Xinyuan Space Launch Site, Station 1.

From a distance, there is only a huge space shuttle erected next to the launch tower, and the new Yuanyuan-2A rocket carrying its takeoff is not visible at all.

Because there is no need for a second stage, the maximum length of the Xinyuan 2 is only 51 meters, while the total length of the engine of the Pioneer plus the tail is close to 75 meters......

In terms of width, the three 6-meter-diameter rocket bodies of Xinyuan-2 plus the gap are also about 20 meters, and the wingspan of the Pioneer has reached 38 meters.

Especially from the angle of facing the viewing beach, most of the rocket body of Xinyuan-2 is covered by the Pioneer, and the rocket is smaller than the space shuttle from the side, so I feel that the center of gravity must be extremely unbalanced.

But in fact, Xinyuan No. 2 A weighs about 3,500 tons after being refilled with fuel, while the Pioneer is basically hollow, and now it weighs just over 90 tons.

In the launch center, the huge Pioneer can be seen from 3 kilometers away with the naked eye alone, and the sense of impact is stronger than that of the Xinyuan-3 rocket.

Director Huang found Lin Ju, who was standing with Seryov in the first three rows, and said helplessly:

"Mr. Lin, you have to find a way to get a special rocket overall transfer vehicle, our transfer vehicle has tossed back and forth many times for the Pioneer."

It turned out that unlike the usual rocket launch, the Pioneer was too large and very troublesome to lift vertically, and both the Soyuz and Aramco's large space shuttles were horizontally combined with the rocket, and then transported as a whole to the launch tower and erected.

The Xinyuan launch site and the Qiongzhou launch site both use a general transfer vehicle, which can only transfer rockets vertically, so the Pioneer is also installed vertically, and the assembly building can't be put down at all, most of the time it is an open-air operation, and the equipment and personnel work is very troublesome and very tossed.

Lin Ju didn't expect this stubble, some time ago he went to the capital to toss the Mars mission, and Qiongzhou handed it over to Seryov to deal with.

The latter did not disappoint him, and took the initiative to say:

"I have contacted domestic construction machinery manufacturers to start customizing, there are many tasks for H2 in the future, and the two stations at the Xinyuan launch site are not enough, boss, we should expand the number of stations, and it is best to add two more."

Lin Ju nodded, coupled with Abo's cooperation agreement a few days ago, the money in Xinyuan's account is completely sufficient, and the small things of the two launch stations don't cost much.

The three of them chatted there, and not far away, Evgeny Mikrin and his fellow of the OKB456 design bureau, Vladimir Lacchuk, were discussing the Pioneer with an hour to be launched.

Lacchuk: "Although the Xinyuan-2 is thinner than the Energy, it has more thrust, and the single thrust of the M220 is too large, with 21 such engines and a thrust of nearly 4,700 tons.

Although the energy number can also achieve more than 4,000 tons of thrust, it is still worse if it cannot be recovered. ”

Micklin: "Yes, the Xinyuan 2's grille rudder recovery method is too risky, it is like using chopsticks to catch the top of the broom thrown down from the 10th floor, which is too demanding on electronic control technology, and we will not have this ability in the next five years. ”

Lacchuk: "However, the lunar program also needs a giant rocket of this class, if it can't be recycled, it will be too expensive, the Yenisei/Don rocket does not have this potential, in the long run, it must be recyclable." ”

Micklin: "Director Borisov may have the intention of buying a customized Xinyuan recovery system this time, maybe then we Lucia will also be able to have a recyclable rocket." ”

Lacchuk: "It's not our technology! Unless they are willing to transfer the technology to us, Lucia's recyclable rockets are nothing more than chicken ribs, and as long as they turn off the rockets via satellite, we can't do anything!

Moreover, we are not without recyclable rockets, are we? We also have recycling technologies available. ”

Micklin: "You mean ......"

Lacchuk: "Energy 2, gliding recycling, the whole arrow is reusable, it's safer, and it's already half done during the alliance period, let's resurrect it, it's more practical than vertical recycling." ”

Miklin didn't know what to answer, he was more familiar with the Energy 2 rocket than Lacuk, but the glide recovery had its own shortcomings: the dead weight was too great.

The mass of the eight-piece grille rudder of Xinyuan 2 will definitely not exceed one ton, and the folding wings of the Energy 2 booster are almost this mass.

But what Lacchuk said also makes sense, the technical difficulty of gliding recovery is much lower, at least Lucia's electronics industry can cope with it, and other fancy recycling requirements for control systems are too high.

He looked at Yuri, who was chatting happily with the space agency in the distance, and pondered the cost and feasibility of resurrecting Energy 2.

……

"Countdown, 1 minute."

At 11:29, the sky was still clear, and a large amount of white mist escaped from the three arrows of Xinyuan No. 2 Jiachang.

The live camera zooms in on the Pioneer fuselage, and its monolithic thermal insulation is so smooth that it's almost like an airliner.

The spacecraft developers of NACA and the military-industrial complex, who watched the broadcast through YouTube, couldn't help but be silent, deeply feeling the generational advantage of Vanguard.

Boeing has studied the integral full-life thermal insulation tile in depth at the beginning of the space shuttle program, but it has not been able to reach this level until the era of X37B and Dream Chaser.

“…… 7, 6, main engine ignition! ”

The reinforcing core stage of Xinyuan No. 2 was ignited first, and the two universal boosters only began to ignite when their throttle valve was halfway open.

The 7 M220 boosters that are tuned and pressurized have more thrust, and a single booster can output about 1680 tons of thrust.

The tail flames of the 21 engines poured into the deflector below and spewed diagonally upwards from the right side of the launch station, and the diffused gas spread rapidly, and before completely surrounding the station, Xinyuan No. 2 A took the Pioneer out of the launch pad.

Although the mass of more than 100 tons of the Pioneer is not worth mentioning for the rocket body, the aerodynamic factors caused by the large body in the atmosphere must be considered, and in order to adjust the center of gravity, the Pioneer had to be launched diagonally from the beginning.

The 21 engines were divided into multiple parts and oscillated to varying degrees to adjust the direction of thrust, so that the Pioneer was above the inclined Xinyuan-2 A-modified rocket, and flew into the sky like a bear lying on a raft.

Due to the low thrust weight, the movement of the combination can be seen at low altitudes, and the long rocket tail flame sweeps through the woods about 1 km long.

Mr. Huang: ......

Needless to say, such a high gas temperature must burn a large forest again, and trees should not be planted near the launch site.

But the attention of the beach and the audience in front of the cameras is all on the Vanguard, which has a relatively long flight time in the atmosphere and can be clearly watched for a while.

The Xinyuan-2 A, which could have been described as a giant rocket, was as small as the three missiles carried by a fighter jet under the Vanguard, and the tail flame produced by the high-altitude methane engine was also very light in color, which looked quite contrasting.

The cross-sectional area of the three 6-meter-diameter rocket bodies and the Pioneer is also extremely huge, and after breaking through the speed of sound, you can see the super-atmospheric ring in the middle of the combination, which is clearly visible even at a high place.

The engine of the Xinyuan No. 2 was working for a long time, until the assembly had become blurry in the ground camera, and finally two white dots were seen separating from the assembly, which were the boosters that were ready for recovery.

The core-stage extra fuel can support an additional 40 seconds of flight, allowing the main engine to work for more than ten seconds after taxiing for a period of time before it can be put into orbit.

There is no way, Xinyuan-2 A is the same as Energy, strictly speaking, there is no second stage, and the first stage can only send the space shuttle to a low orbit of 200 kilometers outside the atmosphere, and if you want to think of an orbit of 300 to 400 kilometers, the space shuttle needs to fly for a while, but it doesn't use much fuel.

In the launch center, the data sent back by the Pioneer and the detection system showed that it was normal and reached the predetermined speed, which basically means that the launch has been successful.

Seryov also had a smile on his face, but suddenly froze.

Lin Ju looked at it with concern: "What's the matter, Lao Ke?" ”

Seryov: "I suddenly thought of a problem, the core stage controlled the throttle valve during flight, and it flew longer and basically flew out of the atmosphere, and the recovery from there is basically the same as the recovery of the second stage, and the rocket body is ...... I guess that's fine. ”

(End of chapter)