"Five!"

"Four!"

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

"Zero!"

"Ignition!"

Pale blue jets of arc light stretched from the end of the wings that splayed outwards towards the back of the plane.

Dragging a long and narrow blue plume, the Xiaguang, which was launched from the Jinling Space Launch Center, disappeared into the clouds under the attention of all the ground crew, engineers and commanders of the launch center.

The launch program went very smoothly.

After exiting the troposphere, the glow's pair of stubby co-wings slowly turned, depressing the angle of the jets attached to the end of the wings, gradually stretching the direction of the nose.

At the same time, the blue plume behind the wing gradually enlarged, and began to work directly against gravity, pushing the Xiaguang to draw a tangential trajectory to the earth, flying into the infinite deep space beyond the earth.

Minutes and seconds passed.

After nearly an hour-long flight, the Xiaguang finally lived up to expectations, smoothly breaking through the edge of the dense part of the atmosphere, reaching low-earth orbit and starting a 72-hour orbital flight.

Sitting in the cockpit, Xu Zhenghong, a test pilot in the main pilot's seat, carefully glanced at the orbital altitude, spacecraft surface temperature, and other data on the instrument.

After confirming that everything was normal, he finally breathed a sigh of relief after his expression had been tense.

It was his 57th test flight and the highest he had ever flown on. When he was in the test pilot brigade before, he never imagined that one day he would fly the plane out of the atmosphere.

Until one day, the superior of the unit found him and arranged a test flight mission for him to be Xiaguang......

Although the plane is equipped with an escape pod, only genius knows whether it will work or not.

Reaching out to turn on the automatic cruise mode, Xu Zhenghong then unconnected the connection between the spacesuit and the environmental control health protection system in the cabin, and finally reached out and pressed it on the side of the helmet, took a deep breath and said.

"This is the Glow, we have successfully reached the target orbit, and we are requesting instructions on the next step."

A series of noisy electrical tones can be heard from the communication channel.

As the communication signal stabilized, the answering sound of the ground command center was soon heard.

“…… This is the ground command, congratulations on the successful completion of the first test flight exercise subject. Please maintain the orbital altitude and continue to fly for two hours, and the next test flight drill will start in two hours. ”

Xu Zhenghong: "Roger, it's in cruise mode." ”

Sitting in the co-pilot's seat, Liu Biao, who also unlocked the environmental control health protection system, reached out and loosened the connection port at the helmet of the spacesuit, cast his eyes on the space outside the cockpit, and said with a smile.

"The scenery here is pretty good."

Looking at the sparks under the clouds, as well as the deep universe above the sparks, Xu Zhenghong replied with a smile.

"yes."

It was probably the most beautiful scenery he had ever seen.

At this moment, far away, a silver spacecraft slowly climbed to the edge of the dense section of the atmosphere.

Looking in the direction of that side, Liu Biao, who was sitting in the passenger seat, squinted his eyes and asked.

"That's?"

"It should be the BFR spacecraft of Space-X, I heard that they were also launched today," glancing at his comrades sitting next to him, Xu Zhenghong quipped, "Your eyes are weird, you can see this." ”

was praised by the captain like this, Liu Biao smiled embarrassedly.

"Do you think we should lean over and say hello to them?"

Xu Zhenghong: "Good idea, you can ask the ground command center to see what the commander-in-chief has to say." ”

Liu Biao touched the back of his head with an embarrassed expression and said, "Well, I'm just joking to liven up the atmosphere, don't take it seriously." ”

Xu Zhenghong paused for a moment and spoke.

"It's pretty much the right joke, take a 10-minute break, and get to work."

Liu Biao, who was sitting in the passenger seat, immediately straightened his waist.

"Yes!"

……

At the same time, the other side of the track.

At the same time that the Glowing discovered the BFS spaceship, the BFS spacecraft also discovered them.

Although neither side is equipped with a radar specifically designed to detect spacecraft, it is easy to see at a glance because the orbital altitude is exactly the same and the distance is not particularly far.

Watching the silver spacecraft outside the porthole fade away, Tevi, who was leaning on the seat, suddenly spoke.

"According to the tradition of the Marine Corps, we should write down the mailbox on a piece of paper and stick it on the window."

Johnson raised his eyebrows and quipped.

"The Marines don't have that tradition, it's the Air Force...... And I guess even if we did, they wouldn't be able to see it from such a distance. ”

"That's right." Tevi muttered to himself, and said no more.

Unlike the two big men, Jones, who was sitting on the other side of the spacecraft, was completely attracted by the blue planet behind the spacecraft.

Looking out of the porthole for a long time, Jones sighed softly: "What a beautiful view......"

Glancing at Jones, Tevey also looked out the window and snorted.

"That's right, it's beautiful."

"Speaking of which, we were all training at different training bases, and we only met two weeks before the launch mission began," Johnson suddenly opened his mouth and said with a toothy smile, looking at the two men staring out the window, "I mean, why don't we talk?" ”

Retracting his gaze from the porthole, Tevi cast an inquiring glance at him, "What are you talking about?" ”

"Talk about life, talk about dreams, talk about why we're sitting here, why we signed up to go to Mars...... Oh hell, if only there was a bottle of whiskey here. Johnson touched his head with some distress and said with a funny expression.

Jones whispered, "The supply of supplies can't be unlocked until after landing...... I heard about it when I was in training. ”

Instead of focusing on the inconsequential questions, Tevy answered his previous sentence.

"Aren't these things already said on the show?"

Johnson shrugged his shoulders and made a helpless expression.

"Only I said it, you haven't."

Tevey hesitated, but finally did not answer the question, but looked at Jones.

"Ladies first."

"Huh? Me? I ......" Jones looked a little cramped, then sighed as if giving up, and said, "Well, I hope you don't laugh at me after I say it, I'm because of a little emotional problem......"

Johnson: "Emotional problems? Parted? Divorce? Still is...... Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have gotten to the bottom of it—"

"It's a breakup," Jones continued, after a moment of silence, "it may seem like nothing to you, but it hit me hard. I hope to pick myself up again and live again in a different place. ”

Tevi raised his eyebrows and asked in disbelief, "And then, at this point, you saw the recruitment advertisement for Project Ares?" ”

"Yes," Jones continued, squeezing a slightly reluctant smile out of his face, "surprising, isn't it?" My colleagues were stunned, no one expected me to be selected...... USCIS quickly approved my application, and Space-X even reimbursed me for my plane ticket from Amsterdam to the United States. I thought about it later and thought it was good, so I ......"

As if not knowing how to put it, Jones shrugged his shoulders and ended the topic stiffly, "Anyway, I'm sitting here right now." ”

"That's too much of an exaggeration......" Tevi muttered as he looked at Jones in disbelief, "if I'm going to run so far just because of a breakup, I'm afraid I've already flown out of the solar system." ”

"Stop, don't say such unlucky words," Johnson patted Tyvi on the shoulder, "our lady has finished speaking, now it's your turn." I've always wondered what makes a quarterback on the football field an astronaut. ”

Finally, I still faced this problem.

Tevi hesitated, then shrugged as if to give up.

"Because...... Debt issues. ”

Johnson looked at him in surprise: "Credit card? ”

"Sort of......" Tavi looked away a little subtly.

Johnson smiled cheerfully and patted him on the shoulder encouragingly.

"Haha, there are no nasty bills on Mars, you're relieved now."

Tevi smiled heartily, but didn't answer.

Jones glanced at him, and the woman's instinct told her that the guy wasn't telling the truth, or that he wasn't finishing.

At the very least, the reason for his participation in the program is certainly not as simple as the debt problem.

Compared to Jones, Johnson didn't care about these details, he just felt that Tywi didn't seem to want to continue the topic, so he didn't delve into it.

It is not important about a person's past, what matters is how he faces the future.

Since they are sitting here, they are teammates, they are a team, and they have to face all the problems together......

The conversation box gradually opened, and the atmosphere gradually became familiar.

Looking at the two teammates who had returned to cheerfulness, Johnson nodded with satisfaction.

As the "captain" of this flight, Columbus sailed to the New World, in addition to being responsible for professional operations, he also had to be responsible for coordinating the mental state of his teammates.

After all, having to crouch in this small and compact manned spacecraft for nearly two months is not much better than being in prison.

Time passed minute by minute, and the blue planet behind them, as well as the long-disappeared spacecraft, had gradually moved away from them.

In this way, with a yearning for a new continent and a vision for a better future, the BFS spacecraft left the synchronous orbit and sailed into a dark deep space, heading towards the fiery red planet......