The Crimson Heart spacecraft's storage bay has been installed in the Hercules rocket. At this moment, the Hercules rocket stands next to the launch tower. The huge arrow body of seventy meters high pointed straight at the sky, and a magnificent aura that pierced the sky continued to emanate from it.

After the old man gave the order, the five astronauts stood up at the same time, saluted the screen and all the operators in the control hall with a standard military salute, and then turned around and left the control hall in a neat line.

Through the surveillance screen, Zhao Huasheng saw that the five astronauts got on the shuttle bus, which drove directly to the launch tower, and the five astronauts got out of the car, and then rose to the same height as the tip of the Hercules rocket through the elevator.

The crew has been evacuated from the launch tower. Through the air bridge, the five astronauts entered the rocket in turn. Then the exit of the material reserve silo was closed, and the rocket passage was closed.

The camera in the storage compartment transmits the astronauts' images in real time, and the spacesuit in the cabin monitors the astronauts' heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, body temperature and other data at all times.

The anemometer reports the surface wind speed as well as the wind speed at the high altitude, and the meteorological satellite reports the weather conditions at the moment. The rocket sensor reports the operation of the instruments in each part of the rocket. The staff were working intensely, and an extremely solemn atmosphere enveloped the entire control hall. The image of the old man has been on the big screen, and it is clear that the old man has been watching here.

About forty minutes after the astronauts entered the rocket, Wang Tang came to the big screen again and reported to the old man: "Report to the Führer, everything is ready, all modules of the rocket are normal, and the meteorological conditions are good, please instruct!" ”

The old man nodded: "Launch!" ”

Wang Tang turned around and shouted loudly: "Enter the thirty-second countdown!" ”

On the other screen, two large Arabic numerals, one three and one zero, appeared. After a few moments, the number changed, becoming twenty-nine.

The huge steel frame that connected the rocket to the launch tower suddenly separated at this time, severing the connection between the Hercules rocket and the launch tower.

There are constantly reports of detection signals from various modules of the rocket, and after these reports, all of them are added with the words "everything is normal". This means that the Hercules rocket is in good condition.

When the countdown reached four, on another large screen that broadcast the real-time exterior of the Hercules rocket, Zhao Huasheng saw a red flame appear at the tail of the Hercules rocket. The flame was not strong, but it seemed to be full of power.

The rocket rapidly strengthened in just four seconds, eventually turning into a vertical jet. As the flame intensified, the four boosters mounted on the Hercules rocket also ignited at the same time. The fire of the booster and the fire of the rocket's main engine blended together, and finally became so bright that it was almost impossible to look at directly.

"Zero!"

"Launch!" Wang Tang shouted out the word launch vigorously.

At this time, the fire sprayed from the tail of the Hercules rocket intensified again. The flames turned colorless and transparent when they first left the rocket, and only the air around them that was distorted and distorted by the high temperature showed that they were powerful. It was only a few meters away from the tail of the rocket that they revealed a strong crimson color.

A large amount of white dense fog evaporated from the tail of the rocket, almost covering a radius of several tens of meters. Zhao Huasheng knew that it was formed by the flame ejected by the rocket being exported by the diversion groove, and then the liquid used to cool down quickly evaporated.

At this time, even Zhao Huasheng, who was sitting at a distance of at least more than a thousand meters from the Hercules rocket, felt the trembling of the earth. It was a very slight, but very dull tremor, like an earthquake, but not quite like an earthquake.

Zhao Huasheng raised his head and saw from the real-time exterior display screen that the Hercules heavy-lift launch vehicle, which was 70 meters high and weighed more than 4,000 tons, was slowly taking off. At first, it was slow, as if a rope was slowly lifting it up, but after only a dozen seconds, its speed had increased to a somewhat shocking height.

In the extremely fast acceleration, the gravity inside the rocket can even be as high as more than ten times the earth's gravity. This can be seen from the somewhat distorted faces of the five astronauts lying flat in the storage compartment.

Under such a huge force of gravity, the astronauts could not even lift their arms. They could only lie quietly in the storage warehouse, using all their strength to fight against the huge gravity beyond ordinary people's imagination.

A large amount of what appeared to be fragments was detached from the rocket body and sprinkled onto the ground like rain. Zhao Huasheng knew that those debris were the insulation layer of the rocket, and they were actually some styrofoam.

When the rocket was still on the surface, in order to prevent the low temperature on the ground from affecting the material structure of the rocket body, the engineers pasted these things on the shell of the rocket body. When the rocket lifts off, the intense friction with the atmosphere will peel off the plastic foam, which forms the debris that we see at this moment.

The continuous sound of reports sounded in the control hall, listening to the "normal" and "normal" one by one, Zhao Huasheng's slightly nervous mood also calmed down.

More than 20 seconds after the rocket lifted off, the rocket's ascent direction changed somewhat, and instead of pointing vertically at the sky, it began to shift slightly to the east. Because the rotation of the earth is from west to east, you can use the rotation of the earth to increase your speed by shifting to the east.

More than a minute later, the four boosters mounted on the rocket body of the Hercules rocket left the rocket at the same time. They have done their part, so it's time to leave. At this moment, the speed of the rocket is not yet up to the first cosmic velocity of the Earth, so those detached boosters will fall towards the Earth at an extremely high speed, and then be destroyed in the violent friction with the atmosphere. If the burning is not sufficient, it is possible that some of the debris will fall to the ground.

After the booster separation, it was soon time for the first stage engine to separate. In order to ensure a strong propulsion, the Hercules rocket has a total of three stages of structure. Among these three structures, the first stage engine is the most important and the most difficult task. So it is also the largest in volume. The total length of the Hercules rocket is seventy meters, and the length of the first-stage engine reaches nearly thirty meters.

The Hercules rocket was still flying at high speed, but at this moment the flame in its tail suddenly disappeared. The next moment, the thirty-meter-long first-stage engine roared away from the rocket. It also fell to Earth like a detached booster, and then vanished in the violent friction with the atmosphere.

The first stage engine is detached, the second stage engine is ignited, and it will take on the heavy responsibility of continuing the rocket into orbit.

The ignition of the second-stage engine worked for less than a minute, and it also followed in the footsteps of the first-stage engine. It also fell off the rocket and into the atmosphere, and the three-stage engine began to ignite.

At this moment, the Hercules rocket is already at an altitude of more than 300 kilometers from the earth's surface, and has reached the altitude of the low earth's orbit. But this height is not enough, and it will continue to rise.

The air here was so thin that the fairing at the tip of the rocket was useless, and it was thrown away by the rocket and fell into the atmosphere.

The storage warehouse was completely exposed to the space environment. However, there is also a complete life-sustaining system in the material storage warehouse, so this will not affect the astronauts in the warehouse.

The three-stage engine also completed its task after working for more than half a minute. However, it will not be thrown away from the rocket, and at this time, it will be the material storage silo that will leave the rocket.

This step is the separation of the ship and the arrow. After the acceleration of the three-stage rocket engine, the material storage silo has enough speed that it can enter the orbit of the earth. Later, it will travel alone.

The launch has basically been successful at this point. In the control hall, the staff also recovered from their nervous mood. The real-time images of the astronauts are still being broadcast on the display screen. Zhao Huasheng saw that the astronauts had been freed from the huge gravity, and they were in a weightless environment at the moment, and Zhao Huasheng saw that they spontaneously floated in the cabin, as if they were in the water.

"Finally, there were no surprises." Zhao Huasheng breathed a sigh of relief and threw out the ominous premonition in his mind.

The storage bin also has its own propulsion engines, which will be used for orbit and speed adjustment of the capsule. Over the next two weeks, the storage bin will orbit the Earth at a rate of 87 minutes per circle, adjusting its attitude, angle, and speed during this time, and eventually docking with the Crimson Heart rocket.

Zhao Huasheng has been waiting here. There was a storage warehouse, where the sun rose and set, rose and set, a total of twice. The figure of the Crimson Heart's solar exploration ship finally came into view.

Both the supply silo and the Crimson Heart spacecraft are traveling at 9.3 kilometers per second at the moment. It's incredibly high, but because both maintain the same speed, they look like they're stationary with each other. In such a near-static situation, the two are slowly approaching each other. In the end, with the assistance of the ground staff, the docking interface was successfully docked, and the steel claw used to fix the docking of the two was also successfully extended, firmly connecting the two together.

The five astronauts then passed through the interface and went from the storage warehouse to the control room of the Crimson Heart spacecraft.

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