Riding the wind of rebirth

In his previous life, Zhou Zhi learned that the launch accident in 1996 did not actually occur in 1996, but rather later, when he was sent down to Liangshan for poverty alleviation and visited the base, he heard about it from a tour guide.

At the time, the tour guide pointed to a dormitory area of ​​small Western-style buildings outside the base and said that the area was full of dangerous buildings because the structure was damaged by the rocket explosion in 1996, which left a deep impression on Zhouzhi.

The impact of that accident was so significant that CCTV has since generally stopped broadcasting satellite launches live, except for major space launch missions.

It even affected the United States. A few years later, the U.S. Congress accused Laura Corporation and Hughes Corporation of selling secrets to China after the accident and imposed fines on them.

Zhou Zhi never expected that after his rebirth, he would be able to fill the gap in the upgrading of the process quality management system for the national aerospace industry, thereby eliminating many risks that had been overlooked in design and testing.

In February of this year, the Long March 3B rocket successfully launched the international communications satellite 708. Several months earlier, on August 18, the Long March 3 rocket successfully launched the Hughes-developed Zhongxing-7 satellite from Xichang.

The launch was originally expected to fail due to the premature shutdown of the rocket engine's third stage, but thanks to the new quality control system, technicians quickly identified the problem, and the satellite launch was successful again.

The success of the two launches, especially the successful launch of the Long March 3B heavy-lift rocket with its super-large payload capacity, has earned China's commercial space industry an excellent reputation worldwide. In stark contrast to the previous era, international orders and cooperation requests have poured in, opening a new chapter for China's commercial space industry.

The success of these two launches completely dispelled Zhou Zhi's anxiety. Only now did he truly believe that the two crises that should have occurred in 1996 had been completely rewritten because of his small contribution.

"Wouldn't it be even more impressive if we sent the Long March 3B to Wenchang for launch?" Yan Xiao exclaimed, looking at the enormous rocket already standing at the launch site. "This thing is really big!"

This thing isn't very noticeable on TV, but it's a completely different story once you get to the base.

"Of course it's huge. The Long March 3B is the largest launch vehicle to date, with a geostationary transfer orbit carrying capacity of 5.5 tons." Zhou Zhi laughed, "To meet such a large carrying capacity requirement, the rocket's four boosters alone are 2.25 meters in diameter and over 15 meters high, and each booster can be filled with 40 tons of fuel."

"The remaining three-stage rockets have a first stage diameter of 3.35 meters and a height of 23 meters, a second stage height of 10 meters, and a third stage height of 12 meters. They are filled with 180 tons, 50 tons, and 18 tons of fuel, respectively."

"Therefore, the Long March 3B rocket has a total height of 45 meters, which is equivalent to the height of a ten-story building, and carries a total of more than 400 tons of fuel. Only by designing the rocket to be this large can the GTO payload capacity reach more than five tons."

"What exactly is this GTO?"

“GTO stands for Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit, which is 36,000 kilometers above the Earth,” Zhou Zhi explained. “This is a standard. The closer the orbit is to the Earth, the greater the carrying capacity of the same rocket. The farther the orbit is from the Earth, such as TLI Earth-Moon Transfer Orbit or SSO Sun-Synchronous Orbit, the carrying capacity of the same Long March 3B rocket will not reach five tons.”

"How much does it cost to launch one of these things? The fuel alone must cost a fortune!" Yang Honghui exclaimed in amazement, "Building such a huge thing is truly impressive!"

"As far as we know, the commercial launch cost for the Long March 3B is currently set at US$56 million, while the planned commercial launch cost is US$80 million," Zhou Zhi said. "My goodness..." Yan Xiao: "How much is that in RMB again?"

“It’s around five or six hundred million,” Zhou Zhi said. “However, the country doesn’t lack RMB, but it urgently needs foreign exchange. So paying in US dollars is actually a discount. If it were paid in RMB, I guess the price would be even higher.”

"So you also pay in US dollars?"

“Our situation is a bit special,” Zhou Zhi explained. “Because AXA Capital has provided a lot of technical support, system support, and patent sharing to aerospace companies, research institutes, and bases through the Clover Group. In addition, in terms of payment methods, the foundation has established a special committee to ensure that R&D funds are in place in a timely manner, and some are even advanced, and all payments are made in US dollars. Therefore, in many aspects, we have a deep cooperative and joint R&D relationship, so the cost is much lower.”

"However, the specific figures are a state secret, and no one is allowed to disclose them to the outside world."

In fact, the project commissioned by AXA Fund to AVIC is a series of projects. The space portion of the Tianxingdiwang project is called the "Star Engine Project". This project includes a package of satellite design, production and launch missions. The entire Star Engine integrated communication system requires the deployment of a medium-sized communication satellite network on the Dongsanyi platform, carrying a xenon ion electric propulsion system, in space, totaling 15 satellites: five high-altitude and ten low-altitude.

The original letter of intent stipulated that AXA would provide $300 million within five years. However, due to the progress far exceeding Zhou Zhi and Li Laosan's estimates, $200 million has already been burned through in the past year.

Fortunately, the results are remarkable. The overall plan was originally expected to take five years to complete, with the first launch scheduled for around the third year. The fact that the schedule was completed ahead of schedule is a pleasant surprise.

This is certainly thanks to the large number of patented technologies purchased internationally by AXA Fund, including some technologies from Lora and Hughes, plus fiber optic equipment technology from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, geostationary orbit laser communication technology from the China Academy of Space Technology, and the process quality management system designed with the help of Clover Group.

Another crucial factor is the timely and adequate availability of funds.

Aerospace workers said they had never fought such a rich battle before. All the units that received the scientific research tasks were extremely excited and happy, working day and night.

Because of the quality control system, the quality has improved rather than decreased, even though the task is heavy and the time is tight.

Zhou Zhi and Li Laosan were naturally even happier about this phenomenon. The sooner the Tianxing Diwang system was put into use, the sooner their quantitative trading system could be connected to securities markets around the world and put into use in a faster and more covert way. In this time and space, this was a unique existence, equivalent to gold lying everywhere and only they were able to pick it up.

Through their hard work, the aerospace workers enabled Zhou Zhi and Li Laosan to achieve three to four times the labor productivity and save six to seven times the time cost by making a large, concentrated investment in a short period of time. How could the two not be overjoyed?!

If you can gain a first-mover advantage in quantitative trading, you can earn back countless $300 million.

"The development of the Long March 3B actually began in early 1993. Its initial design used the Long March 3A rocket as its core stage, and then, imitating the Long March 2E and Long March 3A models, four liquid rocket boosters were strapped around the first stage of the core stage, resulting in the rocket with the largest payload capacity to date." Zhou Zhi continued, "Just now, Salt Mouse asked if this thing could be sent to Wenchang for launch. I think that day will come. When that time comes, the Long March 3B's effective GTO payload capacity will reach six tons. That already exceeds the weight of the heaviest satellite currently in use." (End of Chapter)