The South Sea, the reception antenna on the Yuanwang No.1 Radar Measurement Ship slightly turned, locking onto the already-in-space New Yuan-2 first stage.

She sent the measured altitude, speed, attitude, and other data to the communication satellites via the satellite communication antenna, and the Qiongzhou ground station received them, reflecting them onto the simulated attitude images.

Being into the national aerospace tracking and control system has one advantage: the rocket can be fully monitored from every angle without blind spots, with the ground able to cross-verify using both the data sent by the rocket itself and active detection.

The audience on the beach had still not dispersed; they all knew that the New Yuan-2 mission would attempt first stage recovery, and they could watch it from here as well.

Waiting on the beach for the recovery, the audience looked around and noticed something off about the launch pad across from them, to be precise, next to the launch site.

Hadn’t the rocket already been launched? Why did it seem like there was still smoke billowing?

"Fire emergency, fire emergency! Get the excavator to dig a firebreak, how much longer for the fire engines?"

Deputy Director Huang shouted hoarsely, his face contorted as if he were constipated, watching the forest burn fiercely.

The tail flame from the New Yuan-2 launch was too big and intense, and the Qiongzhou Launch Site had not anticipated a launch of this scale. The launch pad was a bit too close to the noise-absorbing forest.

Fortunately, the fire department was on standby during the launch, and they had bolstered their force for this mission. They had a contingency plan for a forest fire, so they quickly got the blaze under control.

Everyone in the control room naturally also saw the forest engulfed in thick smoke on the monitors, and this unexpected little episode diluted the tense atmosphere somewhat.

Adjacent to the Wenchang Launch Site, Xinyuan Launch Site’s No. 1 recovery pad, the lonely tower, also quietly awaited its turn.

In the sky, the New Yuan-2 first stage had adjusted to a vertical descent attitude, plummeting rapidly toward the ground.

At 10,000 meters and 6,000 meters, the engine fired briefly twice to reduce speed, then fired again when it reached 4,000 meters.

The M220 Liquid Oxygen Methane Engine performed steadily, only the central one ignited, but for the rocket body that now only weighed tens of tons, it was more than sufficient.

At an altitude of 2,000 meters, the throttle valve increased thrust, and the crowd on the beach saw the familiar rocket again, only this time the tail flame was much smaller.

In the CCTV camera tracking footage, most of the panda painting on the surface had been burnt off, leaving only half of a green bamboo still visible. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

The forty-five-meter-high first stage was as tall as the entire CZ-2F; such an enormous object descending bit by bit imparted a majestic sense of oppression.

Under the command of the powerful control systems, the ground needed only to provide coordinates, as the central No.1 engine constantly moved its nozzle, nudging towards the No.1 recovery pad.

The recovery tower was ready, with its hydraulic-driven steel struts ready to extend at any moment.

Due to its vast size, the New Yuan-2 first stage recovery procedure was not to aim directly at the landing spot from the air and descend, but to control the altitude at a certain distance from the tower and then gently edge closer to it.

The beach audience witnessed the thick first stage of the rocket slowly reduce its speed as if being rewound, inching closer toward the hundred-meter-high tower, as if watching a miracle.

In the control room, numbers on the sensors flickered incessantly.

At this moment, the rocket was less than 30 meters from the ground, less than 20 meters from the tower. A slight sway could send it crashing into a pile of debris.

But the New Yuan-2 was heavy enough, with its lower center of gravity due to the seven engines at the base. Unless there were strong crosswinds, it could right itself.

The first stage with its continuous spray of flames inched closer to the tower. Just when the distant audience thought it would crash into it parallelly, the recovery tower extended two slender "arms", which perfectly cradled the rocket right under the eight grid fins by a few meters.

The throttle valve gradually reduced the thrust, the RCS under the grid fins fiercely ejected gas in all directions to steady the posture, until the reinforced grid fins touched the steel cantilever beam.

The engines immediately shut down, and the first stage of New Yuan-2 was caught by two steel arms of the recovery tower, suspended above it.

According to the cameras atop the tower, there was a certain gap between the rocket body and the arms on both sides, with an error of less than 20%.

New Yuan-2 achieved a successful recovery on its maiden flight.

In front of the live broadcast on YouTube, Ma Yilong’s mouth was skewed, opening into a distorted O shape.

On the beach, over two hundred thousand spectators seemed to witness a miracle and were incredulously frozen in silence for a moment.

In the CCTV studio, the host actually repeated himself three times before managing to articulate a complete sentence; the Aerospace Bureau’s guests had blank expressions, forgetting to look at the teleprompter for their lines.

In the launch control room, facing the live broadcast camera and looking at the big screen in front, Lin Ju calmly removed his headset in front of thousands of online viewers and began to applaud slowly.

This was the recovery method expected for future Starship Boosters, similar to that planned for CZ-9 and CZ-10, which was anticipated to be achieved about fifteen years from now, yet New Yuan-2 realized it on its first launch.

Even though Lin Ju was already full of confidence in the system and the System Engineers, he was momentarily lost for words out of excitement.

In the Aerospace Bureau’s VIP area, He Tang had a complicated expression, comparing the recovery scene of New Yuan-2’s first flight with that of CZ-6, his face twitching continuously.

Including the staff in the control room, no one had expected such an almost acrobatic method of recovery to succeed. It took them a minute to react before they started clapping, and the applause grew louder and more fervent, like a tidal wave building in intensity.

On the beach opposite the launch site, in thousands of schools throughout Sichuan, and in front of countless family TVs, there was genuine cheering and joy.

Even ordinary people who knew nothing about aerospace felt the insane technological power behind New Yuan-2.

Chen Jun, who was still communicating with his superiors on the phone, was also stunned. The other end of the phone soon heard of New Yuan-2’s feat and immediately gave Chen Jun full authority to turn Xin’an into China’s best national brand.

New Yuan-2 created a miracle in aerospace history with the fastest speed and most powerful technology.

Lin Ju turned to look at the people in the control room and saw an unprecedentedly passionate scene.

The Director of the Launch Management Bureau came over and firmly gripped his shoulder,

"Chairman Lin, it seems that Qiongzhou Launch Site will become the birthplace of future space ventures. We will organize every launch mission of New Yuan with the utmost responsibility!

Congratulations, now even the Aerospace Bureau can’t compare to New Yuan Aeronautics."

A cough interrupted his congratulations, and the Director, irritated, turned his head to find a Big Shot from the Aerospace Bureau standing behind him with a stern face, promptly greeted him and walked away tactfully.

The Big Shot walked up to Lin Ju with an encouraging smile but then glanced back at his own subordinates as if inadvertently. After a moment of silent intimidation, he shook hands with Lin Ju and said solemnly,

"New Yuan Aeronautics has proven itself to have ample technical capability, and you also qualify to enter the national aerospace projects. From now on, you can actively participate in the Aerospace Bureau’s public tenders;

Moreover, I am aware that some projects of New Yuan might involve sensitive technology. If there is a definitive purpose and you can accept a certain degree of control, exchanges are possible."

What the Big Shot meant was simple: You’re so impressive already, why not stand together with the Aerospace Bureau? From now on, you’ll truly enter the national system.

And about sensitive technology, he was obviously referring to the nuclear material they had inquired about before, and now it seemed that there could be room for negotiation.

For Lin Ju, this was an exhilarating surprise, meaning that even without system tasks, he could now push forward with the help of the nation’s funding and power.