Chapter 65: Chapter 63 Aerodynamic Flight_1

Capital.

The big shots at the Aerospace Bureau watched as the citizens lined up to send off the New Yuan-2 prototype rocket, and as an Il-76, with a 6-meter-wide Core Stage One sticking out ahead of its nose due to its length, took off from the airport. They remained silent for a long time before commenting:

"The near-Earth orbital payload capacity is 45 tons. If they use the CBC configuration, which private aerospace companies prefer, by strapping two more Core Stage Ones, the payload capacity to near-Earth orbit would reach 140 tons, enough to carry out a lunar mission."

"With a diameter of 6 meters, processed as a single piece, the equipment at Xinyuan Company must be impressive. I wonder through what channels they were able to procure machinery capable of processing such a large diameter."

The white-haired Academician She brought up the rocket concept image from the official Xinyuan website, his face full of disbelief.

"Last year, their New Yuan-1 was just a small rocket with a launch weight of 100 tons, but now the second model is already a giant rocket. And they manufactured it so quickly!

This payload capacity is already 1.5 times more than that of the CZ-5, and it can even be reused!"

With a bitter smile, the big shot added, "At the last exchange meeting, Lin Ju got the qualification certificate to enter the national engineering projects from me. I originally thought that throwing them a few small satellites would actually help the Aerospace Bureau focus on its own affairs, but now... If we also used New Yuan-2, we could immediately start a manned lunar mission."

After pondering for a while, Academician She suddenly said:

"I don’t believe the people at Xinyuan are several times smarter than us. I want to visit Xinyuan Company to see how they have managed to create such a miracle."

"That’s a good idea. Additionally, you might want to visit the Ulanha Mountain base first. I’ve heard that the fully-completed state H1 spaceplane is already built, and they’ve been notified to prepare for Drawing 154 to fly over and pick it up."

...

"Cavity five, cavity six, please check connector status."

"Cavity five received." "Cavity six received."

A Drawing 154 quietly sat at the takeoff spot of the Ulanha Mountain airport, with a full-state H1 spaceplane capable of carrying out manned flight missions on its back.

At this point, two pilots were ready – Command Pilot 05 (cavity five) Deng Lei and Deputy Command Pilot 06 (cavity six) Li Wei. Pilots 01 to 04 were the crew members of Drawing 154.

Zhao Xiaowen and Zhou Rui were still spinning in the centrifuge at the 507 Training Center; they had neither the need nor the ability to learn how to operate a spaceplane in short order. It was better for them to obediently play their part as cargo.

As for why there was an additional Deputy Command Pilot Li Wei, according to him, it was because he was worried about Deng Lei piloting alone not being safe. Being the squadron leader, he felt it was his responsibility to escort the trainees.

Xinyuan was certainly continuing to search for pilots capable of flying a spaceplane. They had already contacted four outstanding pilots who were about to retire but were in good physical condition and willing to come over, but they would have to wait until September to retire and start training.

It should be mentioned that the H1 simulator that Xinyuan placed at Ulanha Mountain wasn’t sitting idle just because there was only one command pilot, Deng Lei. On the contrary, it was used almost all the time except for a 3-hour daily maintenance shutdown.

First, there were the semi-retired pilots from Ulanha Mountain, some who had stepped back from the frontline and some who could fly planes but worked on the ground as mechanics. The crew of the leased Il-76 that Lin Ju acquired whenever possible also jumped at the chance to get into the simulator.

Then there were the many gentlemen from the astronaut squadron, who somehow managed to move their zero-gravity training to Ulanha Mountain. Every time they came down, they would first fly the simulator to their heart’s content.

Xinyuan had spent almost a billion on this simulator alone, with a fidelity that could nearly reach one hundred percent. They had even simulated the trembling of the fuselage, and the screens were the latest, most expensive high-resolution displays from Sony. In the dim environment, there was hardly any difference from the real thing, which is why it was so unforgettable.

Lucky for them that they were all highly educated individuals, so the operating hours set by Deng Lei weren’t overtaken. However, the passion for the spaceplane was beyond imagination.

This time, it would be H1’s first manned flight test. It would be dropped from an altitude of 12,000 meters by Drawing 154 and then piloted to land at the airport.

Upon learning that Deng Lei was still short of a deputy commander, the team members in the squadron jockeyed to offer their help to hold the fort, only to be snatched up one by one by Captain Li on the pretext that "the space shuttle is too complex for you to handle, let’s leave it to the old space hands."

Although there were still two seats left on the H1, taking so many people at once did not comply with safety regulations, so no more were allowed to board.

In the past few months, Li Wei had already familiarized himself with the inner workings of the H1 to the point that he even spent a little more time in the simulator than Deng Lei.

At this moment, he was dressed in a light, gray-and-white space suit with a helmet featuring a large observation window. He flicked the electrical switches with his fingers, performing a status check with Deng Lei on flight control and the connection points with Drawing 154.

"01, I have completed the check, everything is normal, we can take off, we can take off."

"01 received, tower, 01 is requesting takeoff."

"Tower received, you are cleared to take off, cleared to take off, please pay attention to the climb rate to avoid surge due to insufficient airflow in the back air intakes, over."

"01, understood."

Wang Zhi gradually increased the throttle, released the wheel brake, and Drawing 154 began taxiing on the ground, only gently lifting its nose at the end of the runway, before entering the high spiral flight path towards the designated altitude.

Hmm, his takeoff was so smooth to ensure engine air intake; it was definitely not because Captain Li was right above his head.

On the ground, the members of the astronaut squadron watched enviously as Drawing 154 soared into the sky.

Academician She too shielded his eyes from the sun, gazing up at the H1 spacecraft, which was now almost entirely obscuring the outline of Drawing 154.

Employees from the ground segment of Xinyuan Company came running over, inviting him to observe the flight attitude of H1 from the ground control room.

Academician She nodded in agreement, then realized he recognized the man.

"You... you’re Ai, right? I just saw you last year at the Sixth Academy, you seemed to be leading the technical breakthrough for the turbopump, didn’t you?"

"Ah, I didn’t expect you to remember me, Sir She. I am now the deputy head of the liquid propulsion department at Xinyuan, working on several engines."

Ai Yuanwei felt a bit embarrassed; Academician She had criticized him, and just a few months later, he had switched jobs, which somehow made him feel ashamed.

Academician She comforted him with a light heart: "It doesn’t matter, you are still working for a Chinese company. Things are different now; private companies are also a big stage. Xinyuan is doing quite well now, isn’t it?

If you take me to have a look, won’t it involve your company’s secrets?"

"Of course not, your visit is in a guiding capacity; we wouldn’t do something like that."

Observing Ai Yuanwei’s sincere expression, Sir She felt conflicted and unsure of how to speak to him.

Could he say that the small space shuttle program from the ’90s had been revived and re-evaluated?

If H1 safely returned to Earth and indeed proved to have an efficient cost ratio, the next-generation manned spacecraft would become completely obsolete, losing the necessity for research.

Now he was already preparing to resurrect the old small space shuttle program, so that once it was demonstrated to be more useful, it would be rapidly implemented.