"Two years ago, the Salyut Design Bureau and the Khrunichev plant merged to form the Khrunichev Space Center, which became the largest aerospace research and production complex in Russia. From the Salyut and Mir space station to proton rockets and even UR100N ballistic missiles, they were designed and manufactured by this consortium. ”

"At present, the design center is facing serious losses, and due to financial pressure, the Russian top is considering privatization reforms. At present, the voice is relatively loud is a former high-ranking bureaucrat in the defense system, Dimitrogozhin, who is strongly supported by Lockheed Martin and currently has a big advantage in the competition. ”

"The production enterprises of ICBMs are also going to be privatized?!"

Mole Human Resources Company has just opened in Bingcheng after the Spring Festival, although there is no business, but the pomp is quite large.

They bought an entire building on East Street, overlooking the Bingcheng Department Store, the ruins of Hongbo Square and Nikolai Cathedral in the distance, and behind the Russian-style buildings interspersed with a history that cannot be looked back on.

But on the side of these old historic buildings, modern high-rise buildings are already rising from the ground. Some blonde and blue-eyed hairy girls walked around, hurrying about their livelihoods, no different from the Chinese around them—except for the eagle on the balcony of their home.

In an office in the Mole Building, Wu Di was listening carefully to lectures and taking notes. Although the person who gave him a lecture was dressed in civilian clothes, he exuded the air of a soldier no matter how he looked at it.

And what they are discussing is obviously not a big road goods that can be heard casually outside.

"The situation in Khrunichev is so bad, the 20,000-strong space enterprise needs astronomical resources to keep it running. Russia's economy is still not improving in the slightest, and it has to spend a lot of military money on the defense plan of the CPSU. Taking into account the peculiarities of the confrontation with the CPSU, more resources were devoted to the production of conventional weapons. The field of astronautics has been almost completely abandoned by Russia. ”

"The Khrunichev Space Center can be considered one of the most important military suppliers of space in Russia, and military orders were its main source of income before the 90s. Similar to it are the Lightning Research and Production Complex, which develops and produces the Buran Space Shuttle, the Progressive State Rocket and Space Research and Production Center, the Reshetnev Complex, which is an enterprise mainly engaged in the manufacture of satellites, the main developer of the Energia rocket and the Mir space station, and the Korolev Energy Rocket and Space Corporation. In addition to this, there is the Grushko Power Machinery Research and Production Joint Company - you should pay special attention to the company Grushko Power Machinery, which is the production and R&D unit of almost all liquid rocket engines in Russia, as well as the technical owner of liquid oxygen kerosene refueling cycle engines. ”

"The main rocket supplier of the Russian Navy is the Machine-Building Research and Production Complex, which is currently the only Russian aerospace military enterprise with orders, and the Russian Navy still has some inputs for well-known reasons. Although many of Khrunichev's space projects belong to Russia's defense projects, in the past few years, Russia has not been able to do even basic maintenance with the funds invested in the field of aerospace defense, so where is the ability to add new orders? ”

That is to say, Lockheed Martin has a lot of influence in the Russian space sector. ”

A few years ago, who would have thought that Lockheed, the US military-industrial complex, would be able to give half of Russia's space industry? Khrunichev, an enterprise that produces intercontinental missiles, can only rely on receiving some subcontracted launch orders from Lockheed to make ends meet, and he is offering the bezoars and dates that others have donated as treasures.

"But even then, life at the Khrunichev Space Center was not easy. For a number of reasons, five successive launches of the rocket produced by Khrunichev ended in failure, and even under the personal attention of Russian Prime Minister Chernomyrdin, the situation did not improve. When all remedies fail, privatization is the only way to divest non-performing assets. ”

Wu Di was heartbroken and gritted his teeth: "If this is also a bad asset, then just package it and sell it to us!"

"It's a pity that we don't have much influence in the Russian space sector, and we don't have a way to find an agent at the moment. ”

"And isn't that what you're going to do?"

Heran smiled, Wu Di smiled and shook his head: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I haven't entered the identity yet." ”

The lecturer was unimpressed, and then lined up a series of portrait photos: "This is the target of our small test, Plesetsk, an engineer of inertial navigation systems at Khrunichev, and his research team. ”

Plesetsk is an authority on inertial guidance, and Lockheed also values him very much, promising to immigrate American citizenship for him and his family, but he refused. Khrunichev also treated him very well, although the salary was not high, but all kinds of life care were in place. Housing, a spouse's job, and a child's schooling have all helped him make good arrangements. ”

"We had a little contact with Plesetsk, but he was more thorough. It would be best if you could convince him to open a laboratory in China, or let him accept our exchange scholars and students. In the worst case, hopefully he will answer some of our questions that will not be secret at all. ”

Wu Di carefully looked at the photos lined up in front of him, and in the first one, a Slavic man with thinning hair was standing in front of a rocket in a white coat, his expression proud and reserved.

The rest of the photos include photos of him and his family, as well as other researchers in his lab.

"The formalities for your trip to Russia have been completed, and if you have any needs, you can always ask us, and we will try our best to meet your requirements. ”3800

Wu Di waved his hand, stared at the photo, locked his brows and asked absentmindedly: "My request is nothing, but if Plesetsk can come over, what conditions are you going to give?"

"We can provide expert treatment for dual-lead projects, such as a small building by the sea, a monthly salary of more than $3,000, family work and school arrangements, and the main leadership position of the laboratory......"

"It's not going to work!"

Wu Di refused: "Since the Mole Human Resources Company is a private enterprise, it must act in accordance with the laws of business. Plesetsk can enjoy all these benefits in Russia, so why should he leave his homeland? Not to mention the treatment of the double-lead project, you must have already tried it. Human resources companies, first of all, must be sincere to their customers, and must think and look at problems from his standpoint. ”

"If I were Plesetsk, under what circumstances would I choose to leave my homeland?"

Wu Di's fingers kept tapping on the table.

......

Sometimes, you really don't know whether something happens, whether it is really "the destiny of heaven" or "the development of history is not subject to human will".

Wu Di is still preparing for the company's first business, but the situation in St. Petersburg, thousands of miles away, has changed.

"There are no problems with the design of our rockets, and the Proton has been the carrier of our large spacecraft since the mid-sixties. If in Soviet times there were no problems with so many launches, then the current situation will clearly not be a design problem. ”

"Five launches in a row, someone must be responsible for this problem!"

"If we can't find the problem, the privatization negotiations will be too bad for us. ”

"Dimitrogozin, this traitor, which side is he on, is he a dog of the Americans?"

In the conference room of the Khrunichev Space Center, a group of bigwigs in the aerospace and defense systems and the leaders in charge of the space center were already arguing at this time. As the prospect of privatization becomes clearer, the contradictions in the distribution of internal interests are becoming more and more intensified and more and more surfaced.

Space Systems believes that Khrunichev's valuation is too low, but does not consider that five consecutive launch failures have already ruined its reputation in Europe. The defense system, on the other hand, considers national security a matter and simply opposes privatization. Khrunichev's internal interests are also complex, some believe that it should be privatized as soon as possible, some believe that it should be split up and then privatized, and some think that it can be privatized but the proportion of private ownership should be limited......

But all of them have one thing in common, and that is to fill their pockets.

Dimitrogozin is currently the highest bidder, and Lockheed Martin is his financier, offering a large dollar to buy this space legend.

However, in the specific negotiations, Lockheed will not be the wronged leader, and Dimitrogozin has also shown enough personal value to kill the corpses of the representatives of state-owned shares in the negotiations. Pulling at the reason for Khrunichev's five consecutive launch failures, the huge Khrunichev price was pushed down to the point where it was about worthless.

Of course, even so, such a large sum of money is not something that other competitors can come up with. However, it is clear that if Khrunichev sells cheaply, there will inevitably be less money in everyone's pockets.

Then before the negotiations are completed, it becomes an inevitable choice to find someone responsible for the failure of the launch.

At this time, everyone in the conference room was fighting for a plan that was beneficial to them on the one hand, and desperately trying to find someone who could be responsible for the launch failure.

At least theoretically, if we find the reason for the failure, then the failure is not my responsibility, and you can't let my interests be damaged because of it!

Should this be called greedy cuteness or bad retardation?