"Do you know, little doll, after the 2.15 accident, Dongge turned white overnight."

This kind of thing, Fang Yuan must be impossible to know.

He didn't even feel the darkest moment that Liang Tian said.

Because it's so far away.

But the heartfelt emotion of a centenarian is still very easy to infect people.

The accident occurred at three o'clock in the morning on February 15, and Liang Tian borrowed a car overnight, and went directly to the satellite launch center after a year.

This is the place where he used to drive a special car, carrying the first pride of his life.

It may be an exaggeration to say that you are an astronaut for one day and an astronaut for life.

But it is no exaggeration to say that the tragic failure of the [International Communications 708 Satellite] has made astronaut families like Liang Tian's parents inevitably suffer from people's cold eyes.

It can be regarded as the mark of an era.

Even if the performance is not obvious, no one will want to go to the rooftop of Liang Tian's house to watch the live broadcast of the launch together.

The working-class families of the late nineties are no longer iron rice bowls.

People who used to live in the same workers' new village also began to take different paths.

Some are in business, some are stalls, and some are ......

Either way, life goes on.

At this time, Liang Tian was already a graduate student of the Eighth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology in Shanghai.

It can be regarded as a reassuring pill for Qiqi's laid-off parents.

Liang Tian's parents are most grateful to Ji Zhidong.

If there is no Ji Zhidong, Liang Tian may be a gangster in society at this time.

Standing on the growth trajectory of Liang Tian's parents, they never thought that during the same period, there were Wenzhou people who could run out of a business empire by running transportation. [Note 1]

Even if Liang Tian didn't rebel at that time and entered the factory step by step, he would inevitably be laid off at this time.

In the middle of the night, Liang Tian said that he was going to find someone to borrow a car to go to the launch site to find Dongge, but his parents didn't even stop him.

There is no persuasion, [It's the New Year soon, and I'll talk about it after the New Year].

To be a man is to know how to be grateful, which Liang Tian's parents have taught him since he was a child.

On the day of the 2.15 accident, Liang Tian drove to the satellite launch center and watched Ji Zhidong turn white overnight.

On the first day in Xichang, Liang Tian did not enter the launch site.

He was seen in front of the Collaboration Building, which had been destroyed by the blast wave.

At that time, Ji Zhidong only had one sentence that was more like talking to himself: [How could someone not withdraw, how could someone not withdraw, how could someone not withdraw......]

Satellite launch centers have explicit provisions for evacuation [two hours before launch].

The first flight of [Changsanyi] is no exception.

In Maya Village, the closest to the launch base, hundreds of villagers completed their evacuation early in accordance with regulations.

In this case, the death toll is certainly not as high as the rumors, and it is unlikely that there will be many villagers as many rumors say.

The villagers were all transferred ahead of schedule, but a small number of scientific researchers at the base did not implement the regulations on entering the underground bunker before launching.

Perhaps, it is because there has never been such an accident, which makes some personnel feel that it is safe to stay near the collaboration building and the hotel.

Ji Zhidong felt guilty for this, and as the ground commander of the launch mission, he should have paid better attention to every little detail inside and out.

But he put all his focus on the launch base.

He hopes too much that the first flight of [Changsanyi] can be as successful as [Changsanjia].

Under the historical conditions at that time, if the first flight was successful, it would be a [great] thing, and if it failed, it would be a [great] thing.

However, no matter how much Ji Zhidong thought about it, he never thought that it would be [unbelievable] to this extent.

Directly recorded in the history of the world's space disasters.

Ji Zhidong couldn't accept this failure, let alone accept it, and yesterday he was still together and said that "after playing this star, you can go home for the New Year", the colleague passed away like this.

There is also a senior engineer who designed the flight trajectory for [Chang Sanyi]......

Liang Tian accompanied Ji Zhidong to stand for a long time in front of the collaboration building that had been bombed into ruins.

Liang Tian didn't speak, and he didn't even persuade him.

The reason why he went over as soon as possible was not because he wanted to say or do anything.

It's more because Ji Zhidong has always said that he is a lucky star.

He just wanted to accompany him so silently.

He was afraid that this person who took him on the road to aerospace would fall like this.

Liang Tian still underestimated his leader, and even more underestimated the resilience of astronauts.

After a night of whitening, Ji Zhidong went back to work directly to find the cause of the 2.15 accident.

After an in-depth investigation, a multi-party expert and independent investigative team came to the conclusion that the 2.15 accident was caused by a very, very small failure of a gold-aluminum weld.

Because this point was not welded well, it hindered the output of the servo loop current of the follower frame, resulting in the failure of the inertial platform that controls the entire rocket.

The problem with the voltage output module caused the rocket to correct the attitude according to the wrong signal.

A solder joint and a big crash dealt a devastating blow to the entire Chinese aerospace industry.

After the 2.15 accident, Ji Zhidong's health deteriorated.

Extreme self-blame, coupled with the original old injury, is supported by a momentum that does not admit defeat.

Ji Zhidong did not serve as the ground commander of the launch mission again, and during the six months of investigating the February 15 accident, he proposed a total of 44 items with a total of 256 strict and even harsh rectification measures.

Aerospace is a huge and delicate industry, and it is necessary to ensure that every detail within the scope of manpower is foolproof.

These 256 corrective measures cover everything from the chief engineer of the rocket design to the warehouse keeper.

As big as the entire rocket, as small as a wire, a screw, all of them are clearly responsible for the people.

Scientific experiments are allowed to fail.

This is especially true for space exploration.

But allowing failure is not the same as allowing repeat mistakes.

If you pay the price for failure, you have to learn from this price how to avoid another failure.

Ji Zhidong's attitude towards mistakes also deeply affected Liang Tian.

After 452 days, at 0:17 on May 12, 1997, the Long March series rockets, which have become synonymous with failure, once again stood at the Xichang Satellite Launch Base.

At this time, there must be no foreign company that is willing to give Chinese astronauts a chance, and what they are shooting is a domestic satellite.

The rocket that went out was the Long March 3A, a rocket that was successful in its debut.

It carries China's new generation of communication satellite, Dongfanghong 3.

This is the second time that [Chang Sanjia] and [Dongfanghong No. 3] have partnered.

The first partnership took place two and a half years ago, on November 30, 1994, and the launch of the rocket went smoothly and without any problems at all.

The first [Dongfanghong No. 3] had a fuel leakage failure, and three orbit changes were implemented, and while successfully reaching the geosynchronous orbit, it also ran out of fuel and failed to succeed in fixed-point design.

At 0:41 on May 12, 1997, after a short and long 24-minute wait, [Changsanjia] successfully sent the second [Dongfanghong No. 3] into the scheduled orbit.

When the news of the satellite's successful entry into the predetermined orbit came, the astronauts spontaneously stood up, silently weeping and applauding vigorously.

In the past year or so, there have been too many difficulties.

The scientific research and staff of the base breathed a sigh of relief.

At this time, Ji Zhidong notified everyone to go to the conference hall on the second floor for a meeting.

Just when everyone was celebrating each other and preparing to accept the commendation, Ji Zhidong turned the [Commendation Conference] into a [Criticism Conference].

He directly began to criticize by name:

"The first thing to deal with is not because of technical problems, but because of people who do not have a sense of responsibility for their work."

……

"Do you think you deserve to be called an astronaut? How did you manage to stamp the server that sent the leak for maintenance, stamped it, and sent it back intact? ”

……

"Do you really think that shouting slogans will bring you together?"

……

"Do you know that every detail needs to be accurate to the slightest?"

……

"I tell you, you are by no means a technical mistake, but a sloppy attitude!"

……

Many of the people who were named were stunned.

How difficult was the success of [Dongfanghong No. 3] to come by?

Walk from failure and move forward with weight.

Why does victory bring not praise but criticism?

Ji Zhidong wants everyone to remember one thing - success is normal, and China's aerospace can no longer withstand the pain of 2.15.

The success of the duo of [Changsanjia] and [Dongfanghong No. 3] cannot dispel the doubts of the international market about the [Changsanyi] whose debut has become a disaster.

Since the February 15 accident, international insurance companies have been frightened by China's international commercial launches.

Many people who pay attention to China's international commercial aerospace will only remember the 2.15 [International Communications 708 Satellite] accident and the subsequent [Zhongxing-7] launch failure on August 18.

But in fact, from the February 15 accident to the August 18 failure, the Xichang Satellite Launch Center still succeeded in sending the [Asia-Pacific 1A], which had signed a contract a long time ago, into space.

The satellite was originally scheduled to be launched in March 1996, but due to the 2.15 accident, it was postponed to July 3.

At this time, there must still be a lot of problems that have not been solved.

Of course, I wanted to push it again, but the final expensive delivery time of the contract signing was approaching.

If you don't send it, you will face huge compensation.

International commercial insurance companies were frightened by the 2.15 incident.

The rockets are already standing on the launch tower, and they are about to ignite, and there is still no insurance company in the world that has promised to underwrite it.

This is an international commercial launch, and you can't go to the sky without insurance.

The contract says in black and white that there must be insurance.

Desperate astronauts, thought of the country.

Or the motherland mother will feel sorry for her child.

After all, it was bought by a Hong Kong company, and it is still more or less a pro, and it does not have to be an international commercial insurance company.

[Asia-Pacific-1A] quietly succeeded, and before the astronauts had time to rejoice, only a month and a half later, the launch of [Zhongxing-7] failed, and China Insurance Property Insurance paid $25.9 million in compensation for it.

The fact that no international commercial insurance company is willing to provide insurance for China's international commercial launch has been exacerbated by the failure of the Zhongxing-7 launch.

The second time Changsanyi appeared on the stage of history was on August 20, 1997.

The launch was a communications satellite [Mabuhai 1] manufactured by Laura.

This is a new contract.

For this launch, Ji Zhidong left the front line of the launch and launched a difficult international lobby, hoping that international companies would once again believe in China's aerospace technology.

The most difficult part of this is still to convince the international commercial insurance companies that have been frightened.

At that time, there was only ruthlessness, and no matter how harsh the terms were, they should be accepted.

After much lobbying, an insurance company was finally willing to underwrite it – offering a price they were worth the risk.

This kind of contract is not much different from the contract we signed when we first launched [Asia One], which only had obligations and no powers.

China's international commercial aerospace, which was finally developed, returned to the pre-liberation period overnight.

The insurance contract is harsh, but it makes sense.

Just imagine, if a car driver makes several claims in a row, the rate of car insurance will also soar.

There is nothing unjustifiable for international insurance companies to raise the rates for China's commercial space launches, which have repeatedly failed.

Only by re-receiving orders and re-entering the launch can we have another place in the international commercial space market.

A few more successes, and the rate will definitely come down.

This is the same reason that the accident driver has not made a new claim for several years in a row.

On August 20, 1997, [Changsanyi] stood on the launch tower of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center for the second time.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, ignition went smoothly.

The rocket lifted off normally.

Mabuhai 1 is in orbit normally.

Two months later, on October 17, 1997, [Changsanyi] stood on the launch tower of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center for the third time.

This time, the satellite lifted by [Changsanyi] was still carried by Laura's company - [Asia-Pacific 2R].

Ignition went smoothly.

The rocket lifted off normally.

[Asia-Pacific 2R] completes the orbit entry with extremely high precision.

Insurance rates have come down.

The share of international commercial launches lost by Chinese astronauts has also come back exponentially.

The era of carrying belonging to [Changsanyi] has arrived.

Under Ji Zhidong's 256 rectification measures, [Chang Sanyi], which was defeated in the first show, has not been defeated in the next 20 years.

On June 19, 2017, due to the abnormal operation of the third stage of the rocket, [Changsanyi] failed to send [Zhongxing 9A] into the scheduled orbit.

This launch was also livestreamed.

Netizens in the new era have left messages:

[Yikes! I was able to see a live launch failure! 】

[This is too real and transparent!] Acclaim! 】

[It's okay! Sum up the lessons and make persistent efforts. 】

[It's rare to fail once, come on in the future!] 】

Ji Zhidong looked at these messages, thinking of the "Don't Sell Chickens" and "Don't Want to Sleep Softly" back then, and couldn't calm down for a long time.

Different times have different meanings for the same thing.