This is a "commercial Hercules 3" launch vehicle, with a diameter of 982 meters and a length of nearly 50 meters, almost equivalent to the height of an 18-story building, like a big-headed doll sandwiched between two large bundled solid rockets.

The inside of the arrow body can easily be stuffed into an adult African bull elephant, and the maximum carrying capacity can reach 13 tons, which is not inferior to its siblings, and the other versions used for military purposes are also among the best in the Hercules series.

Commercial launches at the Cape Naviral launch site in Florida, on the east coast of the United States, at the LC-39A launch area of the Kennedy Space Launch Center, cost at least $1.7 billion, including launch vehicles.

And that's not even counting the creation of the purpose-built satellite, for which Helena and Daru paid nearly $500 million to fulfill their promise to the intelligent core system "Adam".

Despite the fact that the invasion is an invasion, the Ming Council of the Third Age and the advance party still value the credibility of their promises.

Abandoning the supercomputer center on the outskirts of Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, which was originally used as a hiding place, the "Adam" intelligent core system carried the last of its family to enter the third age dimensional membrane world through three large star gates in the Victoria Desert in the interior of Oceania.

The advance party remaining in the present-day world quickly secured the launch for Adam through the vassal members of the Holy Presence.

The commercial Hercules 3 launch vehicle is not a cabbage on the supermarket shelf, and if the normal process is followed, it will have to wait until a year later at the earliest to get the launch vehicle that meets the requirements and schedule the launch.

The weather at the launch site near the Atlantic Ocean was good, and the slight sea breeze brought a cool feeling, and the launch site, which was still noisy just now, became quiet as the crew evacuated in batches according to the work process, and only the sound of the sea breeze, waves and seabirds became the main tone of the empty launch site.

"There is still half an hour left before the countdown to the launch. The security team began to confirm the final clearance. ”

"Marlene's group begins the final confirmation! The inspection is completed within 5 minutes, and the final evacuation takes place after 10 minutes. ”

As usual, many tourists and space enthusiasts often gather outside the safe zone to watch the launch, and the view from the launch site is excellent, even without a telescope, you can see the smoke and flames rising from a distance, and watch the entire launch process from beginning to end.

Most of the space center's launches do not turn away civilians to watch, even if they launch space equipment for military purposes.

The quarantine area was only used to prevent the leakage of highly toxic propellant from harming those who strayed in, and there were no armed forces outside the launch site, except for a small number of plainclothes agents and police to maintain order. A solemn scene of tight sealing.

In fact, this is exactly the free advertisement to promote American aerospace technology, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is not only for the military, the huge profits of commercial services are based on the general trend of the military leading the people, and the people supporting the army.

Tourists in groups outside the quarantine area looked out at the launch site in the distance, many with binoculars in hand. The huge commercial Hercules 3 launch vehicle is clearly visible in sight, even a rivet is clearly visible.

The tweeter in the launch site area reports the progress of the launch according to the standard process, and the sound of the countdown is clearly audible, and the effect far exceeds the effect of watching the live broadcast in front of the TV at home.

This is the real "Tower of Babylon". The starting point of humanity's journey beyond the sky, anyone can feel a vast and mysterious aura here.

There was a flash of fire under the launch pad, and gray-white smoke rose upward, quickly enveloping the launch vehicle and the launch pad.

Tourists outside the quarantine area only heard the belated loud roar of rocket engines after seeing the scene. It was as if even the air was shaking in the midst of this continuous roar.

The white launch vehicle, which broke free from the development frame, burst out of the smoke cloud in the next second, spewed orange flames from its tail, and quickly approached the azure blue.

Moments later, the commercial Hercules 3 launch vehicle successfully took advantage of the additional speed of the Earth's rotation. Disappeared into the eastern Atlantic Ocean and disappeared into the endless starry sky.

With the last stage of the propulsion system detached. The coarse shroud carrying the launch cargo successfully reached an altitude of more than 200 kilometers above the ground, and continued to climb to a higher orbit relying on the power system of the shroud.

"The shroud was successfully detached and now begins to accelerate around the Earth at 65 kilometers per second, which is a successful launch, entering the first cosmic velocity after 12 hours, and entering the target orbit at a distance of 484 kilometers above the earth after 144 hours, continue to keep an eye on it."

As the bottom engine spews a faint blue light, the satellite, which is the size of a bus, continues to climb to greater heights as it orbits the Earth with the residual momentum accumulated by the launch vehicle.

Although this altitude is still in the ionosphere of the atmosphere, not yet the outermost fugitive layer, the effect of gravity here is far less than on the ground, with more than 100 tons of chemical propulsion fuel bursting kinetic energy in just a few minutes, it already has the resources to completely get rid of gravity.

In the rest of the journey, the propulsion slowly released by the small rocket engine and the plasma engine is enough to propel this purpose-built satellite, which combines the cutting-edge technology of the two-dimensional membrane, to climb to greater heights.

As planned, the Adam intelligent core system could maintain a backup system in absolutely safe places outside the atmosphere, and could also serve as a bridgehead to return to the surface world.

"Hmm! The familiar taste is 'Adam'! Wasn't it uprooted? How did it end up here? Check it out."

An artificial satellite cruising at an altitude of 500 kilometers above the earth suddenly deviated from its original orbit and spewed out several faint blue flames as thick as small arms, slowly leaning towards the direction of the earth.

A few metal fragments passing near the satellite at high speed suddenly decelerate for no reason, and if we specifically track their orbits, we can find that the next cycle of these fragments will overlap with the satellite that continues to descend to orbital altitude.

Several circles spread out for kilometers, and the electrostatic field like concentric elliptical rings is surrounding the satellite, moving with it.

Anything that contains metal in the vicinity. No matter how big or small, it will be intercepted and slowed down by Coulomb's law of electrostatic electric field, and the repulsion and attraction are all changing in precise control, slowly absorbing the speed difference and distance, slowly attracting the past, and finally mysteriously disappearing on the surface of the satellite, as if it had never appeared.

Humans and space scientists on the earth did not realize that the earth's low earth orbit was suddenly much cleaner, and some space junk that still had to continue to fly around the earth for a long time had mysteriously disappeared, just like a living Lei Feng who did good deeds and left no name was silently cleaning the low earth orbit.

"Where?!" How did Night Stalker 3' get out of its original orbit! I can only barely confirm the location of Night Stalker 3 through other satellites, Kono-kun! Are you making adjustments? ”

Inside the satellite control center of Tanegashima Space Center. Shigeaki Yamashita, who was on duty to monitor the national satellite, suddenly saw a military spy satellite suddenly detached from its original orbit and approached the direction of the earth.

This is not good news, and the sudden and inexplicable proximity to Earth means that the possibility of the satellite crashing out of control is increasing, once it is unable to maintain the first cosmic velocity. will involuntarily fall into the atmosphere.

With the exception of the Space Shuttle or the Space Return Capsule, all other artificial objects in outer space are only worthy of "crashing" after losing speed.

"No, no, no, I'm not manipulating it, 'Night Stalker 3' has been glitching since its last disappearance, and it was only two months ago that the link was barely restored, maybe the glitch has recurred."

Shuyan Kono, a satellite communications and control expert not far away, was refreshed when he heard this. Immediately leaned in front of his computer monitor, lifted his glasses, and quickly tapped the keyboard to confirm that the satellite had suddenly gone out of control. Start reaching out to them.

This spy satellite lost control seven months ago, as for the reason

Well, it's really hard to say, and it's mostly the fault of some hegemonic country. But he couldn't beat the other party, and he didn't even have the courage to protest. I can only knock out my teeth and swallow blood, endure it!

Tanegashima's satellite control center had been trying to regain control of the lost satellite, but the ground technical experts had been trying for months without a response, and it was only two months ago that some of the signals were suddenly miraculously restored, barely able to respond to basic signals and some operational commands.

“unable-to-”

Looking at the information displayed on the screen, Kono Shuyan pushed the keyboard, shrugged his shoulders helplessly, and said discouragedly: "There is no way, I lost contact again, it seems that it is really an old fault." ”

"Well, it's a shame to tell other countries to be careful of this runaway satellite and put it on the list of highly dangerous space junk, it's worth $500 million."

Yamashita sighed long.

In order to develop aerospace science and technology, Japan often has to spend several times more effort than other countries to barely take a small step, and this military spy satellite has lost control not long after it was put into service, which is really regrettable and helpless.

"Wait a minute, the Americans have just launched a commercial satellite, which, according to calculations, will overlap with the orbit of the 'Night Owl 3' in 4 hours, which will mean"

Shuyan Kono, a satellite communications and control expert who had just finished calling to report the situation to his superiors, was about to write an e-mail to inform his colleagues when he suddenly noticed a new identification signal in low-earth orbit.

He involuntarily created a new model of the orbit, and after a little calculation, the result was a big surprise.

"Collision!"

Yamashita Shigeaki and Kono Shuyan suddenly stood up in unison and glanced at each other.

"You're not doing the math? Kono-kun! ”

Yamashita Shigeaki first prayed for the friendship of the hapless commercial company, but Amaterasu was most likely not in the service area.

"Ugh! There should be no mistake, according to the vector model, the probability of a collision is up to 90%, and the error in the time of the impact does not exceed two hours. ”

Kono Shuyan lowered his head and continued to tap on the keyboard, calculating nervously for a while, reconfirming the judgment he had calculated just now.

"Alright, report the results to NASA!"

Yamashita Shigeaki could only regret it and reluctantly accepted the result.

It was not the day that suffered anyway, and the impact was purely accidental. Tanegashima's satellite control center was also helpless, and the commercial company that launched the satellite through the Kennedy Space Launch Center in the United States could only consider itself unlucky.

The news from Japan arrived at the Kennedy Space Launch Center in the United States as soon as possible, and at the same time alarmed NASA.

This was a commercial launch of real money, and the US space department was naturally responsible for it, and the control center immediately became busy monitoring the runaway military spy satellite "Night Stalker 3."

"The countdown to the collision, 3 hours and 15 minutes, 'Night Stalker 3' began to accelerate and began to correct the collision time. There will be a collision after 1 hour 09 minutes, so now start remote control! ”

"The trajectory is being adjusted, the fuel is 99% left, and it deviates by 3 degrees! Uh, the trajectories overlap again! This. What's going on here? ”

"It's all the fault of the Japanese, that broken thing shouldn't be called a 'night owl', it should be called a 'kamikaze' death squad, what kind of satellite is it, it's called missile, forget it, continue to evade! Accelerate, reaching the first cosmic velocity as soon as possible. As long as you exceed the orbit of Night Stalker 3, you can successfully avoid it. ”

"Well, let's get out of the way of it and inform the Hudall Television and Telephone Company that the Mesopotamia satellite that has just been launched is in a little trouble. Reassure them that we'll get it done soon, tell the satellite manufacturer, and let them help. If the launch fails, they will wait for bankruptcy. ”

After all, NASA and the Kennedy Space Launch Center don't just collect money and do nothing. After charging a high fee, they also have to ensure communications and assistance and control services, and only when the satellite is fully in the designated orbit will most of the work of the space center be officially completed.

The data being tracked by the Kennedy Space Launch Center and Tanegashima Space Center also appears in computer processing systems inside two huge man-made objects in outer space.

The Mesopotamia, a luxury bus-like satellite, has unfurled two pairs of dark blue solar panels, and it is meticulously executing ground attitude adjustment signals to avoid an impending collision.

However, to everyone's surprise, the runaway Japanese spy satellite "Night Owl 3" seems to have recognized this commercial satellite that has just entered outer space, and no matter how it evades it, it is difficult to get rid of the reality that the distance between the two sides is getting closer.

The huge commercial satellite began to change shape, with a slender rectangular bar about two meters long extending from its interior aimed in one direction of the dark starry sky.

"Lock on to the target, name 'Night Owl 3', orbital altitude distance 47 km, speed difference 07 km per second, collision expected in 45 minutes, threat level 7 confirmed, attack system activated, particle beam cannon begins to calibrate Group A processor failure, system efficiency reduced by 19%, warning, hardware system failure occurs, Group B processor fails, Group C processor begins hardware reboot, activation of the second standby system The main system is completely faulty and cannot boot the system, the second standby system fails, the third standby system fails, and the shutdown"

The Mesopotamia satellite, located in orbit at an altitude of 351 kilometers above the earth, has undergone a series of internal system changes that are unknown to the outside world, and the ground control center has driven the response.

The signal lights that were still flickering on the surface suddenly went out, and the satellite, which was still in a certain state of operation, completely died, like a lifeless coffin.

"We've lost contact with the Mesopotamia satellite and we're drifting, hell, what's going on? Could it be a solar storm? ”

"I'm sorry, Director Mitheus, but there has been no recent announcement of a solar storm on Earth."

"Is it contagious to get out of control? Communications group, fix the connection now, increase the antenna output power, turn on the backup communication channel, hell, Larry, help me take notes, get ready to report, I'm going to report to Mr. Chamberlain. ”

There was a rush of hustle and bustle in the control center at the Kennedy Space Center.

Although the satellite may encounter all kinds of accidents after it is sent into space, today's incident has no warning and exudes an evil atmosphere.

"That commercial satellite is out of control too?"

The satellite control center duty team of the Hitanegashima Space Center, Shigeaki Yamashita and his colleagues looked at each other, obviously a little unbelievable, the satellite that had just been launched could not escape the fate of being a backing, and it was really unlucky to lose control at this juncture.

Against the background of the blue and bright earth, a cylindrical satellite that is flashing with light points is slowly approaching, and the lights are completely extinguished, as if the satellite has been scrapped, and the flight speed of the two sides has become closer and closer, and even close to relative stationary.

It is hard to imagine that this satellite, which has not been out of flame for a long time, is actually a brand-new satellite "Mesopotamia" that has just been launched into space and will officially enter the designated orbit a week later.

Depending on the manufacturer's design life, it can work uninterrupted for at least 30 years.

The surface of the cylindrical satellite, approached with ill intentions, is undergoing drastic changes, and a large number of complex components are emerging, activating and moving.

Six cracks suddenly opened on the surface of the cylinder, opening more and more, slowly blooming like a man-eating flower.

"Food Harvest"

The moment the two satellites were about to make contact, the six-petaled component suddenly wrapped the flame-out satellite.

A large number of structures of various shapes are flooded on