In an emergency video conference of the Ground Union Association.

Bill, the head of NASA, looked embarrassed.

The reason why he was embarrassed was mainly because of the matter of Space Exploration Company, and the other members of the Association had reminded NASA before, so that Bill and Musk could communicate well and not increase the scale of Starlink satellites.

However, Musk's backers are not Bill and NASA, but the Pentagon.

In order to ensure the overall monitoring of Homo sapiens and maintain a certain strategic force in space, the Pentagon still resisted the pressure to let SpaceX continue to launch Starlink satellites.

However, today's events have suddenly exposed the vulnerability of Starlink satellites.

Although the cost of large-scale mass production of Starlink satellites is very low, using ordinary Falcon launch vehicles, dozens of Starlink satellites can occur at a time.

The problem is that it's very easy to launch into low-Earth orbit, but it's very cumbersome to clean up.

With more than 3,000 Starlink satellites, plus other Homo sapiens and Earthlink, there are currently 5,632 satellites in operation in the entire low-Earth orbit.

That's just too crowded.

"The Starlink satellites were affected by the solar storm, and now they have caused a large cloud of space junk, which is scurrying around in low-Earth orbit, and the space station is almost scrapped."

President Kester? Kong De hurriedly reassured: "Zhang, don't be angry, something has happened, and now we should find a way to save the eight astronauts on the space station." ”

"I propose to adjust the near-term launch mission, postpone the lunar base program, and then free up two lunar spacecraft to bring eight astronauts back to Earth safely."

Bill hesitated: "This ...... Zhang, will you be in too much of a hurry? In fact, the space station can support it for a while, so there is no need to rush too much. ”

"Bill, I hope you can understand that if we don't act right now, I'm afraid it's going to be even more troublesome."

The others whispered.

Alexander, the head of Lucia's space department, thought about it and also said some of his opinions:

"I agree with Zhang's idea, now there are more and more space junk in low-earth orbit, and the more it drags on, the greater the danger of low-earth orbit, so let's arrange for the spacecraft to pick people up as soon as possible!"

Although Bill was reluctant, he finally chose to compromise.

If we don't save people now, it will not only chill the hearts of the astronauts, but also cause the morale of the free world to plummet, and it will not be conducive to a series of cooperation between the four major forces in the future.

In desperation, Bill agreed to adjust the launch mission and use the two lunar spacecraft for an emergency mission to bring back the space station astronauts.

After some discussion, it was decided to launch the first emergency rescue spacecraft in 5 days and the second emergency rescue spacecraft in 12 days.

With the decision made by the management of the Ground Union Association.

Astronauts such as Zhang Ming, Owen, Jin Shangwen, and Robert in the new International Space Station also breathed a sigh of relief.

But they weren't too happy.

After all, it will take time for the two emergency rescue spacecraft, during which time they must ensure the safety of the space station and no other accidents.

Generally when this kind of thing is said.

If nothing else, an accident is going to happen.

In order to ensure that nothing goes wrong, the Association has prepared four launch vehicles and four emergency rescue spacecraft, two of which will be used as rescue spacecraft and the remaining two as spare spacecraft.

In the blink of an eye.

It took 5 days to leave.

A Heavy Falcon launch vehicle is at the launch site in Florida and is ready.

As the commander pressed the launch button, the spout of the heavy Falcon launch vehicle spewed out blue flames, propelling the launch vehicle towards low-earth orbit.

Through the live broadcast, Bill, Alexander, Conde and others who watched the launch saw that the launch process was very smooth, and their faces also showed a hint of relief.

It's just that they rejoiced too soon.

Just after the Falcon Heavy dropped its booster and core stage near the Kármán line, the spacecraft began to do a circumnavigating flight.

】

In the beginning, everything went very smoothly.

However, when the spacecraft entered the orbital area at an altitude of 300 km, it began to run into trouble.

Satellite debris scurrying everywhere made the staff of the ground launch center feel like a big enemy, monitoring the satellite debris while adjusting the flight direction of the spacecraft.

It's just that people are unlucky to come together, and they may choke to death even if they drink water.

After three successive large-scale maneuvers and orbit changes, the rescue spacecraft was hit by a titanium alloy the size of a fingernail at an altitude of 377 kilometers.

Suddenly, the methane in the fuel tank quickly leaked.

Spaceships that lost a lot of fuel began to run low on power, and flight posture control became more and more difficult.

Then the rescue spacecraft was hit by space junk again, destroying part of the spacecraft modules again.

Inside the ground launch center of the ground union.

Everyone was silent at this point.

They are all professionals, and naturally know that the situation of the rescue spacecraft at this time is not optimistic, even if it successfully reaches the space station, there will not be enough fuel to return to Earth.

That is, this rescue ship was scrapped.

The helpless reality of being unfavorable cast a shadow on the hearts of everyone present.

More than two hours later.

The rescue spacecraft finally arrived at the new International Space Station.

Then the spacecraft crashed into the solar panels of the space station, which made Zhang Ming and other astronauts in the space station suddenly head two bigger, and at the same time they were powerless to complain.

didn't wait for the rescue spaceship, but waited for a scrap spaceship, which is really a mentality.

……

Ceylon Ocean.

Ceylon, Headquarters of Homo Sapiens' Space Division.

Inside the solar monitoring office.

The person in charge, Huang Xiancai, raised his head, only to find that Wu Sigong knocked on the door and walked in: "Old Wu, why did you come here in a hurry?" ”

"There's something urgent, the solar flare broke out again just now, and although the level is smaller than the last time, it's ......"

As soon as he finished speaking, an alarm sounded again in the office.

Huang Xiancai was stunned for a moment before he reacted: "What's the matter?" ”

Suddenly, his landline phone rang, and Huang Xiancai picked up the microphone: "Hey, this is the Sun Monitoring Office, why do you need help with things?" ”

"The solar flare erupted again just now, with an energy intensity of x2 level, and it is expected to reach the Earth in 35 minutes, affecting ......"

After listening to the report, Huang Xiancai frowned.

However, he did not dwell on it, but quickly notified it, so that the rest of the company could prepare as soon as possible to avoid the impact of the solar storm.

More than thirty minutes passed in a blink of an eye.

The solar storm arrived as scheduled, once again sweeping the Earth-to-Earth satellites in low Earth orbit.

The space station, which was already in a semi-crippled state, became even more vulnerable under the impact of solar storms.

Wu Kang, who was still stationed at the space station, was almost numb in the face of this solar storm.

This time, the solar storm destroyed 12 Starlink satellites, further expanding the space junk in low-Earth orbit and making the danger of entering and exiting low-Earth orbit skyrocketing.

For example, this time the launch of the rescue spacecraft caused the rescue spacecraft to be scrapped directly due to the existence of dense space junk.

But Zhang Ming and the others were extremely anxious at this time.

Because the gas and liquid inside the space station are decreasing, if they can't get supplies in the next half a month, or return directly to Earth, then they will be in big trouble.

However, there is now too much space junk in the entire low-earth orbit, which has seriously affected the entry and exit of spacecraft in and out of the atmosphere.