In August, above the vast meadows.

A huge site has been carved out, and the central area has been leveled to the ground.

In the very center, a circle of signs divides the ground regularly.

This is the test site for the first land recovery of the Hongyan rocket.

After several months of adjustment work, the recovery study of the Hongyan rocket was basically completed.

What will now take place will be his first recovery.

However, although this is a rocket recovery test, the Hongyan rocket will not go through the real launch process.

Instead, shortly after takeoff, it turned around and flew towards the rocket recovery site.

On the side of the recycling site, among the low-rise buildings, everyone is making the final preparations for the recovery of the rocket.

Truth be told, there is actually a limit to what you can do during the rocket recovery process.

After all, everything is computer-controlled during landing, and even if you want to, you can't do it.

However, there is still a lot of preparatory work to be done, the most important of which is all kinds of fire and explosion prevention work.

Since last year's rocket explosion accident, the importance of fire and explosion prevention has increased by several orders of magnitude.

"Brother Xingyang, Brother Bo, they should be about to launch over there, right?" Qin Ming looked at the time on his watch and asked.

"Three and a half minutes to go."

Zhang Xingyang glanced at Qin Ming beside him.

"Why, don't you have confidence in the return control system you made?"

Qin Ming was broken in his mind, and he was not particularly embarrassed:

"I'm a little worried, after all, this is the first time we've experienced it."

"There is no precedent for rocket recycling in any country in the world."

"I don't know if it will work this time."

Zhang Xingyang patted Qin Ming's shoulder, smiled and said:

"Even if we fail this time, it's nothing, we can afford to lose now."

"And now that the low-orbit satellite communication network has been established, we have the opportunity to validate our technology in the future."

"There's nothing to worry about."

Zhang Xingyang looked at his watch and said, "There are still two minutes left, take a deep breath to relieve your emotions." ”

"Wait a minute, when you're busy!"

After this explanation, Qin Ming also realized that there was no need for his current worries.

So after taking a few deep breaths, I calmed my nerves.

"It's about to launch over there, so let's go back to our work." Zhang Xingyang looked at the time and said to Qin Ming.

In the launch center on the other side, Geng Bo and his people were working on the countdown before the rocket launch.

As the countdown ended, the Hongyan rocket rose from the ground next to the launch stand.

The recovery yard where Zhang Xingyang was located also received the news that the rocket had departed at this time, and began to wait nervously.

This launch did not require as much fuel because the rocket did not really re-enter and return from the atmosphere.

The fuel tanks of the first stage rocket were not fully filled beforehand.

This is also to prevent the explosion of the rocket if it fails to recover, which can reduce the power of the rocket explosion.

Because it was not very far away, the rocket flew for several minutes and was already close to the range of the recovery site.

At this time, everyone in the recycling yard took refuge behind an explosion-proof bunker made of reinforced concrete several meters thick.

At a distance of tens of kilometers from the recovery site, the rocket's engine began to gradually reduce its thrust, and began to adjust its direction under the control of the rudder on all sides.

Adjust your angle little by little, and gradually transform yourself from a state that was almost parallel to the earth to a direction perpendicular to the earth.

By the time the rocket was only a few kilometers away from the recovery site, it was almost 90 degrees from the ground.

And by this time the speed of the rocket has also become very slow.

Of course, this is also relative to the extreme speed of the rocket when it is usually launched.

When the rocket came to the sky above the launch site, it was completely perpendicular to the ground.

It is at this time that the four support legs in the lower part of the first-stage rocket pop out to provide support for the rocket when it lands.

From the explosion-proof glass on the reinforced concrete explosion-proof bunker, look out at the rocket landing field.

The flames from the rocket's tail were now weak, but they were still blowing gusts of wind on the flat ground.

Gravel and sand on the ground blew in all directions.

As the height of the rocket became lower and lower, Zhang Xingyang's heart also rose higher and higher, almost reaching his throat.

Along with the drop in altitude, the rocket began to autonomously shut down several engines that had been working until then.

The engines that provide thrust to the rocket, from five to three, to the only one.

Finally, when the height was only a few meters, the only working engine had stopped working.

The hundred-ton rocket fell directly to the ground, with four support legs made of high-strength titanium alloy.

Each one can be divided into nearly 100 tons of pressure, but fortunately, the material science of the Rocket Research Institute is quite passable, and there is no breakage.

Seeing that the rocket had stopped steadily on the recovery field, everyone did not celebrate first.

Instead, he rushed out directly and began to observe and collect various recovery data of the rocket.

In particular, a large number of engineers specializing in rocket maintenance have long been impatient to check the condition of the rocket.

In particular, damage to the rocket's propulsion system.

You know, in this rocket that has almost no fuel, the most valuable thing now is his propulsion system composed of 11 engines in parallel.

For each propulsion system, the total price of the 11 YF-110 liquid oxygen kerosene engines alone is as high as 20 million yuan.

And that's not even counting the cost of the propulsion system's control system.

However, fortunately, the rocket uses liquid oxygen kerosene, which does not produce highly toxic substances, and if the traditional dimethylhydrazine fuel is used, everyone will not dare to rush up without any protection.

Zhang Xingyang also followed the engineer who was running wildly, and ran quickly towards the rocket standing on the recycling field.

Although the recycling yard was still full of dust and heat, everyone ignored these slightly harsh conditions

Panting and coming to the side of the rocket, Zhang Xingyang took a few deep breaths and carefully observed the external situation of the rocket.

In the process of recovery, because of the relatively large force, the four support legs ejected from the rocket body were not broken, but they were also deformed to a certain extent.

This shows that even the support legs made of titanium alloy materials are not very able to withstand the weight of such a behemoth.

However, if the engine shutdown procedure of the rocket is slightly improved during the reduced altitude, the pressure on the support leg can be effectively reduced.

Zhang Xingyang looked at the rocket like a hill in front of him and stretched his lazy waist.

Looking at the vast, azure sky like the deep sea.

Now it can be said that the vast world is promising!

(End of chapter)