Two Realms: Don't call me evil!

Chapter 493 First Flight and Rocket Recovery

At the Chiyang Rocket Launch Center, Ma Lin, a reporter from CBS in the United States, is broadcasting live to the audience.

Although she is a reporter from the United States, she is not European or American. Instead, she immigrated to the United States from China and has lived and settled in the United States for many years.

"Please look, audience, behind me is the Kunpeng rocket manufactured by the Jeco Group. According to data released by the Jeco Group, the Kunpeng rocket is 185 meters long and 15 meters in diameter. It is equipped with 44 Kongpeng engines. The rocket has a takeoff mass of 11380 tons and a near-Earth orbit payload of 850 tons, which is four times larger than the Saturn V, the largest rocket ever built by humans."

Facing the camera, Ma Lin had a charming smile on his face. After reading the data, the camera was aimed at the Kunpeng rocket that was already standing next to the launch pad, ready to take off.

“But that’s what the Jeko Group said. Whether this rocket can succeed or not is still a question mark.

Let’s interview some visitors to see what they think.

Hello, sir. I am a reporter from CBS. Do you think this Kunpeng rocket can be launched successfully? "

Holding the microphone, Ma Lin approached the tourists and asked them one by one.

"If the Jeko Group could build mechas, I think it would be fine, but Rocket, I'm sorry to say, they don't have the talent for it."

"It's very difficult. I feel like the rocket will disintegrate in the air."

"I'm here to watch the fun. Come on, Jeko Group! Whether it's an explosion or a success, I'll be able to feast my eyes on it."

After interviewing several tourists in succession, most of them were not optimistic about the launch of the Kunpeng rocket.

"It seems that no one trusts the Kunpeng rocket. The new player, the Jeko Group, wants to join the space party. I think they still have a long way to go."

Ma Lin's beautiful eyes flickered, with a charming smile on her lips. She faced the camera and broadcast the live broadcast back to the United States in real time.

There are hundreds of journalists and media like Ma Lin in the specially set up media area.

With the gimmick of the most powerful rocket in human history, the number of viewers who watched the live broadcast of the rocket's first flight through television stations and social platforms such as the Internet was conservatively estimated to be more than 300 million.

In the rocket command center, Su Jie brought Liu Yingying here again.

"Mr. Su, please press the launch button."

Pang Liangzhi stood in front of Su Jie, his face visibly nervous.

Su Jie patted Pang Liangzhi on the shoulder and said with a smile: "There is no need for such a ceremony. You are the chief designer of this rocket, so you should press it yourself."

Pang Liangzhi took a deep breath and walked to the rocket launch button with excitement and nervousness.

The staff on the side stared at the time indicated by the electronic clock and kept reporting: "Five minutes to prepare, three minutes to prepare, one minute to prepare"

As the last minute approached, various tracking and measuring equipment on the site were turned on, and recording equipment such as high-speed cameras and tape recorders were also started.

"Ten seconds to launch, 10, 9"

The entire audience held their breath, and the engineers clenched their fists and stared at the screen without blinking.

"3, 2, 1, ignition."

When the countdown reached zero, the button was pressed by Pang Liangzhi.

Immediately, there was a continuous and loud roar from the rocket launch site, like a landslide or a tsunami, shaking the earth.

On the rocket launch base, huge flames and thick smoke gushed out, with deafening noise and turbulent shock waves. The tourists and media watching from outside could even feel the ground shaking.

Amid the screams of tens of thousands of tourists at the scene, the high-pressure gas ejected by the Kunpeng rocket under the powerful thrust of the fuel formed a reaction force, and the Kunpeng rocket took off from the ground and soared straight into the sky.

In just a dozen seconds, the rocket accelerated to the speed of sound, with dazzling flames spewing from its tail. The exhaust gas condensed into smoke in the air, like a white silk ribbon extending across the sky, forming a gorgeous cloud in the shape of a cloud disk.

“It’s flying.”

"Fuck, so handsome, so awesome!"

"Shit, this rocket really took off. I thought it was going to explode right where it is."

The audience at the scene opened their mouths wide. The huge size and weight of the Kunpeng rocket made it look like a 10,000-ton destroyer taking off in front of everyone.

The beautiful and stunning scenes made every audience member who witnessed them tremble with joy, and they were able to truly experience and feel the charm of technology created by human beings.

I don't know who started it, but at first there were sparse applause, and then the applause became continuous and thunderous.

"Explode! Explode! Explode!!!"

Of course, there are also some people who are unhappy now. Ma Lin, the CBS reporter, stared at the Kunpeng rocket taking off, muttering to himself, and he wished he could slap the Kunpeng rocket down.

In Ma Lin's view, the United States is the strongest country in the world and has the strongest scientific and technological capabilities.

She found it hard to accept that a force like the Jeko Group was going to surpass the United States in the field of space. She was full of patriotism towards the United States, even more than many Americans.

But no matter how she muttered, the Kunpeng rocket took off and flew higher and higher, more and more steadily, straight into the sky, gradually turning into a small bright spot, and finally completely disappeared from sight.

However, the explosion and mid-air disintegration that Ma Lin had been hoping for did not occur on the Kunpeng rocket, which made Ma Lin very disappointed.

Ma Lin could only suppress his inner reluctance, walked in front of the camera and smiled stiffly: "We can see that the Kunpeng rocket has successfully lifted off and completed the take-off phase, but whether it can fly into space and complete the satellite deployment is still unknown. Only when the satellite can truly start to operate can the Kunpeng rocket be called a success."

There was a hint of sourness in Ma Lin's voice.

The current situation is not what she wanted to see. She originally planned to laugh at the JEC Group, but now she suddenly discovered that the JEC Group's Kunpeng rocket seemed to have the possibility of succeeding on its first flight.

At the same time, cheers were heard in the rocket command center. Engineers hugged each other excitedly, their joy beyond words.

"Everyone be quiet, we haven't succeeded yet."

As Pang Liangzhi spoke, his hands were actually trembling slightly, showing that he was not calm inside. It was just that the Kunpeng rocket had not yet been completely successful, so he was trying to control his emotions.

"We have made a good start, success is not far away. When we succeed, I will give red envelopes to everyone."

Su Jie's words immediately made the atmosphere more lively, but everyone did not forget their duties. They quickly sat back in their seats and began to monitor the situation of the rocket.

On land all over the Indochina Peninsula, radars at monitoring stations are capturing the flight trajectory of the Kunpeng rocket.

On the sea, there are ocean-going survey ships that accurately measure, record and report the rocket's flight speed, altitude and attitude at every moment. A large amount of measurement data is collected from all directions to the rocket command center, and good news keeps coming.

“Good tracking!”

"The engine is working fine!"

"The flight attitude is normal!"

On rows of screens, colorful numbers were frequently exchanged, and the automatic recorder gently traced the curve of the rocket's flight trajectory on the display board. These images would also be broadcast to major media around the world and enter the audience's field of vision.

"How beautiful! This is our own rocket!"

Liu Yingying, who was standing next to her, stared at the images on the big screen. Those images were taken by multiple cameras installed on the Kunpeng rocket.

Through the camera, the Kunpeng rocket has now left the atmosphere. Looking down, one can see the arc of the blue star, the white clouds like a gauze, the distinct coastline, the brown and yellow mountains, the continuous rivers, and the vast expanse, like a silent scroll, showing the depth and tranquility of space.

"First stage ignition separation."

In space, the first stage of the rocket begins to separate, which is the bottom part of the rocket, followed by the second stage and fairing of the rocket.

Today's rockets all use a multi-stage structure because the maximum speed of most single-stage rockets cannot reach 7.9 kilometers per second. If the rocket cannot reach this speed, it cannot fly away from the blue planet.

Therefore, we can only use multi-stage rockets. The structure of a multi-stage rocket is like a relay race, accelerating stage by stage, and then the speed exceeds the first cosmic speed to send the spacecraft into the orbit of the blue planet.

The Kunpeng rocket also has a multi-stage structure, with a total of two stages. At this time, the first-stage rocket is thrown away and abandoned, and the second-stage rocket continues to ignite, further increasing the flight speed and flying towards the predetermined orbit.

The first-stage rocket lost its kinetic energy, as if it had used up all its strength to throw its child away, and then began to fall back into the arms of Mother Earth.

This is also the routine operation of rocket launch. The first-stage rocket is basically disposable.

But all the viewers watching the Kunpeng rocket suddenly discovered that something was wrong with this first-stage rocket.

As the first-stage rocket fell and tumbled, flames continued to emerge from the engine at the tail of the rocket. The rocket body was constantly adjusting, gradually changing into a straight-down flight posture, and then re-entering the atmosphere.

"This is... rocket recovery."

All the viewers who were watching the live broadcast were shocked.

Nowadays, there is only one aerospace company in the world that can recover rockets, and that company is the famous Space Exploration Technologies Corporation.

Even the official aerospace departments of other countries cannot recover rockets, so you can imagine how difficult this is.

Under the shocked gazes of the crowd, when the rocket was still 10,000 meters from the ground, all of its remaining engines started up, using thrust to continuously reduce its landing speed in preparation for landing.

At the Chiyang Rocket Launch Site, tourists and media are gradually leaving as the Kunpeng rocket has disappeared from sight.

But soon, some sharp-eyed tourists saw a flash of fire in the sky like a meteor.

As the exclamations continued, more and more tourists looked up.

However, a rocket core stage nearly 100 meters long was seen falling down. The flames gushing out of its tail and the powerful reaction thrust were causing the rocket to slow down again and again.

"The rocket is coming back."

"Oh my god, the Jeco Group actually has rocket recovery technology."

"Are you kidding me? Can such a heavy rocket be recovered?"

Under the shocked gazes of all the tourists, when the first-stage rocket was still five kilometers above the ground, four supports were opened from under the rocket.

Finally, the entire first-stage rocket was very stable, with almost no deviation, and landed on the rocket launch site.

The bracket landed smoothly without tipping over. With all the rocket engines shut down, the first-stage rocket with a pitch-black surface landed steadily and was recovered successfully.

At this time, the audience who were slow to realize the situation began to scream in surprise. Ma Lin's chest heaved up and down. He was stunned by the technical strength displayed by the JECCO Group.

Beautiful country, NASA.

Hundreds of NASA employees gathered together to watch the live broadcast of the first flight of the Kunpeng rocket, and everyone was mainly interested in making fun of the Jeco Group.

As it turned out, the Kunpeng rocket of the Jeco Group flew very smoothly and even recovered the rocket.

The originally noisy scene suddenly became quiet.

At the back of the line, there were two men drinking coffee.

One of them is NASA Administrator Burton, and the other one is wearing casual clothes. He is Muska, who was invited by NASA Administrator Burton. He is the founder and chairman of Space Exploration Technologies Corporation.

"Wardfa, how is it possible!"

Masca, who was drinking coffee and watching the live broadcast of the first flight of the Kunpeng rocket, sprayed out a mouthful of coffee.

Looking at the first-stage rocket recovered by the Jeko Group, his expression froze.

He was already surprised that the Jeko Group was able to successfully launch the Kunpeng rocket. Now that they could even do something like rocket recovery, Maska could hardly believe his eyes.

You know, when he founded SpaceX, it took him six years and many failures before he finally launched the first non-governmental rocket into space.

Not to mention the rocket recovery technology, which experienced countless failures during that period. It was the accumulation of data from repeated failures that led to the current mature rocket recovery technology.

As a result, the first rocket launch by Jeco was not only successful, but the company also possessed the rocket recovery technology.

Moreover, its technological content and level are much stronger than those of his Space Exploration Technologies Corporation.

After all, the Kunpeng rocket is the most powerful rocket in human history, with a length of 185 meters, a diameter of 15 meters, and a weight of tens of thousands of tons.

SpaceX's most mature rocket model, the Falcon 9, is 70 meters high, 3.7 meters in diameter and weighs 549 tons.

Comparing the two, it is definitely more difficult to recover the Kunpeng rocket. After all, it has such a large weight and requires more technical difficulty.

This also means that the JEC Group has surpassed SpaceX, the world's most powerful private aerospace technology company, in the field of rockets.

"Jeco Group actually has a big trick like rocket recycling. Maska, has any engineer left your company recently?"

NASA Director Burton's hands trembled, a lot of coffee spilled, and his brows were furrowed into a 川 shape.

Maska came to his senses and understood what Burton meant. He thought that the company's technology was leaking out, so he shook his head and said, "No, we can't let go of the talent who has mastered the core rocket recovery technology. Moreover, this involves coordinated control of materials, software, flight computers, controllers, precision guidance systems, etc. It is not something that can be done by poaching one or two people. Therefore, the rocket recovery technology of the Jeko Group must have been developed by itself."

"Damn, where did all these advanced technologies come from in the JECO Group?"

Burton looked unhappy. He had originally called everyone together to come and see the joke of the JEC Group, but now he felt like a joke himself.

"This is really hard to understand. The speed of technological breakthroughs is too fast. It will be difficult for us to do rocket business in the future."

Maska sighed, saying that he, who originally monopolized the rocket recovery market, now had a new rival, the Jeko Group, which made him feel extremely pressured.

(End of this chapter)