"Wow, we haven't tried to fly on an Aramco rocket in space since the Space Shuttle Atlantis."

Danish astronaut Andreas Morgensen is the deputy commander of the nine ISS missions, and the shuttle is piloted by Aramco astronaut Stephen Bowen.

John gave his inaugural speech 16 hours ago, and now there are still 10 minutes left before the Dream Chaser is about to launch.

There are also two Lucia astronauts among the 9 astronauts on this mission, and the RKA actually doesn't want them to come, but it is too expensive to launch the Soyuz spacecraft by itself, and it still obeys the economic strength.

Most of the launch mission will be broadcast live to the public, and this is a space shuttle with nine people on board, which is the largest number of people carried in a single space shuttle except for the steadfast.

However, the interior of the Dream Chaser is not as spacious as that of the Severance, and the spacing between the seats is a bit small.

Yuri Zhirkov touched the inner wall of the Dream Chaser, and whispered to the cosmonaut next to him:

"I visited China with Director Borisov more than half a year ago, and I visited the actual Unity aircraft, which is much more spacious than the Dream Chaser, and the internal materials are thicker, I am really worried that this ghost thing will banish us into space."

The astronaut who went to space for the first time was a little scared and asked nervously:

"Now I heard that there are quite a lot of space shuttles in Xinyuan, both large and small, they should be able to save us, right?"

Matthias Maurer, a German astronaut in the front row, turned his head and said with a blank expression:

"David, now is not the time to say this, more than four million people are looking at us."

“……”

In the comment display area of YouTube, one comment after another, most of them are praising the dream chaser, and there are also a small number of comments with the word "H2".

Eamon, the CEO of Sierra Nevada, was very excited at this time, because John's staff member Pio had just contacted him, and this time the Dream Chaser would give some reward after a successful launch, which was the boss's favor.

For this reason, Aemon strongly demanded that SpecaX replace it with a new Falcon 9 to carry out the mission, and the face work must be in place.

“…… three、two、one，started！ ”

Nine Merlin 1D engines were ignited one after another, and Stephen Bowen looked at the porthole, but it was a pity that it was a fairing outside instead of a blue sky.

Yuri Zhirkov sat in the last row, and behind him was the counterpart of the Dream Chaser, who could feel the vibration of the rocket the most.

He compared it with the Soyuz spacecraft in his heart, although the Dream Chaser's 15-ton weight squeezed 9 people, but because there was no orbital module and a huge service module, it was much more spacious, that is, the chair was slightly smaller in order to reduce weight, and there was no narrow but thick wrapping feeling.

Damn, why did Amigo have everything first, where is our space shuttle Lucia?

Yuri cursed the oligarchs and embezzlers in the country while fighting the overload, and when he scolded them all, the Falcon 9's first stage rocket had detached, and the fairing of the second stage rocket had bounced open at the same time as the second rocket ignited, and the sunlight swept across the horizon and shone into the porthole of the Dream Chaser.

David, who had been praying with his hands crossed, also opened his eyes and admired the thrilling beauty of space.

Stephen Bowen screamed in the channel:

“we are coming baby！ (Here we go, baby!) ）”

Of course, although the identity is the commander and driver, the Dream Chaser does not need to be manually operated most of the time.

The nine astronauts successfully crossed the atmosphere to orbit, and they docked with the ISS about 2 hours and 40 minutes later.

At the Cape Calavral launch site, the first stage of the Falcon 9 also successfully landed on a tug at sea, and Musk and Eamon high-fived in celebration.

……

"Yuri, help me keep an eye on the crosshairs."

"I'm looking, you should correct 3 to the top right."

Stephen Bowen took a moment to adjust to the docking stance of the Dream Chaser and Tranquility node modules, roughly in the same line, and the next step was to dock manually.

It's not much to do with technology, and Ami has a bit of a preference for manual control, but the trained astronauts are clearly trustworthy.

Stephen held the handle and slowly adjusted, Yuri, who was closest to the interface, helped him with the open optically assisted viewing window, and it only took a few minutes for Stephen to feel the same and gently press the nitrogen release button.

With a "click", the Tranquility's interface captured the Dream Chaser, and the next step was to open the floodgates of the interface.

"How's the air pressure?"

At this time, the ISS Tranquility was greeted by island astronaut Takao Doi and Lucia astronaut Yuri Jonka.

Yuri Jongka: "Balance of pressure, I'll open the hatch." ”

As he spoke, he grabbed the handle of the hatch on one side of the Serenity, spun it around a few times, and pulled it gently.

The door didn't open.

Yuri Jongka tugged hard, but still didn't respond, he looked up at the hatch status indicator: green, ready to open.

Stephen Bowen: "Hey man, what are you doing?" ”

Yuri Jongka turned his head to look at Takao Doi:

"Doi, come over and see what's going on."

Takao Doi: "? ”

The two of them went to the hatch together to study it, but they didn't find anything abnormal, the instruments were all normal, but the door just wouldn't open.

Separated by an airlock, the two sides exchanged the air pressure of their respective spaces, which is basically the same, so it should not be a matter of atmospheric pressure.

Inside the Dream Chaser, Yuri Zhirkov had a bad premonition.

"Stephen, why don't we get out of it first?"

……

"The Dream Chaser has canceled its docking mission and is expected to return in 10 hours."

"Suddenly! It is suspected that the Dream Chaser pair interface is faulty. ”

"NACA Spokesperson: The Dream Chaser has had a successful docking, please don't spread rumors."

"Lin Ju: The space shuttles Pioneer and Steadfast are on standby, ready to launch within 24 hours, and are willing to carry out rescue unconditionally."

"Arbor Space Agency: Mecca will help at no cost."

Under the command of the ground, the two astronauts in the Tranquility node module put on spacesuits to prevent accidents, and at the same time closed the gate to the interior, and the entire crew of the Dream Chaser also wore helmets.

Stephen Bowen manipulated the Dream Chaser to re-dock twice, and finally confirmed that there was a problem with the Dream Chaser's interface, and the hatch was suspected to be stuck and could not be opened.

Now it's in trouble.

At that time, in order to reduce the launch mass to 15 tons, the Dream Chaser canceled the fuselage hatch design, and the docking and upper and lower astronauts were all from the tail interface, if the 9 astronauts were stuck here, they would not be able to get out at all.

First of all, if the interface fails, even if the docking is successful, it is impossible to carry out the astronaut replacement mission like this, and the Dream Chaser can only be returned to the ground first.

But what if the tail hatch has an accident while re-entering the atmosphere? Can you withstand this danger?

Even if they accept the rescue, the astronauts can't get out!

Lockheed Martin, who was in charge of making the interface, was having the astronauts come to the command center in a plane to guide the astronauts to troubleshoot, at least figure out what was going on, and then change the solution.

In these messy two hours, the news also spread quickly, although the outside world still doesn't know what happened, but anyway, the Dream Chaser overturned and definitely couldn't run away!

(End of chapter)