"I announce that the launch and recovery mission of the Long March 18 Yao-1 rocket has been a complete success!"

At 6:27 a.m. on December 10, half an hour after the launch order was issued, the bigwigs in the capital officially announced the success of the mission at a press conference.

However, he ignored the enthusiastic reporters and left, leaving the scene to Shen Zuozhou to deal with.

More than an hour later, he saw Wu Yi and Ye Changsi, who had been waiting at the gate of the United Mining Headquarters for a while.

"I'm not late, am I?"

"Of course not, everyone is waiting for you."

Today, Ye Changsi and Wu Yi both had serious expressions on their faces, and their eyes were slightly bloodshot.

After the successful first flight of the Long March 18, United Mining will hold a mobilization meeting for the follow-up tasks of the Tianmu series.

The congress was mainly aimed at a large number of engineers transferred from the space agency, and the number was small, only 54 people.

According to the arrangement and coordination of the Aviation Development Commission, the two construction tasks of Guanghangong No. 1 Base and Yushu No. 1 are highly overlapping, and both personnel and equipment need to be fully utilized as much as possible.

The personnel of the two construction plans are divided into permanent and non-resident, and they are treated differently.

The permanent staff includes all professional astronauts, as well as some engineers (payload specialists); Non-resident personnel, such as the various experts who need to go to the moon next, have a relatively short mission.

After the deliberation of the Aviation Development Commission, they decided to professionalize all the middle-aged and vigorous payload experts in the permanent staff, but unlike professional astronauts, they are basically only responsible for professional-related tasks when they go out on missions.

In the plan of the Aviation Development Commission, the priority of the Guanghangong No. 1 base jointly built by Huayin is not as high as that of the Yushu No. 1 base, which is planned to develop into a self-sufficient industrial base, which is much larger in terms of personnel and scale.

At this time, the space agency discovered the problem, and there were thousands of engineers who had obtained the qualification of reserve astronauts, and there was no pressure to send some of them to the moon, and it was very troublesome for the space agency.

Although many professional astronauts also have solid professional skills, they are obviously inferior to real engineers, and in order to keep the latter on the moon for a long time, a considerable education in astronautics is required.

So three months ago, the space agency began to screen young engineers younger than 45 years old, in good health and with professional knowledge, and then sent them to the 507 Institute for surprise training, and finally obtained the first batch of 54 semi-professional astronauts and engineers.

Although it is not worth mentioning compared with the amazing number that Xinyuan is expected to exceed 5,000, it is completely enough for so many people in the early stage, and it will be able to keep up with the planned training later.

This plan was made possible by the bigwig, and he certainly has reason to say something about these national team players who are about to participate in real space development.

However, Ye Changsi and Wu Yi knew that there was another important reason that the big guy was about to be transferred, and the space bureau was about to change blood.

The big guy will be transferred to the Commission of Science and Technology, and there is also news that Academician She's position will remain unchanged, but he will also withdraw from front-line work.

It is normal for Academician She to withdraw from front-line work, he is nearly 80 years old, and it is difficult to undertake scientific research tasks anymore, and the reason for the transfer of the big man Wu Yi probably knows something, which may be related to the above-mentioned preparations to adjust the direction of aerospace development, and the new director is very likely to be from a dry nuclear technology background.

The above has always known that Xinyuan's next development focus is on nuclear power, and the Long March 18 also means that Xinyuan has come to the end of the road of chemical rockets, and the price paid for a breakthrough in the next step is not proportional, so there is no reason for the space agency not to change the track.

The big guy's speech was not too long, and after a while, he found Ye Changsi alone.

"Changsi, what's your next plan?"

Ye Changsi was slightly stunned, and then said naturally:

"Of course, it is to develop the moon, so many ore resources, Xinyuan has invested all of them.

The long-term is to develop Mars and use it as a base to seize the resources of the asteroid belt, but that should not be carried out until the construction of the lunar base is mature. ”

The big guy kept staring at Ye Changsi's eyes and tried to find something, but the other party looked as usual, and even showed a somewhat puzzled look appropriately.

He finally gave up on the idea of finding a flaw in the communication, and said as usual:

"The development of space is an arduous and complex project, which requires not only advanced technology, but also strong control and execution, and Xinyuan has done a good job in this regard......"

He struggled briefly in his heart, but still said the second half of the sentence:

"It's so good that it's not like a company, your vision is not like what a company should be, I've never seen a company like this."

"Because space has given us a mission, we are all united by this purpose."

Ye Changsi replied very seriously, and his intuition made the big guy believe that this was the truth from the heart, but this did not solve the doubts in his heart.

If it weren't for the imminent transfer, he wouldn't have rushed to ask these questions.

But now he regretted it a little, he should have known that he couldn't get an answer.

"That'...... I hope you all the best. ”

After saying this, he left quickly, without even closing the door.

Ye Changsi stood in place and looked at the empty corridor, and his spirit relaxed a little.

This private temptation also made him nervous, and he remembered the photo of Plain Zero taken by "Lihuo" in his mind.

The probe has been exploring the area in all directions for the past two months, but still found nothing, and this unknown fear has been haunting the sky above the base, just like the big guy sees the fog on them.

……

Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

The LC39A launch pad is already being opened, and a large group of space center employees are maintaining it in preparation for the upcoming launch.

Victor Grover, who had just watched the live broadcast of the Long March 18, stood on the lawn outside the launch pad, next to him was Reed Wiseman.

They only flew the Artemis II mission five months ago, but now they are going to go into space again.

"Koch is no longer a pity, she's a good astronaut."

Victor remembered Koch, who had been placed in an astronaut training center, and might have even been forced to retire if it weren't for the insistence of his fellow astronauts.

Wiseman: "I don't believe she's mentally ill either, but ...... Anyway, we're going to find out everything this time, right, Commander? ”

His final salutation made Victor "quack" laugh, and due to the outstanding performance of the Artemis II mission and the lack of a better astronaut for the time being, NACA decided to let the Artemis II crew continue the Artemis III landing mission, and Victor became the first Black commander.

"Yes, and ...... Ten days, oh, I hope I don't miss my ticket to Edo, I can't miss the nuclear explosion. ”

(End of chapter)