In the steppes near the Ulaanhasan airport, scattered cars strolling around, a group of well-equipped people are using "cannon" cameras to take images of the H1 separation test.

A military vehicle stopped not far away, silently watching this side.

These people are not spies, but aerospace enthusiasts who have heard the wind and rushed to the scene.

Since the H1 was first tested here by Figure 154, enthusiasts have begun to gather to take pictures.

Of course, the information they can take is also limited, just the shape and aerodynamics of NACA can be analyzed just by looking at the official website photos, and if you want to know more about it, you can only enter the airport.

But don't forget that the internal code name of the Ulan Hasan Repair Plant (Airport) is 96533, but it is a serious military base, and the security work is naturally extremely strict.

Xinyuan is happy to leak some irrelevant photos, and he didn't let people rush away, so he just took pictures if he liked.

In the air, Deng Lei and Captain Li drove the H1 and smoothly entered the landing route.

Due to the wing-body fusion and central lift body design, the H1 has no obvious wing division, and the whole aircraft can generate lift from any position, which looks like a flying machine in the animation, and the chubby body with small wingtips makes up all of it.

The aviation community used to jokingly refer to the central lifting body as the "flying board brick", and this is true both in appearance and in practice.

Although this can greatly save space and weight, the disadvantage is poor handling, the risk of stalling out of control is high, and the operating specifications only allow conservative driving.

Of course, as a space shuttle H1 stall also has insurance, as long as the tail of the liquid oxygen liquid hydrogen engine starts, the strong thrust directly makes the thrust-to-weight ratio of the whole machine more than 1.2, although the fuel is less and the start-up time is limited, but it is enough to change out.

Deng Lei began to reduce the altitude, and with the help of the intelligent driving system, corrected the yaw caused by the wind direction, Li Wei pulled the switch outward, and put down the small front three-point landing gear.

The H1 touches the ground at a certain elevation angle, and the tires of the rear landing gear come into contact with the runway to produce white smoke, and then the nose is depressed, and the hydraulic brake pump of the wheels increases the pressure, and it slowly stops after taxiing to the end of the runway.

Not far away, in the room that was temporarily used as a command center, Academician She saw that the engineers from Xinyuan stood up one after another, and high-fived each other without saying a word.

The manned flight test in the atmosphere, codenamed "H1 Yao-1", was successfully completed, and the space shuttle was in normal condition throughout the whole process, without any deviations.

On the runway, the members of the astronaut brigade rushed to the space shuttle with the ground crew, unlocked the side - the cabin door from the outside, and with the sound of the air pressure difference, they saw the scene inside.

Deng Lei, who was always serious, opened his mask and turned his head, and made a "yes" gesture to them; Li Wei's mask was also half-opened, and he lay on his back on the seat with his eyes closed, his hands gently resting on the armrests set up next to the rudder.

He was enjoying the feeling when the shuttle landed.

For a long time, Li Wei opened his eyes with a sigh, saw several pairs of smart eyes, and unfastened the X-shaped seat belt with a sigh:

"I'm going to ask the engineers of Xinyuan if they can bring the team to train together when they fly in the future." After speaking, seeing that the team members still didn't react, he said the second half of the sentence:

"The opportunity to go to heaven is rare, and I will report to my superiors...... If feasible, Xinyuan can also participate in our manned space project. ”

"Wow!"

The team members finally burst into cheers, lifted Li Wei in a spacesuit out of the space shuttle, and ran to the hangar with a pile of people, while the rest of the people continued to gather around the H1, gently caressing the black heat insulation coating at the bottom of the H1.

Although she was flying in the atmosphere, she could still feel the residual heat on the surface of the airframe, and to the astronauts she was as warm as a girl's skin.

Academician She saw the scene on the runway and sighed in his heart.

It has been 23 years since manned space flight began, and only 10 astronauts have been sent up, is it really a little less?

However, it is useless to go up without supporting space station facilities, and you must wait for the Long March 5 to have the capacity to build a large space station...... No, the sample arrow of Xinyuan 2 is already in Qiongzhou.

On May 11, the first Falcon 9 of May was launched and went directly to the sea for recovery.

Of course...... The Falcon 9 fell directly 20 meters from the tugboat, but the wreckage was completely harvested.

It was on this day that Xinyuan officially announced the launch time of Xinyuan-2 Yao-1: May 26.

It was transported to Qiongzhou on May 17, launched at the No. 1 launch station on May 26, and recovered at the No. 1 recovery station at the Xinyuan Space Launch Site.

The recycling method is no longer the recycling of the support legs, Xinyuan 2 is too tall and heavy, the support legs are difficult to bear and the center of gravity is too high.

The recovery method this time is: the first-stage rocket control hovers 10 to 20 meters from the tower of the recovery station, flattens the grid rudder, and the tower stretches out two long steel structures, which are closed like chopsticks, so that the first-stage rocket is suspended on the tower with the help of the extended grating rudder, and is suspended about 15 meters from the ground.

Compared with the recovery of support legs, the difficulty of this method has increased by an order of magnitude, but it is obvious that the system research institute is also prepared and determined that the task progress becomes "completed" before it is applied.

That's the beauty of hanging.

Everyone thinks that such a recycling method is fantastical and incredible, but Lao Ma touched his chin instead: good idea, high-tech enough, copy.

At the same time, Lin Ju confirmed the naming of the first H1 space shuttle at the company.

Unlike rockets, the space shuttle has its own unique meaning, and it is important to come up with a suitable name.

First of all, the staff of the whole factory solicited opinions, each person can think of a name and then send it to the factory mailbox, and the time limit for the name activity is three days.

Lin Ju looked through the email every day, but he didn't find the answer he wanted until the end of the three days.

"Boss, why don't we draw 20 votes?"

Lin Ju nodded unconsciously, but the furrowed eyebrows showed that he was actually not satisfied.

Suddenly, a name came to mind:

"Progress, let's call it 'Progress'."

Guo Shen was stunned, this name crashed again, but what about love.

Although this is suspected of wasting the mood of the whole factory's employees, who called Lin Ju a big dictatorship? The boss has said so, progress is progress, go further.

As a result, the H1 at the Ulan Hashan base was officially renamed "Progress", and the livery will be changed when it returns to the factory for maintenance before the manned launch.

At the Xinyuan factory, the body of the second H1 was also manufactured, and she was named "Unity" in advance.

In fact, in order to ensure absolute safety, the combination of Tuanjie and a Xinyuan-2 will be on standby at the Qiongzhou launch site when Progress is launched, and once Progress has an accident and cannot return, Tuanjie will be launched within 12 hours to rescue.

Again, although the system engineers and the technology of the system are very reliable, when it comes to human life, the necessary procedures still have to be followed.