon Financial is on the New York Stock Exchange, not NASDAQ. ”

Simon shrugged: "Almost, it's the federal stock market after all." ”

Janet took a sip of the milk, probably thinking that today's milk was not delicious, poured some for Seattle next to her, and evened half it to her man, and asked with a smile, "Are you in a hurry?"

"Of course it's urgent, time is money," Simon also replied with a smile: "No matter how high the market value of the Eagle Families is, it is just a number now, and there is no more meaning." The high level of the entire Nasdaq market has had a negative impact on the layout of the Westeros system in the field of new technology, and at present, whether it is self-expansion or foreign mergers and acquisitions, the cost has increased significantly, resulting in many of our plans can only be suspended. ”

Janet said: "If you are in a hurry, we can simply poke it ourselves, and we only need to sell a large amount of shares and cash out the funds." ”

"Continuing to put pressure on the Mellon family stimulates only the old money class. If you reduce your holdings of technology stocks now, you will offend the whole world. ”

Janet waved her fork lightly: "It's troublesome. ”

"We'd better do nothing anyway. ”

Jennifer on the other side listened to the conversation between the two and asked, "When will Soros's side start?"

"Probably in May," Simon said, nodding his head and saying, "This is another opportunity, Soros shorted Southeast Asia, and the impact will definitely be transmitted to North America, and it would be a miracle if the Nasdaq can survive at that time." ”

In my memory, the Thai baht lost in July, but in fact, international speculators began to sell short in May.

On the other hand, the first circuit breaker in the U.S. stock market after the establishment of a circuit breaker mechanism in the original time and space was in October 1997, when the Dow Jones was affected by the Southeast Asian financial crisis and plummeted.

The 1997 Nasdaq wasn't crazy yet.

This time, the impact of the Southeast Asian financial crisis came, and the first to be hit should not be the Dow Jones, but the Nasdaq, and the time may be much earlier, instead of October, which was the worst of the Southeast Asian financial crisis.

In any case, Simon can only be patient.

However, according to the recent growth rate of the Nasdaq, even if it is calculated according to the average monthly increase of 5%, if it lasts for another three months, it is estimated that it will reach more than 7,500 points, and at that time, as the leading Igret, it will definitely break one trillion.

After chatting casually and having breakfast, Veronica personally sent Melbourne to school, Jennifer continued to raise the baby at home, and Simon and his wife took a helicopter from Cape Dume across the bay to Preavista, south of Santa Monica, SpaceX headquarters.

Today there will be an open test of the rocket engine.

After a year of intense research and development driven by Simon at any time, the SpaceX team officially launched the first rocket engine, named Merlin-1.

The name was taken by Simon from the SpaceX team, and of course, with a slight twist, was given a name by a guy named Elon Musk.

At first glance, the name 'Merlin' may not seem to match SpaceX's 'Falcon' and 'Raptor', but in fact, Merlin is a transliteration of 'Merlin', which means 'Greyback', both of which are birds of prey.

However, the new Merlin engine is completely different from the Merlin of SpaceX in the original space-time.

Once SpaceX's Merlin engine, in layman's terms, the design scheme is actually from a public engine architecture owned by NASA, which is similar to the concept of the ARM public architecture used by many manufacturers in the chip field, and then under the improvement of the SpaceX team, it eventually became the famous Merlin series.

This time, the new Merlin engine is based on the famous RD-170 rocket engine from the former Soviet Union.

The thrust of the original Merlin was only more than 30 tons, but the RD-170 is a giant with a thrust of more than 700 tons, the two are the difference between the early ARM chip and the Pentium X86 processor, even if it is more able to reflect the balanced performance of the 'thrust-to-weight ratio', the value of the original Merlin 45 is much lower than that of RD-170 75.

It's also interesting to say.

In Simon's little professional memory of this, the later Merlin series is more and more like the RD-170, and what happened in the meantime is self-evident.

Simon is also 'one step at a time'.

Speaking of which, from the beginning of last year to the beginning of last year, the SpaceX team has now been formed, and a lot has actually happened around this private space company in one year.

The Simons got off the helicopter at SpaceX's headquarters in Preavista, and the group of people who came to greet them is arguably the best representation of what has happened around SpaceX in the past year.

Among these people, in addition to the SpaceX team, there are NASA officials, Lockheed Martin executives, representatives of the National Space Agency of Ukraine, and so on.

The matter still starts with Simon privately getting a large number of space and nuclear energy materials from Ukraine.

In terms of aerospace, since SpaceX has decided to use RD-170 technology, although it is difficult to have any patents in the aerospace field because of its particularity, it is better to have some justifiable names after all, Simon simply pulled the Ukrainian authorities in.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, although the Ukrainian side retained a full set of RD-170 engine technical data, but in the absence of the assistance of the Russian industrial chain, it has lost the ability to produce this engine alone.

It's not just the RD-170, under the operation of the Westeros system, the Ukrainian side has taken out almost everything that can be turned over.

All these technology transfers are conditional on a mere $25 million in cash and a 20% stake in a shell company set up by the two parties outside SpaceX that specializes in the sale of rocket engines, which is equivalent to the Ukrainian side only enjoying 20% of the profit share when SpaceX sells engines.

In addition, the Ukrainian side will no longer be able to participate in the profit sharing of SpaceX's own use of production engines and other businesses in the future.

Whether it is SpaceX's development goal or the majority of profits, it is actually its own business in the future, you know, providing a full set of launch services, and only selling engines, the profit is absolutely not the same.

Moreover, while justifiably acquiring a large number of space technology from the former Soviet Union, Simon also received a large number of experts in related fields again.

The new Merlin 1 was born within a year, thanks to which Soviet experts were indispensable.

However, the biggest improvement of Merlin 1 this time is not the improvement on the basis of RD-170, but the smooth use of 3D printing technology, which involves the complex PR and technical integration of the past year.

Simon acquired a 3D printing company called 3D-Miracle last year, and the following year, began to work on technical research specifically for 3D printing of rocket engines.

Because it involves software, materials and other aspects, it is certainly not enough to rely on the team of 3D-Miracle.

In terms of software, 3D-Miracle has partnered with Autodesk, an industrial design software company in which Westeros Systems has a heavy stake.

In terms of materials, this is also one of the biggest difficulties in 3D printing rocket engines, because the printing alloy of the engine material needs to be ground into uniform particles of less than 500 microns, and it must be carried out in an oxygen-free environment. Simon personally intervened and consulted the accumulation of several major national laboratories in the United States, and finally successfully found the relevant technology and team.

Otherwise, it's only a matter of time, but it certainly won't be done in a year.

In the end, the most direct result of the 3D printing technology for rocket engines is to shorten the manufacturing cycle of rocket engines, which can only be completed in six months by traditional casting methods, to one month. Not only that, but thanks to 3D printing, many parts of the engine that once required hundreds of parts to be assembled and assembled can be molded at one time, and the stability of the Merlin No. 1 engine has also been greatly improved.

The most important thing is, of course, the cost.

According to the estimation of the SpaceX team, with the further maturity of the technology, after entering mass production, the cost of 3D printing engines will be reduced by more than 70% compared with traditional engines. If SpaceX can realize the recycling and reuse of rockets in the future, the cost will be reduced to a terrible level.

Simon founded SpaceX with his own ambitions, but from the very beginning, the company's development goals were very down-to-earth, and SpaceX must be self-reliant commercially, rather than vainly working for the future of mankind.

Just like 3D printing, in the eyes of ordinary people in this era, this technology is a bit close to the science fiction level, but in fact, all aspects have been accumulated for many years, just because of the lack of practical application of various research and development, even if the science fiction level of technological progress has been made, it will often be buried in the old paper pile in the end.

Human technology has exploded for decades, and this is what Simon regrets the most. Behind closed doors, the advanced technology developed by wasting a lot of social resources cannot be put into practice. In the absence of practical application, the opportunity to go further is lost.

Therefore, whether it is SpaceX, or FusionTimes and SolarCity, which are progressing quite smoothly, the initial development strategy of these companies is mainly 'integration'.

Whether it is using normal means or stealing and abducting, first integrate the breakthrough technologies that have been made by predecessors and achieve the maximum practical application, and then consider going further.

Of course, Simon also doesn't have a backache when he talks while standing.

With the development of science and technology to the present, he must be far from alone who has thought of this, but there are very few who have enough strength to do this.

Simon, with the strong financial support of the Westeros system, also happened to have the best time for the temporary disappearance of world confrontation and the acceleration of globalization to allow the smooth flow of technology and talent, and the lack of any of these conditions would make it much more difficult to do so.

SpaceX headquarters.

After greeting everyone one by one, Simon and his wife went to a lobby on the upper floor of the newly completed SpaceX fiberglass headquarters building, from which they could see a large open space along Barona Creek to the seaside, which was originally more than 300 hectares of wasteland that Simon had bought last year to use as a test site for SpaceX's equipment.

At this time, from the hall, a two-story test bench was erected on the manicured flat ground on the banks of the Barona Creek five hundred meters away.

One of the first two Merlin 1 engines with a better performance has already been installed on the test bench.

In fact, today's public test is more of a passing scene, and the SpaceX team has already conducted many tests privately.

The purpose of today's public test is to make a big deal.

Let's start from the beginning.

Since last year, the new generation of Cosmos launch vehicle under the auspices of NASA Loma has been looking for a manufacturer of the first stage engine.

Historically, Loma has finally signed a long-term supply agreement with Russia, and the relevant engine is the RD-170.

This time, since SpaceX is to be commercialized, Simon will certainly not miss this opportunity, through lobbying and even pressure from the White House, Congress, NASA, Loma and other aspects, SpaceX was finally included in the candidacy, and the bidding deadline has been delayed from last year to now.

Moreover, because of the righteousness of 'domestic', and the fact that Merlin 1 is based on RD-170 and has better parameters, today's test, as long as there are no accidents on the spot, SpaceX will basically win this big order.

It's a big deal indeed.

Under the privately drafted agreement, NASA and Loma will sign a 20-year supply agreement with the supplier, bringing the total supply to 100 units. Moreover, compared with the Russian RD-170's offer of 10 million US dollars, the blessing of 3D printing technology leads to lower costs, because the data of the preliminary test is more excellent, and the quotation of SpaceX is still 10 million US dollars.

That's a $1 billion deal.

Even if it is divided into 20 years, only 50 million per year, considering the gross profit margin of SpaceX, it can be regarded as a big start for this company.

And, after all, it's just a business for SpaceX.

Neither NASA nor Loma has restricted SpaceX's own use of the Merlin series, so it will still focus on autonomous launches in the future.

In the lobby of the SpaceX office building, everyone sat down, and SpaceX President Gwen Shotville confirmed that everyone was there, asked Simon for instructions, and then turned to the staff sitting behind the computer around him to start the test.

A moment later, with the smoke and smoke coming from the test bench in the distance, the powerful power of Merlin 1 made everyone feel a tremor.

At the same time, a series of parameter reports from NASA supervisors were heard on the loudspeaker.

"Sea level thrust: 81773KN. ”

"Specific impulse at sea level: 353s. ”

"Combustion chamber pressure, wow, 27.3Mpa, is it confirmed? OK. ”

"Thrust-to-weight ratio...... Thrust-to-weight ratio...... 96, that's too strong. ”

“......”

In the hall, listening to the sound in his ears and the gradual commotion of the staff from all walks of life who came to watch the test, even the NASA officials sitting next to Simon could not calm down, and frequently turned their heads to look at Simon. Although he had already obtained some data in advance, he heard it on the spot, and the same professional NASA official was more or less skeptical.

Simon ignored it.

After carefully reading a lot of information in advance, I can probably expect that these data will shock NASA, Loma and other representatives, only Janet next to her looks like she is listening to the sky.

Just as she was about to explain a few words to Janet, the full-bodied, fair-skinned Ukrainian female representative sitting on the other side of her chatted with Janet, who was obviously confused, in standard English, presumably to explain the meaning of the relevant data, but the woman's soft voice was obviously a little mentioned, as if she wanted to attract the attention of others.

The test lasted more than half an hour, and the teams at NASA and Loma were a little skeptical for the first time, so they went to the test bench to check it out and conducted a second test.

Naturally, there are no problems.

There has been ample communication in private, two consecutive tests, and there was no objection from the NASA side, followed by the signing of the agreement on the spot by SpaceX and Loma executives as both parties to the transaction, and the celebration ceremony of opening the champagne.

Inside the lively hall.

Simon and the guests simply socialized, found Gwen Shotwell and other SpaceX backbones, and began to pour cold water and wave the leather whip.

"This is just the beginning, Gwen, and everybody, and the most important thing for you to do next is to build your own launch vehicle for SpaceX. Moreover, I have set a goal for a long time, SpaceX has to work towards reusable rockets, oh, this time someone still told me that it is impossible...... It's good, it's such a good day today, it's not good for someone to be fired......"

After pouring cold water, of course, don't forget the sweet dates.

After announcing a $15 million reward package on the spot, Simon turned to look for Janet and saw her walking with a woman with a Slavic appearance.

"Simon, this is Natasha, she speaks English very well, she doesn't look like a Ukrainian at all, and I'm going to invite her to go shopping in the city. ”

Simon smiled and listened to Janet's introduction, and made a 'you don't look like you're pretending to be stupid and sweet at all' at her, before casually shaking hands with the woman in front of him: "Hello, Natasha, heh, I like this typical Slavic name very much." ”

Looking closely, this Slavic woman with a height of about 175 cm is about 30 years old, wearing a black women's suit, whether it is just the right full figure or a fair and charming face, it is quite provocative.

"Oh, Mr. Westeros, it's an honor to see you today, you can call me Nata. ”

"Okay, Nata. ”

Janet continued to be silly and sweet: "Simon, you see Nata's skin is so white, I really don't know how to take care of it, I'll have to ask later." ”

"Actually, I was born, but Jenny, your complexion is better, and I'm a little too white. ”

"No, Simon likes white. Janet said this, and looked at the man in the woman's slightly lit eyes: "Are you leaving?"

"yes, it's going to be a meeting soon, I'm not going home at noon, do I want to take you to the city first?"

"Okay," Janet said, not forgetting to look around, "Nata, do you have a problem separating from the others?"

The woman hurriedly shook her head, looking honored: "Of course not." ”

Simon didn't bother to pay attention to Janet's sudden interest, and said goodbye to everyone, and left the SpaceX headquarters with the two.

Fly to Beverly Hills to drop off the two daughters before rushing to Malibu Studios.

"American Pie", which started filming at the end of last year, was completed in mid-February and recently completed rough cutting. Because it is a project that Simon personally follows up and the work schedule is arranged in advance, Simon wants to watch the sample film with the main creators today and put forward follow-up production suggestions.