Without a helicopter tracking all the way, and without a rescue team speeding across the grassland in an off-road vehicle, the Progress simply landed on the runway.

But as soon as she touched the ground and began to slide, seven or eight cars had already started to follow, and when the Progress stopped, they immediately surrounded her.

The ground crew with the off-white work cap first used the key to open the small window of the side hatch, and then grabbed the handle inside and pulled it down hard.

The side hatch opens smoothly under the action of the motor, first pushes out a little distance, and then the pressurized air flow inside leaks out through the gap before sliding open.

They rushed inside, not seeing any danger from the emergency drill, just three astronauts who had opened their masks and breathed in the fresh air coming in through the hatch.

Deng Lei's seat belt was unfastened, but he refused to be supported, stood up with his hands on the chair, and carefully supported the shoulders of the people around him and walked out.

In the heavily restricted media cameras outside, the first astronaut was seen holding on to the hatch after landing and cautiously stepping off the shuttle.

Deng Lei's ears were surrounded by various sounds, but it didn't matter, he now took a bowl of steaming egg noodles, inhaled the tempting aroma, and took a hard sip.

In the photo taken by the reporter, the astronaut in a spacesuit, who looks like a giant bear, holds noodles in his hand and gulps into the open mask.

……

Four hours after Progress landed safely, the Argentine Congress held a hearing.

Claire, the current director of NACA, is holding a photo of Deng Lei, who is bigger than his head, eating noodles, and tapping her finger on the Progress.

"We're behind, we're behind! NACA has never faced such a serious challenge, and it is as if Gagarin had gained the advantage in the sky before us, and if he does not catch up with Aramco, he will always be behind in space! ”

Director Claire screamed hoarsely, as if the light of democracy had begun to dim and that her evil eastern counterparts were about to rule space.

NACA came to Congress for one thing: to relaunch the Space Shuttle program and inject an additional $30 billion into Artemis' return to the moon.

Claire discussed the importance of the Space Shuttle in terms of ISS (International Space Station) maintenance, large spacecraft delivery, and fast manned round-trips.

But instead of pulling the retired Space Shuttle Atlantis back into flight, he wants a new project:

"It's not half a century ago, and so much of the technology out there is so much more mature than it was back then, and NACA can restart a new Space Shuttle research program with one-fifth of the budget it used to have, and at one-tenth the cost of the past!"

Some of the congressional gentlemen were indifferent, and some were breathless as if they were grabbed by the collar, but Claire's performance was still effective.

Then he took out the "100:1 Teen Adult Toy Xinyuan 2 CBC Rocket Model Moon Landing Treber" model, and took the CBC configuration in Xinyuan PPT, and the Xinyuan 2 A of the two core first-stage rockets in parallel was held in his hand, and compared it with Saturn 5:

"X2 can launch two every month, so X2A can launch three every two months! It only takes more than two months for them to send a lunar spacecraft to the moon, and the SLS rocket can only launch one a year, which is an unbearable backwardness!

Look, gentlemen, this is the result of our budget cuts for so many years! A private company has surpassed NACA, which once put people on the moon! ”

"Mr. Claire, it's not that we don't know anything about astronautics, and landing on the moon requires a lot of preparation, like spacecraft and landing modules, which they don't have."

In the face of the parliamentarian's rebuttal, Claire's face remained unchanged:

"China has already sent people into space, it only takes more than a year to develop, they are far more powerful than the Alliance, and NACA should be on the moon in 2018 instead of 2020......"

Claire battled her tongue and fought against the councillors for a whole day, and the results of the battle were gratifying.

Although NASA and the military have always liked to exaggerate their opponents to fight for the budget, Xinyuan-2 has flown up, and the congressional lords can still see it, and it is really not possible to increase the money.

The plan to restart the space shuttle was approved, but the first budget was only $1.5 billion, let's study it first, and the landlord's family has no food left.

The Artemis plan to return to the moon was indeed a little delayed before, and now it seems that it can't be delayed, because Xinyuan 2 A can really land on the moon!

In the end, Claire got an additional $5 billion for the next fiscal year, but asked to accelerate the development of the Orion spacecraft, complete the first unmanned flight around the moon in 2016, and land a manned person on the moon by the end of 2018.

Of course, it is unknown whether things will actually turn out as they think in the end.

……

While most of the people welcomed the trio home and joyfully reported the deeds of China's first private manned space flight, Lin Ju was hiding in his room, waiting for the system's mission to be settled.

[Mission: Send at least 5 astronauts or 2 astronauts and 3600 kg of scientific payload into low earth orbit and return safely to complete a rocket recovery experiment.]

Status: Completed (three astronauts (two payload specialists) and 4,197 kg of scientific payload have been sent into low Earth orbit for 72 hours and returned safely, 19 launch vehicle recovery experiments have been completed)

Cumulative mission gain based on influence spread and overcompletion: 168%.

Congratulations, you have successfully and brilliantly completed the system task, and you have the ability to develop the peak performance engine of the chemical energy era, and the reward has been upgraded to: technical drawings, technical data and production process of the 97-year hybrid pneumatic engine. 】

[NPAE Nuclear fission Plasma Aerospike Engine: The last jet engine developed by the Space Administration in 97 years of the founding of the People's Republic of China, based on the nuclear thermal-ionization-gas tip combined propulsion method, designed for an engine that is intended to take off from the atmosphere to low earth orbit, designed and manufactured for terrestrial planets.

The engine is fueled by methane, the nuclear reactor is heated and expanded, and at the same time ionized into plasma by high temperature, which is sprayed out through the air tip nozzle at the tail, which can work stably from the ground to vacuum at different atmospheric pressures to output thrust, which is an ideal power source for the lander, and because it is not in contact with fission material, the radiation amount is very small and can take off directly in the atmosphere.

Reactor power: 1150MW, specific impulse 3200 seconds, thrust 18 tons, dead weight 3.6 tons.

Note: This engine is extremely complex to produce, and a large number of technologies take time to translate into results, so please apply with caution. 】

[New mission released: You already have the ability to send humans into space, keep up the good work and complete the Earth's satellite: the Moon, conduct manned exploration, and establish a base for two people in 48 months.]

Hint: NPAE seems to be a good fit for this mission, it's complicated, but it's very helpful later, overcome the difficulties to produce, it won't let you down.

Note: This task has been judged and the host no longer matches the aid sequence. 】