"Although the launch date of the SLS is four months later than that of the Long March 10, their manned spacecraft is being tested in low-earth orbit, and the spacecraft has not been developed for a long time and has not entered a mature state.

Our Orion spacecraft has completed R&D tests in the last 10 years, and it has been very reliable and has done sufficient tests, so the 'Orion CM-002' will go directly to the lunar orbit for circumlunar testing, which is the second mission carried out by China's second Long March 10. ”

In the early morning of the 12th, Claire explained to the senator sent by Congress to supervise the launch four hours before the launch, trying to explain the significance of the Artemis I mission and prove that NACA is not lagging behind.

Senator: "Mr. Director, do you mean that one SLS equals two Long March 10s?" ”

Claire: "If you have to understand here, it's not a problem, according to CASA's plan, the second Long March 10 will be launched in April next year, and now we are four months ahead. ”

Several senators looked at each other, then at SLS in the distance, and nodded in unison.

The top two of the Aramco rockets are very free.

Another female senator asked, "I heard that there are dummies on board, what are they for?" ”

Claire's eyes showed a bit of confusion, and she thought to herself, can't you just look at the public reports before the launch?

"Ma'am, the radiation of the Moon is not the same as that of the Earth, which has a radiation belt around it...... It's that the radiation is lighter and the moon is heavier, so we put protective suits on the dummies, and they will return after about 20 days in lunar orbit to test the radiation protection of the astronauts from the protective vests. ”

"What gender is that dummy?"

Claire: "Both are female dummies. ”

The senator's eyes widened suddenly, as if she had heard something terrible that was not ethically tolerated by society.

"You're exposing women to radiation? Oh my God, this is blatant discrimination! ”

Claire:......

"It's such a lady, the Artemis program will send a female astronaut to the moon for the first time, and the effects of male astronauts under lunar radiation we have already got in the Apollo program, so the dummy carried this time mainly simulates female characteristics, which is not discrimination."

"Then why didn't you send female astronauts up at the time of the Apollo program?"

Another senator interjected with a look of certainty: "Because the Apollo program is just a conspiracy to fool the alliance, the earth is actually flat." ”

Claire: "......"

It took Claire a long time to get rid of these strange senators who had nothing to do but care in inexplicable places, and by this time the SLS rocket was about to be launched.

3.5 kilometers from Launch Pad 39B, there is a huge digital screen connected to the launch center, which shows the countdown to the launch of the rocket.

Due to the fact that the launch was chosen in the morning, the weather conditions were very good, and a large number of cars and crowds gathered nearby, crowded here to wait for the first launch of the SLS rocket.

CBS reporters turned their backs to the launch pad with gustant interest to explain to the camera the significance of the SLS rocket, calling it a great symbol of Aramco's resurgence.

There were at least 150,000 on-site audiences, and more than 10 million people watched through the online broadcast, which shows that the popularity of SLS is really not small.

"When do you think we'll be able to go to the moon?"

"It's definitely before 2018."

"Wow, that's earlier than the time given by NACA."

"I believe that Ami can work miracles, we have already landed on the moon, and it will only be easier to go back now."

“……”

It is now the early morning of the 13th Beijing time, and Lin Ju is also staying up late at the B-level base and the engineers to watch the first launch of the SLS rocket through YouTube.

An hour ago, he was on the phone with Academician She, who was still ridiculing that the development date of SLS was too long.

After all, for outsiders, the SLS rocket is a mature technology no matter how you look at it, and now the launch is very late.

But Lin Ju knew that the name of SLS in later generations was "Ace Pigeon", not only did it delay until 2022 before the first shot, but also had many accidents, and the road to launch was bumpy and difficult.

It's unbelievable that I haven't heard of any big problems in a crazy rush now, and I can only say that the original world line Artemis project has not received much attention at all, and it will only be officially launched in 2020, and the response is too slow.

However, despite the launch 6 years ahead of schedule, the appearance of the SLS has basically not changed, and it is still the same.

With 10 seconds left before launch, the presenter's "here we go" sounded on the screen, and the launch pad began to pour water into the bottom of the rocket.

Under the water curtain, four RS25 hydrogen-oxygen engines ignited and started at the same time, and the transpiring water mist diffused into an air mass into a sphere.

After 5 seconds, the solid boosters on both sides ignited, bringing a total of more than 3,000 tons of thrust.

The large amount of smoke produced by the solid booster was immediately released around the launch pad through the diversion groove, and the SLS was so loud before it took off that a bright fireball could be seen in the gap between the launch pads.

A total of about 3,700 tons of thrust caused the rocket to slowly rise, leaving behind a huge diffusion cloud of solid boosters in its path, which was extremely spectacular against the blue sky background.

At this time, the crackling sound of the rocket engine was heard in the picture, and in the camera that was not adjusted in time, only a light cluster was rising rapidly.

Because the solid thruster and the upper stage are relatively light, the SLS has a higher ascent rate, so the speed is also faster, and it becomes a bright spot on the sky dome in a few clicks.

Looking at the wake of the solid booster forming like a road to the sky, Lin Ju couldn't help but feel a little shocked:

"The solid rocket is too BUG, obviously the total thrust is smaller than our Xinyuan No. 2 A, but if you just look at the wake, it is much bigger, the kerosene engine of the No. 3 rocket is a little better, and the methane tail flame of the No. 2 is light and small, and it doesn't look so spectacular."

Anderov: "The design of SLS rockets is actually not very good, they may have started out in order to use up the remaining RS25 engines, and the boosters were all fished out of the sea by the Space Shuttle and reused to be disposable, expensive and impractical.

We have a single 700-ton thrust with a burn time of 240 seconds, and a stack of 5 sections with a thrust of 3,500 tons, but it is not cost-effective economically.

Unless we are going to develop the No. 4 rocket, we will use a fixed push, but that is just our assumption. ”

"No, not a hypothetical one."

Seryov shook his head slightly:

"The newly built station at the Xinyuan launch site can accommodate a maximum width of 25 meters, which is not only compatible with H2, but also can accommodate the No. 4 rocket."

Anderov's eyes widened: "Do we need that thing, low earth orbit capacity of 800 tons, 14 meters in diameter, what the hell is this going to send up?" It would be nice to let the No. 3 rocket be delivered in several parts. ”

Seryov did not answer, but looked at Lin Ju, who pointed to the sky.

"The Tianwen plan is the plan of the Aviation Development Commission, Xinyuan also has its own Mars exploration mission, Mars is too far, we want to launch a single-stage super-large space station there, with a mass of about 200 tons, only the No. 4 rocket can complete it, and we will launch it in 2018."

(End of chapter)