April 24, Qiongzhou, Wenchang launch site.

After a lapse of nine months, the Long March 10 rocket was once again placed on the launch pad.

This time it was the Dawning 4 spacecraft that was launched, and the next Dawning 5 spacecraft is expected to be launched in July, and then the Dawning spacecraft + Long March 10 combination will become out of print.

Oleg Kononenko sat on the electric bus on the way to the launch pad and looked intently at the entire Wenchang launch site.

It is not different from the memory, but the difference is that the launch mission it undertook is far different.

At present, all four stations at the launch site are occupied, two Xinyuan-2 rockets carrying Tianwen-1 and Tianwen-2, one Xinyuan-2 sent to space to transport liquid hydrogen fuel tanks for the Typhoon, and the Long March 10 that he will ride.

In the next half a month, the Wenchang launch site needs to undertake four large-scale launch missions, plus the Typhoon that has not yet been put in place at the Xinyuan launch site next to it, that is, five launches.

That is, several other launch stations are closed, otherwise you can see rockets standing in each station ready to launch.

That is to say, the scheduling is really too busy, and the H1 series launch mission from mid-April to the end of May has been suspended, otherwise there will even be a miraculous situation where all the launch stations in the country are not enough.

The four astronauts of the Dawning-4 mission are all from different countries this time, Commander Meng Linlin, Deputy Commander Oleg Kononenko, astronaut Thomas Speyke, and Italian astronaut Jusépe Channey, a proper United Nations lineup.

Among them, Jusépe will undertake the mission of orbiting and staying, and the remaining three will land and stay on the surface of the moon for five days, and are expected to return on May 4 or 5.

In addition to the Dawning-4 spacecraft launched by Wenchang, a "Proton-M" rocket will be launched from the Lucia Plesetsk launch site, and a light pole VV-1 will be launched from Guyana, sending two 5-ton and 9-heavy cargo spacecraft to the Wutu space station, carrying daily necessities and scientific research equipment respectively for astronauts.

According to the latest revised terms of the Huayin organization, all parties jointly funded the right to dock the Wutu space station with an annual maintenance fee of 2.5 billion yuan, and 850 million yuan was paid for the maintenance and material consumption of the Yushu base, otherwise the gap between the Dawning Plan and the Tianmu Plan would be too much.

As the first cooperative exploration mission in name of the Huayin organization, at least on the surface, the layout of the Dawning 4 mission is quite luxurious.

In particular, you can live directly in the Yushu base that has been built, with fresh food, hot water, and rooms, which is not like the first moon landing.

However, this rent is recognized by the other three major countries by pinching their noses, and they can't let themselves crowd the "full moon" lander, and then watch the Yushu base a few kilometers away to enjoy life.

In fact, the remaining six modules of the Yushu base are all planned to be launched and assembled before July, and the space agency has also proposed to directly purchase ready-made products within the Huayin organization, which is both safe and cost-saving, but it is not very smooth.

But none of this has anything to do with the astronauts of Tianmu-4, as far as they are concerned, the only thing worth caring about is landing on the moon, and everything else is something that the country needs to consider.

At 10 a.m., the Long March 10 rocket lifted off with the Dawn 4 spacecraft.

The command center in Beijing is still bustling with people, but they have become numb to the frequent space launches and are not celebrating with the same enthusiasm as the space agencies of several other countries connected to it.

Zhong Cheng, who supervised the scene, made a brief appearance and left in a hurry, and in three days the intensive and frequent Mars exploration mission was about to begin, and the launch schedule was arranged like a bus schedule, and Dawn 4 was only worth paying a little attention to.

……

Boca Chica, Gulf of Mexico.

Sixteen hours after the launch of Dawning-4, the Starship SS-5 complex was also ready for launch.

Exactly 11 months after the launch of the Starship SS-1, in less than a year, SpecaX will launch its fifth giant rocket with a take-off thrust of more than 6,000 tons, which makes Boeing's SLS embarrassed.

It's been more than a year since Musk's January slogan was shouted, and although SpecaX did not achieve a monthly launch, it did do a month to ensure that one was made, or even more.

The extra time spent was all on fixing defects and modifications, and through intensive launch missions, Starship was indeed making progress.

For Tom Mueller, all the technical problems required for a one-time launch of the Starship Complex were solved, and the first four launches fully exposed all the hidden dangers, and he was sure that nothing could be changed, so this time the SS-5 launch plan was born.

What if it still fails?

Anyway, the collection problem continues to improve, anyway, with NACA's procurement blood transfusion, even if you blow up five more SpecaX, you can afford to expend.

is somewhat different from the original world line, because Tesla's Modu Gigafactory was blocked, even with Aramco's manufacturing reshoring subsidy, the electric vehicle business has not become the biggest pillar of Musk's funds.

Huaguo Tesla can only rely on imports to sell, and after experiencing heavy tariffs, it is uncompetitive in front of domestic brands, and it is almost hammered to the ground by Xin'an.

But the space business has brought in so much that Tom would like to suggest that Musk marginalize electric cars, and that, in the light of NACA's massive space program, a random part of it would be enough to raise the SpecaX into a behemoth.

He looked at Musk, who was staring intently at the parameters of the rocket:

"Elon, how much chance do you think we'll succeed this time?"

"We're succeeding every time, just moving from one stage of success to another."

Musk's answer was very much in line with his usual character, and Tom smiled:

"Then I say that the SS-5 will be successfully put into orbit, but it is still far from launching the payload."

"Tom, you don't believe in rudder differential technology?"

"I believe it, but I don't believe it can do what you want it to do at Mach 10 speeds."

Tom's most helpless thing is Musk's insistence on cheapness, just like the Starship spacecraft does not have an attitude control system - RCS.

It's not that he doesn't plan to equip it, but Musk wants to try not to use the traditional RCS, relying only on engine corrections and four huge rudder surfaces to do the required work.

Previously, he had a similar idea of having the starship "run naked" with a steel shell and then fail miserably, and now it is the same, only half of the heat insulation tile is pasted, hoping to use only that side to fight the ablation of the atmosphere.

In these respects, the second-stage Starship spacecraft is a steel shell with an engine, heavy weight, strong vibration, and unable to undertake high-precision launch tasks, and at the same time, it is expected that it can only send the load to a low orbit of 150 kilometers, and then it has to fly up with its own power.

So far, the Starship Spaceship has reached about 30% of the completion he expected, and it is still far from being officially put into operation.

Even if the SS-5 is in orbit this time, it doesn't mean that it can start taking on the mission, the starship is a super big thing, and it is not easy to get the one-time launch required.

The biggest benefit is still for the NSS, and a successful one-time launch means that DARPA will have a lot of money to invest in nuclear power modifications, which are cronies of the Hexagon, and they have countless dollars to squander.

Tom knew that the Helios 5 nuclear engine for the NSS nuclear-powered Starship was progressing much slower than the A105, and that the sooner DARPA was approved, the sooner Starship would be put into service.

(End of chapter)