Riding the wind of rebirth

Everyone became excited and nervous, and when the countdown reached the last minute, Mai Xiaomiao nervously reached out and held Zhou Zhi's hand. They both found that each other's palms were warm and moist.

The stabilizing arms that fixed the rocket quickly opened one by one, and then a flash of fire appeared on the base of the rocket, followed by a raging flame. A huge white wave gushed out from the guide chute under the flame, covering the entire bare hillside opposite. At the moment of ignition, the platform automatically rotated to separate the star and rocket, and the bolts that fixed the rocket also exploded immediately, and the rocket began to slowly rise from the ground on the raging flames.

It was not until then that air waves and shock waves came towards the observation deck accompanied by a huge roar. The fifty-meter-high white behemoth began to accelerate rapidly, soaring into the sky with a huge tail flame.

"Ahhhh——" Everyone shouted and jumped excitedly, except Luo Yujuan and Zhou Zhi.

Zhou Zhi understood very well that the mere launch of a rocket did not mean the success of the launch. Only when the satellite entered the predetermined orbit and the signal was transmitted back would it be truly worth celebrating.

Luo Yujuan stood behind the excited children and glanced at Zhou Zhi. Anyone who sees a rocket take off for the first time would be extremely excited. Captain Zhou said that this man was quite unusual. He had not noticed this during the whole reception today, but only now did he feel that Zhou Zhi seemed to be a little different from ordinary people.

In just a few minutes, the rocket became a small bright spot. Apart from the increasingly smaller rumbling sound that continued to be heard, and the smoke filling the launch base, there seemed to be some unpleasant odors in the air.

"Let's go, let's go outside the command center and wait for news." Luo Yujuan said, "The base leaders asked us to show the whole set to the children and do a good job of patriotism education."

"Thank you so much." Zhou Zhi said.

Mai Xiaomiao just joined the joyful dancing and let go of Zhou Zhi's hand which she had been holding involuntarily. Only now did she realize that this matter was not over yet.

By the time everyone arrived at the command center's visiting room, the rocket had completed its first separation. The four liquid rocket boosters had successfully separated from the first-stage core rocket and began to fall. Their fate was to burn up in the atmosphere.

The command center is a cylindrical building. In the middle of the ground floor is a large round room, a bit like a small stadium. Various workstations are distributed inside. Everyone here monitors the computers in front of them, performing their duties in a tense and orderly manner.

Various data and the progress of the launch project are displayed on the large screen on the front.

The second floor is a circle of rooms surrounding the command center, with conference rooms, lounges, tiered classrooms and other rooms. Zhou Zhi and his team are now in one of the conference rooms, looking at the command and dispatch center below through the curved glass curtain wall.

However, Luo Yujuan did not turn on the loudspeaker in the conference room, so the sound from the command and dispatch center could hardly be heard. Only the key instructions at the loudest voice could be heard vaguely, as if watching a pantomime.

Not knowing whether this was the base’s discipline, Zhou Zhi didn’t dare to ask.

However, Luo Yujuan still gave a brief explanation of the content displayed on the big screen, such as the separation of the first and second core stage rockets, the separation of the core stage rocket and the satellite, the opening of the fairing, the deployment of the satellite into working mode, the adjustment of the orbital attitude, the orbit switching, etc. Her calm and somewhat suppressed tone made the atmosphere in the conference room more and more solemn, and in the end no one dared to even breathe.

Finally, the subtitle at the bottom of the big screen changed from red to green. All the staff in the hall stood up, jumped and applauded. Luo Yujuan excitedly pumped her fist: "We received the normal signal sent back. It's a success!" "Success!" This time it was Zhou Zhi who jumped up first, and he also pulled Mai Xiaomiao, Jilie Azi, and even Luo Yujuan to join him: "Success!"

Zhou Zhi immediately stirred up the joyful atmosphere in the conference room. Luo Yujuan was a little overwhelmed by Zhou Zhi's excessive enthusiasm and wanted to take back her judgment of Zhou Zhi.

I thought Zhou Zhi was a calm and steady general, but it turns out that the time is not right yet!

A soldier with gray hair on his temples, wearing a military uniform inside and a white coat outside, walked in: "Haha, our launch mission was a complete success. It seems that everyone has understood it?"

"This is our deputy commander-in-chief, Deputy Commander Zhang Weichao." Luo Yujuan quickly introduced him to the adults in Zhouzhi.

"General Manager Li is still accepting media interviews downstairs. He asked me to come over and introduce this launch mission to the children." Zhang Weichao shook hands with everyone and said hello: "Zhou Zhi, Mai Xiaomiao, thank you for your contributions to our national defense equipment industry! Lao Qin has really made a big profit this time. He is a person who always reports bad news but not good news. It is not easy to hear the four words "overjoyed" from him!"

"No, no, it's Director Qin who is willing to give us a chance to try. It just so happens that his project coincides with our research direction. We are all lucky."

“Hahahaha…” Zhang Weichao laughed heartily, “We who are engaged in scientific research dare not rely on luck for success. Our base has learned a profound lesson in this regard.”

At this point, he coughed lightly and waved his hand: "Let me tell you about this mission. The satellite launched this time is called Ecosta 1..."

"echo star?"

"Oh, yes, it's Echo 1, a commercial satellite for live broadcasting manufactured by Lockheed Martin in the United States. It weighs 3.3 tons."

"The rocket ignited and took off on time at 19:50. After 44 minutes of flight, it reached the predetermined orbit and successfully transmitted the satellite signal. This launch was a complete success!"

This time, no one cheered. Instead, led by Zhou Zhi, everyone applauded excitedly.

"My dear children, our country's aerospace technology is world-class, but this is not enough. We must not only lead, but also strive to be number one! We must complete more space missions, send astronauts to space, build our own space station, and even go to the moon!"

"This requires everyone to study hard and become talents for the construction of the motherland in the future. I also hope that everyone will learn mathematics, physics and chemistry well and design better rockets and better satellites. When the time comes, everyone is welcome to come to our base to realize their space dreams!"

The kids were so excited by today's legendary experience and Uncle Zhang's passionate speech that they clapped their hands vigorously.

Only Zhou Zhi applauded while secretly complaining, "Why is it the same old story again? Those who are good at math, physics and chemistry are talented, but those who are good at literature, history and philosophy are not talented?" This old Zhang is simply scolding a bald donkey in front of a monk. He doesn't even give him the face he deserves... (End of this chapter)