Cooperation with Ukraine is very simple, the current shortcomings of Ukraine in aerospace science and technology, as long as there are a few key subsystem deficiencies, such as high-thrust liquid rocket engines, a variety of on-board payloads, launch facilities and other problems, in the past, when dealing with these problems, Ukraine had to cooperate with Kazakhstan, Russia and other important aerospace regions of the former Soviet Union, but now, Zhang Lan does not plan to let Lao Maozi and Kazakhstan continue to earn this money, So in the face of his own group of alternative subordinates, Zhang Lan, the master, was very tolerant.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I believe you should know that although our Alice Group does not have a high-thrust liquid rocket engine, this is not a matter of the strength of our Alice Group, but for our Alice Group, there is no need for this at all, we have newer and better options, in this case, we have no need to study high-thrust launch vehicle technology." Jill said this to a group of members of the Ukrainian government.

Vashunik and the others nodded again and again: Of course I didn't say it, since the Alice Group already has a more advanced form of flying from the ground to space, there is naturally no need to use rockets, which is a "backward" way, liquid rocket engines? If you already have an induction cooker in your house, is it necessary to set up a firewood stove in the house for cooking? It's a simple truth.

"So, Miss Jill......" Hearing what Jill said, one of the negotiators on the Ukrainian side suddenly became a little anxious: since the Alice Group has made it clear that they will not develop liquid launch vehicles, what about this cooperation? He was very self-aware, knowing that the Alice Group would never hand over his aerospace aircraft technology to them.

Compared with these Ukrainian government negotiators who were anxious, as their leader, Vasyunik's face was calm: he didn't believe that the Alice Group had "fooled" them so far away, just to entertain them so boringly, although Jill said so, she must have a solution to the problem.

Sure enough, seeing that these guys were in a hurry to become like this, Jill waved his hand lightly, and the Ukrainian government and his party, who were still in a hurry just now, immediately closed their mouths.

"Of course, we don't have the idea of developing launch vehicles for the time being, which does not mean that we cannot cooperate in many aspects, and I believe that we still have a lot to negotiate in the construction of multiple satellites with one stone, large thrust, large total impulse, large specific ramjet engine, and launch facilities." Jill's face was slyly smiling.

The people on the Ukrainian side were stunned, but they reacted immediately, with the same smile on their faces: One stone with many stars? Isn't this a simplified version of their technology for an aerospace plane to carry multiple satellites at the same time?

High-thrust, large-total impulse, large-specific ramjet engine? And what is better than the kind of ramjet engine used on the Alice Group's aerospace planes?

Launch facilities? Although even Russia has to rely on the rocket launch facilities of the former Soviet Union at the Baikonur rocket launch site in present-day Kazakhstan, with the current technological strength of the Alice Group, I am afraid that this problem is the easiest thing for them, right?

Jill was also smiling happily, because the guys knew what they meant, "Well, in that case, I think when you reach a certain level of skill, you should be able to compete with your European counterparts, right?" Always ask your European colleagues to look at you like that, it seems ......"

At this point, there is no need for Gil to continue, all Ukrainians know what Gil wants to say next: those European colleagues who think they are noble and powerful, every time they look at their peers, the disdain in their eyes is like looking at a group of old farmers from the countryside...... Although, in the eyes of old Europe, all parts of the former Soviet Union, can be called remote countryside.

The thought of this makes these guys full of rage: in the former Soviet Union, when when Ukrainian missiles and rockets were aimed at the brains of Europeans all the time, when did these guys dare to look at themselves in this way? At that time, Europeans looked at themselves with fear and trembling.

Very good. That's good. Looking at these guys who were about to smoke in their nostrils, Zhang Lan nodded proudly.

Although the composition of the current Ukrainian space industry system has changed greatly compared with the former Soviet Union, it has diversified from the complete state ownership system in the past to the current ownership system; From the complete dependence on government investment in the past to the coexistence of various forms of fund-raising now, the scale of the space industry has also shrunk compared with before, although the current space industry in Ukraine has a lot less personnel and the number of enterprises and institutions than in the former Soviet Union.

But one thing that cannot be ignored is that the product structure and industrial structure of Ukraine's space industry are still quite complete! It can be said that after the independence of the former Soviet republics, except for Russia, the country with the most complete product structure and industrial structure! Kazakhstan? Over the years, they don't seem to have heard much of their voices, except for the highly enriched uranium-235, plutonium, deuterium, and tritium on other people's launch vehicle launch sites and their own countries' strategic intercontinental ballistic missiles.

It is strange that although the overall size of Ukraine's space industry has shrunk, the industrial structure and capabilities have not shrunk too seriously compared to the former Soviet Union! All this is thanks to the fact that after Ukraine's independence, Ukraine's space enterprises and institutions embarked on the road of collectivization in order to survive and develop in the difficult situation.

Various design bureaus, scientific research institutes, and factories have merged one after another, and various types of aviation industry scientific research and production complexes have been established. Compared with the former Soviet Union, these associations no longer rely entirely on state budget funds, but raise funds through various channels, carry out diversified operations, and convert military to civilian and military-civilian integration, and have achieved certain results.

In recent years, of the funds spent in Ukraine on the implementation of the national space program, 24 were self-raised by enterprises, 39 were loans and investments, and 37 were funds from the state budget.

Of course, even so, it does not mean that the Ukrainian space industry can sit back and relax, on the contrary, the Ukrainian space industry is still facing a serious situation, and the most serious problem is the serious shortage of funds! ,

As of 2003, the actual expenditure of Ukraine's national space program was only 70 million hryvnia per year, or about $10 million, far from the target of the 1999 National Space Agency of Ukraine for an annual budget of not less than 360 million hryvnia, that is, about 0.2 percent of GDP.

For the high-tech aerospace industry, which basically needs the government to pay for the huge amount of R&D expenditure to maintain normal operation, the R&D expenditure of 1,000 watts of US dollars cannot even be beaten. $10 million? For NASA, which spends tens of billions of dollars on research and development every year, this little money can make them laugh out loud!

"But, Miss Jill, the geographical location of our country ......," someone whispered.

The most basic thing is that the launch site is required to be far away from residential areas, and the flight path of the launch vehicle cannot pass through densely populated places and cities, so as to prevent the rocket from malfunctioning and causing heavy losses; The climatic conditions of the launch site area should be suitable for launching, easy to observe and detect, and especially sufficient power supply to ensure the smooth operation of the optoelectronic equipment system; The launch site should have a complete set of special facilities and equipment to ensure the final assembly and docking of rockets and spacecraft, inspection and testing, tracking and measurement, orbital attitude control, sending instructions, and processing measurement information; at the same time, the traffic inside and outside the site is smooth and the transportation capacity is strong, so as to ensure the entry and exit of materials, equipment, spare parts, and semi-finished products or finished products of spacecraft and rockets.

This is still the most basic, if you take into account the weather factors over the launch site, in Ukraine itself, there are fewer sites for Ukraine to choose from, Ukraine is bordered by the Black Sea, although the missile and space industry is relatively developed, but it is not a suitable missile launch site, otherwise Ukraine would not have been able to start the idea of hitting the launch site in the South American country of Algantara in Brazil as early as 1995.

"That's a problem." Jill frowned slightly! She knew that there was no suitable launch vehicle launch site in Ukraine, but at the beginning this girl ignored this problem, and now she was reminded by this guy in Ukraine and finally realized that this problem is not simple.

In October 1995, when Ukrainian President Kuchma visited Brazil, he and the Brazilian government specifically discussed the matter and feasibility of renting the launch site in Brazil's Algantara state, and even in order to be able to lease the rocket launch site in Brazil's Algantara state and find a suitable launch site for Ukrainian rockets, President President Ma Kuchma made huge concessions, and even said that the Ukrainian government was willing to provide rocket technology for Brazil's VLS in exchange. to qualify for cheap rocket tests at launch sites in Brazil.

Before that, Ukraine has never promised to provide corresponding rocket technology to any country, to understand that at that time, the former Soviet Union had just collapsed, and the rocket technology in Ukraine's hands could make the most advanced, even today, 10 years later, Ukraine's rocket technology is not much better than Russia.

The then President of the Ukrainian government, Kuchma, personally admitted that the reason why Ukraine was particularly interested in the Algantara region was because the geographical location of the Algantara region could reduce the cost of sending satellites into equatorial orbit.

The Brazilian government, which is also interested in developing its own missile and rocket technology, is very interested in President President Ma's proposal, for the Brazilian government, although the Algantara rocket launch site is one of the best and lowest launch cost rocket launch sites in the world, Brazil's own space industry is not very effective use of this rocket launch site, if it can rent this rocket launch site to earn a lot of money, and can obtain advanced missile technology from Ukraine, for Brazil, it is really a triple win: the development of the country's aerospace industry; Raised a part of the funds for the development of the country's space industry; At the same time, it has found Ukraine, a technology supplier that can supply itself with advanced missile/rocket technology for a long time, and accelerate the pace of development and construction.

But helplessly, people who don't want to see the rise of the Brazilian aerospace industry and the impact of the Ukrainian aerospace industry on the American aerospace industry have stopped this matter with their huge influence on Brazil, so that this absolutely win-win cooperation finally had to end without a problem, while stopping the progress of Brazilian aerospace science and technology, it also ripped off the wings of the development of the Ukrainian aviation industry.

Now this guy is asking this question, apparently also to remind Jill.

The atmosphere fell silent.

"What do you think if a rocket launch site were built in Indonesia?" Zhang Lan, who had not spoken, opened her mouth at this time, "If a rocket launch site is built in Indonesia, although it may sometimes affect the scheduled launch time due to the weather, I think that Indonesia, which is closer to the equator than you Ukraine and is mainly surrounded by a vast sea, should be able to effectively reduce the corresponding launch costs, right?" ”

"Okay!" Deputy Prime Minister Vasyunik's eyes lit up! But then the gaze in his eyes weakened again, "Will the Indonesian government agree?" ”

Compared to Ukraine itself, it is clear that if a launch vehicle launch site can be built in Indonesia, it will be much more cost-effective from the perspective of cost alone. But will Indonesia agree? Will Americans, who have the ability to influence Indonesian government decisions, get in the way? Damn the Americans, will they watch the Ukrainian space industry re-emerge and come to grab their cake?

"In this world, nothing is impossible!" Zhang Lan smiled mysteriously.

Alice Group originally had the idea of establishing a large aerospace aircraft base in Indonesia, although for aerospace aircraft, airports that can take off and land Boeing 747 large passenger aircraft can theoretically take off and land this behemoth, but when she thought of the result that every time she takes off and lands, this airport will not be available for public use within two days, Zhang Lan canceled the idea: it is better to build an aerospace aircraft base in Indonesia. ,

In the same way, an aerospace aircraft base with complete facilities has met the launch requirements of carrier rockets to a considerable extent, and many functions have been universal, basically as long as a large launch tower and corresponding transportation and lifting equipment are built, it is enough to undertake two tasks at the same time. Now, this money is just for Ukraine to pay part of the bill.

Well? Is there a door to this? Vasyunik's heart was overjoyed! Looking at the bright smiles on the faces of Zhang Lan and Jill, the smiles on the faces of all the negotiators of the Ukrainian government became brighter and brighter.

The conversation between the Alice Group and the Ukrainian government negotiating team was in full swing, which made the domestic government start to sit still.

Originally, they instinctively thought that this might be a smokescreen released by the Alice Group, and the Alice Group's help to Ukraine's economic revitalization over the years has forced Ukraine to help the Alice Group, which cooperates with the Ukrainian government in the field of space industry? It's impossible.

But now it seems that this is not the case at all.

Even more unlikely news followed: Ukrainian President Kuchma said at a meeting with the Indonesian government's ambassador to Ukraine, Dinitó, that the governments of Ukraine and Indonesia can develop deeper exchanges, and if the Indonesian government agrees, the Ukrainian government can help the Indonesian government develop Indonesia's national aerospace industry.

At the same time, according to information released by the Ukrainian government, President Kuchma President Ma plans to visit Indonesia in two months.

When the news came out, the practitioners of the domestic aviation industry could not sit still: at this sensitive moment, President Ma Kuchi visit Indonesia? Why offer to help Indonesia develop their aerospace industry? Ukraine, which is still in the stage of economic recovery, can't learn from Lei Feng all the way to do good deeds and help Indonesia without any attempt, right?

So what is the attempt?

At this sensitive moment, the Chinese government quickly came to the conclusion that what else could it do but for what he called the launch vehicle launch site? If Ukraine succeeds in establishing a launch vehicle launch site in Indonesia, then it ...... Wouldn't Ukraine's aerospace industry, which has been trapped in the absence of a suitable launch vehicle launch site and not sufficiently developed, pose a serious threat to China's aerospace industry?

As soon as he thought of this, cold sweat suddenly flowed down his forehead!

Don't say that the rainy weather in Indonesia is not very suitable for the launch of launch vehicles, Hainan is also out of the rainy YA tropics, and it is not the same to establish a launch vehicle launch site! Although there are weather reasons, who made this place close to the equator and low launch cost?

The Chinese government would like to lobby the Indonesian government to reject the Ukrainian government's proposal, but unfortunately, China is not the United States, and its influence on Indonesia is really minimal. Ahem, let's not discuss this issue, it's a little sad to say, just look at how many of our islands Indonesia occupies in the South China Sea, and you can understand the extent of our influence on the Indonesian government.