"The RX01 data bus can simultaneously sense the sensors throughout the rocket’s body and process all external factors in parallel; that’s the key to our success. Just having the technology to recover a Level C rocket wouldn’t have been enough to achieve this effect."

After a brief celebration, a specialized team had already gone to the landing site to recover New Yuan 1B. They would drag the rocket back to the factory to carefully examine it and determine its condition.

The purpose of recovery was to refill and launch it again; bringing back just an empty shell was of no use.

Meanwhile, Lin Ju was holding a summary meeting with the engineers who were primarily involved in the recovery, including System Engineers and many senior researchers who had been scouted from elsewhere.

Guo Shen, the team leader in charge of the control system, was the first to speak out about the important factors in rocket recovery.

The others also strongly agreed, and applauded one after another.

"Mr. Guo, is the RX01 standard really created by New Yuan?"

A senior software engineer who joined later couldn’t help but ask because the data specifications of RX01 were astonishing and it shone brightly during this recovery, not seeming like something a small company could have developed.

The 1553B data bus standard, which is currently the most widely used in the world, was created by America in the 1960s and is still considered advanced to this day. China has studied it and applied it in its own aviation and aerospace fields.

Guo Shen said, "Of course, it is our own creation, but its origin can be traced back to an abandoned project of the American Aerospace Bureau in the 1990s. At that time, they wanted to create a new standard for spacecraft landing on Mars and had put forward the idea.

Chief Designer Androff provided a great deal of launch data from the last century’s Union, along with some experience from the European Space Agency, and in the end, we completed the design of RX01 together. Now, I can say that it is the most advanced bus protocol in the world."

The origin of technology always has a source, and it just happened that the System Engineers came from Russia, America, and Europe – shifting the blame was a piece of cake.

From the control systems, to the engines, and then to the recovery process, everyone spent an hour making a simple summary, confirming that although there was still much room for improvement, the main processes were correct and there were no major mistakes.

As for the sudden crosswind during landing, the solution was simple and crude – establish as many observation stations as possible, and ensure the landing site was open and without topographical undulations.

The most ideal location would be near the sea, which could not only avoid the risk of a failed rocket exploding and affecting the surrounding area but also use water vapor to transfer heat. However, offshore recovery would increase the difficulty by a notch.

By the end of the meeting, the preliminary assessment report from the inspection team was also delivered.

Through non-destructive testing of the engines and the body of the rocket, the inspection team basicially confirmed there were no defects or damage – just a fresh coat of paint and a refueling were needed, and it could be returned to launch readiness within a week.

Lin Ju didn’t read the details and directly flipped to the end, where a red stamp marked "Qualified" was pressed. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

This meant that as long as they could launch this rocket again, the average cost of two launches would be reduced by 30%. If used 5 times, the average cost would decrease by 45%, and if 10 times, it would be only 50%.

In other words, once the New Yuan family achieves the first stage recovery, as long as they can ensure four successful recoveries, the cost of each rocket could be kept under 10 million yuan. The recoverable version’s near-Earth orbit payload is about 1.3 tons, making the average LEO launch cost around 7,700 yuan per kilogram, which at the current US Dollar exchange rate, comes to just about $1,000.

The payload capacity for the SSO orbit is reduced to 680 kilograms, but the cost per kilogram is only 14,000 yuan, equivalent to $2,000.

This was still with the small New Yuan 1 rocket, where the first stage constituted only 60% of the total cost. The larger the rocket, the heavier the first stage and the higher the cost proportion, the greater the benefits of recovery. If the planned New Yuan No. 3 also employs recovery, the average launch cost could decrease by 70%.

After crudely crunching the numbers on paper, Lin Ju forcefully swallowed.

If all the rockets to be launched could be recovered, wouldn’t that slash the costs even further?

Of course, there were people who shared these thoughts with their own boss.

After stepping out of the meeting room, Vice President Hu Bo, who also served as a temporary assistant alongside Lin Ju, seemingly casually remarked:

"The first stage of next month’s New Yuan 1C, also 3.5 meters in diameter, could save us at least 9 million if we install this recycled one. The profit of this order is less than 8 million."

Lin Ju shuddered, then seriously criticized his unhealthy thought.

"How can we change it if we promised the customer a new rocket? Besides, this one has only been recycled once. What if something goes wrong next time?"

Although he was truly tempted, such an act was unethical, and it wouldn’t look good to use a second-hand rocket for the first commercial order.

"Then, I’ll ask Chief Designer Androff if he can make the first stage of the New Yuan 1C recyclable as well? That way, we wouldn’t be at a loss."

"This... you’re going to ask Androff?"

"Yes!"

...

The recovery of the New Yuan 1B rocket made history, but how big was the impact? So big that the private aerospace world was turned upside down immediately!

Even more venture capitalists came looking for Lin Ju, and this time their attitudes were extremely firm, even more fervent than last time.

Because reusable rockets meant one thing: private spaceflight could really make money!

Heaven knows, aerospace might be high-tech, but it never used to be wholly profitable. It always relied on deriving profits indirectly from related technologies, without being able to achieve high returns directly.

But if reusable rockets succeeded, slashing the launch cost by half would unearth a large number of customers, greatly expanding the aerospace market and genuinely achieving sustained profits.

Leaving aside how Lin Ju dealt with the investors for the moment, the impact had already spread to America.

Ma’s Sky Fork was continuously favored in the stock market, with its share price showing a rising trend, given that both the Falcon 9 and New Yuan 1B were following the same path. Who could say that they wouldn’t succeed soon?

The rest of America’s private aerospace raced to update their PPTs overnight, claiming they too had plans for rocket recovery. Although the details differed, their core approach was still the same vertical recovery method.

The investors were eating it up. In the past, if you mentioned rocket recovery, they would have cursed you and thought you were setting off fireworks.

Now, just by showing investors a glimpse of a PPT, you could easily get a few million US dollars to dip your toes in the water, just like during the rise of the internet era, where any creative idea could attract a flood of investment.

Lin Ju’s single recovery act directly stirred up the still nascent private aerospace market, which began to bustle earnestly.

Domestically, private aerospace companies that would have been established in a few years were now preparing their registration materials and trademarks. They were also ready to change their PPTs to seek investors.

Meanwhile, in the national aerospace agency, the previously calm and continuous environment began to churn like a red-hot iron block had been thrown into it.

Because the aerospace agency was also at a critical juncture:

The development of large rockets represented by CZ-5 was nearing its end. The siblings, CZ-6, CZ-7, and CZ-8, based on the YF100, were on the verge of delivery. The next few years would greatly expand the aerospace family lineage.

With these new rockets, the Moon surface exploration and Mars exploration projects were launched, the new generation of manned spacecraft entered testing, and the planning for a new large space station was underway.

A bit further down the line were the super heavy-lift rocket CZ-9 and the new generation manned rocket currently only known by the code 921, both groundwork for manned exploration of the Moon and Mars.

In the cheap and reusable space entry field, the hopes were pinned on the yet-to-be-fully-approved but essentially decided "Cloud Ascend" project.