There were some minor episodes during his visit to Beijing as well, with many organizations and individuals extending invitations to Lin Ju, but he declined them all, citing a busy company schedule.

New Yuan Aeronautics was certainly busy, and although it had many projects underway, its workforce of less than four hundred people meant its research and development capabilities were limited, with the main focus on the New Yuan-2 rocket and the H1 spacecraft.

After all, these were systemic missions, and failure to complete them would have grave consequences.

The Astronaut Scientific Research Training Center, located in the Haidian District of the Capital, was formerly known as Establishment 507.

Since the initiation of the manned space flight program in ’92 up to now, a total of ten astronauts had been to space, and the entire astronaut team was still less than thirty people.

However, the addition of the trio from New Yuan and the soon-to-join ten-person team from America had nearly doubled the overall number, putting some pressure on the training center.

After all, two members of the New Yuan trio were ordinary people, one of them an old man, and while the Americans sent pilots, there was also the issue of language barriers.

Since the notice had been short, there was no special welcome ceremony when Lin Ju arrived, which suited him just fine.

But upon seeing the slightly shorter man leading the group, Lin Ju excitedly approached him:

"Mr. Li Wei, I didn’t expect to see you here!"

"Haha, Chairman Lin, you jest. I am now in the reserves, and if the motherland needs me, I am ready to serve!"

As the first Chinese person to enter space, Li Wei ushered in a new era for manned spaceflight and influenced countless youths.

As a professional astronaut with an excellent pilot background, Li Wei still maintained the qualities of a military man, and although he wasn’t tall, he exuded a firm and resolute temperament whenever he stood.

However, after hearing his words, Lin Ju couldn’t help but feel a sense of regret; even up to the time of his crossing over, Li Wei had not returned to space.

Some said it was because he had suffered irreversible injuries during his space mission, while others argued that it was because Li Wei, as the first astronaut in space, had become a symbol of spirit and could not be subjected to any risks.

Lin Ju thought it was probably the latter as injuries were unlikely; if they had been that severe, he wouldn’t have come back in one piece in the first place.

The nation surely didn’t want to take any risks; if the first astronaut were to have an accident in space, it would be an unimaginable catastrophe.

Considering this, he could only offer a consoling blessing:

"Captain Li, you are in good health, and I believe there will be an opportunity for you to return to space in the not-too-distant future."

"Then I’ll take Mr. Lin’s kind words to heart, haha, but it’s better to give the opportunity to the new comrades."

"Isn’t it our tradition to use the experienced to guide the new? Who has more experience than you?"

Hearing Lin Ju say this, a glint of anticipation appeared in Li Wei’s eyes, but it quickly faded as he began to show Lin Ju around the training center.

Although China’s manned space missions officially began in the ’90s, the country had organized a manned spaceflight program as early as the ’60s, and even trained the first group of astronauts, but unfortunately, it was terminated due to technological and financial difficulties.

Lin Ju saw familiar equipment in the training center, such as the large centrifuge used to simulate high G-forces. There he found Deng Lei, Zhou Rui, and Zhao Xiaowen; Zhao Xiaowen was already the first to enter the centrifuge.

"Mr. Lin x2!"

Zhou Rui and Deng Lei greeted Lin Ju and saluted Mr. Li Wei as well.

"Mr. Lin, the G-forces for the payload specialists’ training won’t exceed 5Gs, which is based on the technical parameters of your spacecraft. This is also the limit for their short-term training.

However, Comrade Deng Lei is in excellent physical condition, so we took the liberty of raising him to the professional level."

Lin Ju nodded; Deng Lei being a top-class pilot, a little more G-force was naturally no problem. However, he noticed that upon Li Wei’s arrival, Deng Lei became quite uneasy, seemingly even nervous.

Zhou Rui also noticed this and teased:

"The Commanding Officer’s dream of space had been broken for over ten years; every time he thought about it, he felt great regret. When he first came to train, he would grab onto people and not let go, acting like a star-struck youngster even though he was over forty."

Deng Lei slightly embarrassed, lowered his head, but he did not deny it.

"Haha, it’s an honor for me to have such a fan!" Mr. Li Wei, rather cordially, patted Deng Lei on the shoulder:

"I went back and reviewed his old records, and if it weren’t for that unfortunate accident Deng had, his indicators would have definitely qualified him for selection. But fate is unpredictable, and ultimately he returned to our team and will become an honored astronaut.

By the way, Comrade Deng Lei, how long have you been married? Does your child attend university yet?"

"..."

"Ahem... Hahaha"

In the midst of Zhou Rui’s uncontrollable laughter, Mr. Li Wei’s face also turned a bit red, cursing himself silently for not taking a closer look at Deng Lei’s files.

Lin Ju, however, found this quite amusing, but at the same time, it got him thinking:

Despite being young himself, it seemed that a few system engineers were still single?

He absolutely couldn’t let them turn into older singles! With a background in systems, their second-generation scientific research level must be pretty good too, right?

This wasn’t an idle claim; after all, Tupolev, the master aircraft designer, had a son, Little Tupolev, who followed in his father’s footsteps and became an excellent aviation expert!

Androff suddenly felt something cold beneath him and strangely touched his furry arm.

Lin Ju also experienced the centrifuge, enduring the g-forces as a novice. Since he had no prior experience, the load was increased to 3G before it was stopped, and the experience wasn’t too bad.

At lunch, while enjoying the astronaut standard buffet at the training center, Lin Ju and Mr. Li Wei talked about New Yuan’s manned space program.

"Are you really planning to have the first flight of your H1 this year? And you expect to complete the manned mission by September?"

Lin Ju: "According to our current schedule, the first rocket of New Yuan-2 will roll off the assembly line in May, we’ll conduct a rocket test launch in June, and the second launch in June will carry the H1 for two full-state unmanned flights. The earliest the fourth launch, which is the manned launch, will take place is in July."

Mr. Li Wei shook his head and sighed, "That’s too fast, too fast. To launch rockets twice in a month... Oh, your rockets are reusable, so you don’t need to manufacture new ones."

Lin Ju: "That’s not exactly the case; the second stage is still single-use, but it’s much quicker to produce than the first stage, and it’s not too expensive, so we don’t reuse it."

"It’s still too exaggerated. I have some understanding of rockets, but no matter what, I really hope you succeed; the Aerospace Bureau proposed several plans for human spaceflight in the 90s, and ultimately, the Shenzhou Spaceship project was chosen.

Later, I visited Sir Qian multiple times, and I know he wanted a space shuttle. At that time, our small space shuttle was pretty much like H1, but the country had neither the money nor the sufficient technical reserves, so it was canceled due to cost and risk.

However, I can tell you that the country has not stopped researching space shuttles, so you are not regressing in history."

Lin Ju knew that many people were actually criticizing New Yuan, considering space shuttles to be useless.

After all, even America retired its space shuttle ten years ago; was NACA not smarter than you?

But he also believed what Mr. Li Wei said about Sir Qian hoping for a space shuttle; who was Sir Qian? One of NACA’s founders, a great sage in the aerospace world! 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

His treatise on interstellar travel, written decades ago, could only have a small part revealed to the public even now, and that was dealing with interstellar travel!

Moreover, his achievements in engineering control theory established the foundation for China’s high-quality, high-standard aerospace endeavors, leading to consecutive victories.