Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 358 Internal Competition and the First Flight of the Sixth Heavy Rocket

In Shenzhen, in the Wecoo Electronics Building, Bai Qiwen is holding a high-level meeting within Wecoo Electronics.

"The situation is very good now. We couldn't expand the mid-to-high-end market share before. Now we have Sixing, the good fortune boy, giving us some market share. This is God's help!"

"In addition to continuously increasing the promotion of Bluemax8 and Bluemax8, all departments should do a good job in Bluemax8 Pro's major markets in China and ASEAN, and also do a good job in the promotion and subsequent launch of W200 in South America!"

Weiku W200 is a reskinned version of the Xiaolan MAX8 Pro.

Weiku Electronics has always been pursuing a strategy of one core and two brands. The W series in Weiku is just a reskinned version of the Little Blue MAX.

It’s just that the sales volume of the W of the Vico brand has always been very low, with sales of only about two to three million units a year, and it mainly relies on the domestic market and the South American market... What’s more interesting is that the Vico brand under Vico Electronics sells very well in the South American market, much better than Xiaolan, and is among the top three mobile phone brands in terms of shipments in some South American countries.

The Vico W series is also a typical representative of high-end mobile phones in several South American countries, and can compete with four-star phones.

However, the sales volume of the Vico W series is too low. Therefore, many times, company executives such as Bai Qiwen still like to combine the two series together. Therefore, the sales volume of the Little Blue MAX series that they often talk about mostly includes the Vico W series.

"Whether we can make a comeback this year and break through the sales mark of 30 million high-end phones depends on the next few months!"

"Especially for the Bluegogo MAX8 Pro, we should not only increase our publicity and promotion efforts in the domestic market, but also in the ASEAN and South American markets."

The marketing director below said: "Although it is extremely difficult to break through the sales of 30 million units this year, it is not hopeless!"

"Our Bluegogo MAX series has very good sales in China. Last year, the sales volume in the domestic market reached 10 million units."

"At the same time, in the ASEAN market, especially in the two important markets of Thailand and Vietnam, our Bluegogo MAX series has also achieved very good sales. Last year, the ASEAN market contributed 4 million units of sales to us!"

"The Indian market is also a market with advantages for us. Our Bluegogo MAX series has also achieved good sales in the local market, with sales of 1.5 million units last year."

"The EU market also has some market share, contributing nearly two million units of sales."

"In addition, we also have a certain market share in North America, and we also have some in Japan."

"The above-mentioned major markets, together with some other sporadic markets, contributed 20 million units of sales to us last year."

"Plus, the Vico W series sold more than two million units last year, making it very competitive in the South American market!"

"Last year, our high-end mobile phone shipments reached 22 million units. Although there is still some distance to go before reaching 30 million units, we still have hope of making a breakthrough this year!"

It can also be seen from the above sales comparison that Weiku Electronics' high-end mobile phone shipments are also highly dependent on overseas markets, with overseas market sales accounting for about half of the sales share, and it is relatively dependent on the ASEAN region.

The main reason is that the Xiaolan brand started working in the ASEAN region relatively early, and through years of market cultivation, it has cultivated a large number of users, effectively promoted the brand, and made local consumers recognize Xiaolan mobile phones.

"Although we are still some distance away from the goal of 8 million units, the situation this year is very good. In the first eight months of this year, we have achieved the sales target of 7 million units thanks to the Bluegogo MAX7 released at the beginning of the year, Bluegogo MAX Pro, Bluegogo MAX and Vicoo W series released last year."

“It will be very difficult to achieve sales of 10 million units in the next four months, but considering the current market changes, we still have hope of achieving it!”

"This is not only due to the favorable impact of the battery fire and explosion of the Four Star Galaxy series, but also the continued decline in sales of our sister manufacturer Zhiyun's C series this year. At the same time, in the price range of 3,000 to 4,000 yuan, apart from Zhiyun's C series and Four Star mobile phones, we have no other strong competitors. All of this has freed up enough market capacity for us!"

“I suggest launching a new round of price reduction promotions for the Bluegogo MAX8, and at the same time lowering the launch price of the Bluegogo MAX8 Pro!”

"First, seize the market, eliminate competitors, get market share, and cultivate user habits before considering profits!"

"The relatively cheap price, coupled with the under-screen optoelectronic technology that we are promoting this year, is enough to cause a sales frenzy for our Bluemax8 Pro!"

Bai Qiwen said after hearing this: "That makes sense. It's okay to lower the price appropriately. Do a good job of cost accounting, and then we'll see how much room there is for price reduction!"

After saying that, Bai Qiwen looked around and said, "Everyone, opportunities like this don't come around every day. We have waited for five or six years for this opportunity. Whether we can completely turn things around, get rid of the low-end brand positioning, and enter the high-end sequence depends on whether we can seize this opportunity!"

Just when Weiku Electronics was gearing up to take advantage of the Sixing battery fire incident to seize the market.

Several other domestic mobile phone manufacturers are also trying their best to seize market share.

In late September, OV took the lead in launching a high-end model launch conference, introducing a painstakingly crafted new flagship model with a price tag of over 3,000 yuan, which had a good market. It also launched mid-range and high-end models, vigorously promoting the 2,500 to 3,000 yuan market.

Their flagship fast charging technology has also attracted a lot of market attention.

Not long after, Huawei also released their new generation flagship phone, which adopted their self-developed 14nm Kirin chip, once again impacting the high-end market and pushing the price of mobile phones up to more than 3,000 yuan, and a few high-end models even reached the 4,000 yuan price range.

Of course, the one that attracted the most attention was Weiku Electronics.

On September 8, the Little Blue brand under Weiku Electronics held a flagship phone launch conference and released the Little Blue MAX Pro.

Although it still uses a bangs design, the bangs are very small, only a small area in the middle top of the screen, which is used to place the front camera and a small number of sensors. Weiku Electronics promotes this screen as a "water drop screen."

Compared with the traditional three-segment screen, the water drop screen has a larger proportion and looks more pleasing to the eye than the large notch screen represented by the Zhiyun S series of mobile phones.

This is a compromise solution designed by engineers at Wecoo Electronics when they were unable to use 3D facial recognition but wanted a full-screen display to increase the screen-to-body ratio.

This screen solution can be said to have brought considerable impact to consumers at present.

Many mobile phone manufacturers nowadays have copied the notch screen because of the strength of the Zhiyun S series of mobile phones. However, they don’t even have 3D face recognition. If they insist on using the notch screen, it will actually look very funny and have a cheap and inferior smell of plagiarism.

Without 3D facial recognition occupying such a large space, why would you want a notch screen...it's just copying for the sake of copying.

Therefore, some large manufacturers would rather continue to use three-segment screens for high-end models than bear the reputation of being low-quality imitations.

However, full-screen is a major trend, so many manufacturers are figuring out how to make full-screen.

Now, Weiku Electronics has given them a new solution, which is to extremely reduce the notch screen and make it into a water drop shape, leaving only a small space for the front camera, earpiece, infrared sensor, ambient light sensor, etc.

The screen made in this way looks much more pleasing to the eye.

While the waterdrop screen of Weiku Electronics' Little Blue MAX8 Pro has caused a lot of discussion, more discussions are focused on the under-screen optical fingerprint technology equipped in the phone.

As the world's first mobile phone to adopt under-screen fingerprint technology, the Xiaolan MAX8 Pro can be said to have gained huge attention.

As a result, this phone received a lot of coverage from mainstream foreign technology media after its release, which was very rare for the Xiaolan brand in the past.

Although Vico Electronics' smartphone sales are very high, with annual sales reaching 200 million units, people regard Vico Electronics' BlueDot and Vico brands as low- to mid-range phones. Most people's impression of BlueDot phones is still on the BlueDot M series priced at more than 1,000 yuan and the BlueDot digital series priced at around 2,000 yuan.

Although the sales of the Xiaolan MAX series are decent, it has not attracted much attention...many of them are natural upgrades for old users of Weiku Electronics mobile phones.

However, its appeal to users of other brands of mobile phones is actually average.

However, now, the Bluemax 8 Pro has successfully become popular thanks to its two new technologies: water drop screen and under-screen optoelectronics. Not only has it received a good response among Bluemax phone users, but also external users, that is, users of other mobile phone brands, know about this phone.

I found out that the Blue Mobile Phone, the younger brother of Zhiyun, which has been the second-best smartphone in China for a long time, has finally come up with a high-end smartphone.

The combination of the water drop screen and the under-screen fingerprint feels good.

These positive feedbacks, coupled with the fact that its biggest competitor, Sixin Electronics, was embroiled in a battery safety scandal, and that big brother Zhiyun focused most of its energy on the S series, with insufficient promotion of updates to the C series, especially technological innovation.

The two major competitors are not doing well this year, which naturally gives Weiku Electronics' Little Blue MAX series more room for survival.

After the Xiaolan MAX8 Pro was officially launched, it was unexpectedly out of stock.

This is something that has never happened before for the Xiaolan brand, or even for the entire Weiku Electronics...

You should know that WeCool Electronics attaches great importance to this mobile phone and has a stock of two million units. According to past experience, these three million mobile phones will take a long time to sell, and there will be no situation where consumers want to buy them but cannot buy them.

After all, Vico Electronics is not pursuing the ultimate cost-effectiveness, and does not need to control early sales. At the same time, Vico Electronics' mobile phone market appeal will not cause a rush to buy. Moreover, Vico Electronics' supply chain is a relatively mature supply chain, and even if there is a greater market demand, it can quickly increase production capacity to supply the market.

Therefore, for many years, there has been no large-scale market shortage of WeCool Electronics' mobile phones.

However, the popularity of the Little Blue MAX8 Pro exceeded the expectations of Weiku Electronics, so much so that it was unprecedentedly out of stock after its initial launch.

After Bai Qiwen received the sales report, he excitedly went to the Zhiyun Group's headquarters to find Xu Shenxue to report... It was called a report, but in fact it was just to seek credit.

"After so many years, our Little Blue mobile phones are finally being snapped up. This is not easy!" Bai Qiwen was in Xu Shenxue's office, seeming to sigh with an irrepressible smile on his face.

Xie Jianyong, who was standing by, was speechless when he saw this scene: Isn’t it just that the three million units in stock were sold out within a week? What’s there to brag about…

When I first started working on smartphones, my C1 phone sold better than yours... Our first high-end flagship phone, the S9, attracted worldwide attention, with many big names from around the world gathering at the launch conference.

Have you ever seen me showing off in front of you?

Ji Chenghe on the side said: "This result is gratifying. It seems that your Little Blue MAX series plus the Weiku W series should be able to sell 30 million units!"

Bai Qiwen said confidently: "There is still great hope. I have already asked the supply chain to increase production capacity. There are still three months left. Let's try again and see if we can get rid of the curse of 30 million units!"

Weiku Electronics is striving to enter the high-end market, claiming to sell 30 million units every year...but it has not been able to do so every year before.

It is very similar to the four-star Galaxy series that is striving to sell 30 million units every year... except that the four-star Galaxy series is mainly priced at four or five thousand, and is competing with the Zhiyun S series and Fruit series.

Weiku Electronics' high-end mobile phones are priced between three thousand and four thousand yuan. Its main competitors are the C series, six-star regular high-end mobile phones and high-end mobile phones of other brands.

In terms of overall difficulty, the gap between the two is still huge.

Don’t think that the four-star Galaxy series, which has been striving to achieve sales of 30 million units every year, is a stretch... In fact, globally, in the truly high-end field, only the four-star Galaxy series can pose a certain challenge to the Zhiyun S series and Fruit phones.

Others are not even qualified to challenge.

However, this year's four-star Galaxy series is going to fail completely, and because of battery safety issues, it will cause extremely serious consequences that will continue to affect their sales.

If nothing unexpected happens, the four-star Galaxy series will have to endure hardships for many more years...

The Galaxy series has an annual sales volume of 30 million units, but this slogan still needs to be shouted out, and it is still a long way to go before it can be achieved.

Xu Shenxue was also happy with the good results achieved by Weiku Electronics this year.

After all, Weiku Electronics is also his industry, and it’s good to be able to achieve some results.

"Work hard and strive to become a big hit, establish the status of Little Blue MAX in the industry, and let outsiders know that in addition to the S series, we also have a Little Blue MAX series!"

Bai Qiwen said: "Mr. Xu, I will continue to work hard, and Weiku Electronics will not let you down!"

After Bai Qiwen showed off, Xie Jianyong and Ji Chenghe also walked out of Xu Shenxue's office and came to Ji Chenghe's office.

While pouring tea for Xie Jianyong, Ji Chenghe said, "Old Xie, this year's S16 series is doing well, but the C series and A series can't be left behind!"

"The SX series is aimed at clearing inventory and positioning itself as a small-screen flagship phone. It has too many limitations, so I won't go into details. But the C and A series are getting worse and worse, which is not right!"

"The C series is the mobile phone series we started with, and it is of great significance. The fact that sales are dropping year by year is not a good sign. After all, this series can contribute more than 20 billion US dollars in revenue to us. It is also one of the main forces in expanding the market share of the Yun OS system and driving the growth of the entire software and Internet service revenue. It cannot be underestimated!"

"For the A series, we originally wanted to implement a dual high-end strategy, but we haven't succeeded in all these years. This year's sales have dropped significantly. If this continues, I'm afraid our A series sales will not even reach 15 million units next year!"

In response, Xie Jianyong said: "What can we do about it? This is not competition from other brands, but our S series is too strong."

"They are all our Zhiyun smartphones. Consumers with thicker wallets basically buy the S series, and only a small number of users will consider the C and A series."

“And we can’t just put 3D facial recognition and other things on these two series just to enhance their competitiveness!”

Ji Chenghe said: "Of course this won't work. 3D face recognition technology is currently the iconic core technology of our S series. Before other manufacturers achieve technological breakthroughs, this technology can only be used on the S series to maintain the unique, high-end attributes of the S series!"

"But other technologies can still be used, such as rear fingerprint or under-screen fingerprint!"

Xie Jianyong said: "We have also considered rear fingerprint sensors, but the front fingerprint sensor is the iconic appearance of our Zhiyun brand. If we give up rashly and directly adopt the rear fingerprint sensor, it will be too different from our overall brand design language. Not only will consumers not be used to it, we ourselves will not be used to it!"

"Too many brands are starting to use rear fingerprint sensors, but our Zhiyun phones will not use the same technical solutions as ordinary brands!"

“After all, we are Zhiyun, not an ordinary mobile phone brand. Even if it is just a C series, we must maintain brand consistency, so it is impossible for us to use rear fingerprint technology!”

Ji Chenghe listened and felt helpless... Sometimes, although high-end brands are good in many ways, brand baggage is also a problem.

Just like Apple and OnePlus, they don’t dare to follow Zhiyun’s example and use a notch screen when there is no 3D face recognition.

The current Zhiyun Group does not dare to easily put a rear fingerprint on mid-range models such as the C series.
I am afraid that ordinary consumers will ask: What's going on? Are you following others and using rear fingerprint scanners? Where is your style as the world's top brand?

If I want a rear fingerprint scanner, why would I buy your Zhiyun? There are so many other phones to choose from...

I bought your Zhiyun because I want you to be the best in the world and have a style different from that of ordinary mobile phone manufacturers.

This has also made Zhiyun's C series more and more difficult to use in recent years, and many things cannot be used...

The real good stuff should be given to the S series, and the S series should not be stolen. And the things that follow the crowd should not be used. The high-end attributes of the Zhiyun brand must be maintained, and no messing around is allowed.

In the end, we can only take the so-called "mature" route... To put it bluntly, it is to use some technical solutions that have been decentralized and eliminated from the S series.

I feel so depressed!

This is also the reason why the sales of the C series are getting lower and lower.

Ji Chenghe said: "What do you think? We should make the C series completely independent and make it a real subsidiary brand? This way, the C series will be free of its burdens."

"It's not like now, where the project is just running independently, but it will be completely independent, with a new subsidiary established to operate it, and even independent research and development!"

Xie Jianyong said, "Completely independent R&D and operation?"

Xie Jianyong smiled and said, "How many people do you think will buy the C series without the white cloud logo?"

After hearing this, Ji Chenghe also fell silent.

In recent years, Zhiyun Group’s top management has never stopped discussing the C series.

In the early years, we tried to make the brand independent and operate it as the 'Zhiyun C' brand, but we soon found that consumers were not interested. After some trials, especially a large amount of market research, we found that the situation was not optimistic.

So in the end, this plan was terminated, and 'Zhiyun C' became history. The C series continued to maintain its independent status as a project, and operated as a sub-series of Zhiyun, just like the S series, A series, and SX series.

We tried to have discussions several times later, but they basically ended in failure.

The biggest problem is that the sales of the Zhiyun C series are largely supported by the Zhiyun brand.

Instead of relying on the price/performance ratio or quality of the phone itself.

The C series is not a representative of cost-effective mobile phones. The price of more than 3,000 yuan is actually just a mid-range configuration.

The reason why it can still sell more than 40 million units every year is purely due to the popularity of its big brother S series.

Many people want to use Zhiyun phones, but cannot afford the S series phones, so they will buy the C series as a second choice.

At the same time, the shipments of the C series are mainly offline... Many people who don’t know much about mobile phones, especially the middle-aged and elderly, think that the C series is also a Zhiyun phone, which is also very awesome, so they bought it.

But I didn’t know that although they are both Zhiyun phones, the C series and S series are very different.

When people talk about how awesome Zhiyun phones are now, they usually refer to the S series...but they never mention the C series.

In this case, if the C series is separated from Zhiyun mobile phones and even the brand is not allowed to be used, it is almost equivalent to letting the C series die.

To be honest, without the white cloud LOGO, the C series might not even be able to beat the Bluegogo MAX series...

Because most people who buy C series phones do so because of the white cloud logo... not because of how good the C series is.

Facing this situation, Ji Chenghe was also helpless. Xie Jianyong, as the head of the smart terminal R&D department, thought about it and proposed a new idea: "Rear fingerprint is not feasible. This is related to brand issues. The more mobile phone brands use rear fingerprint, the less we can use it!
"But under-screen fingerprint technology is a new path. Although the current second-generation under-screen photoelectric technology is not safe enough, Wanjin Technology's third-generation under-screen photoelectric technology is progressing very well. I have visited their research and development progress before. If all goes well, it will be ready by the end of the year!"

"According to their introduction, the third-generation under-screen optoelectronic technology has added biometrics and other technologies, which has greatly improved security. Although it is slightly worse than the traditional capacitive fingerprint, it can still be used!"

"As full-screen is the general trend, our C series project team and A series project team are preparing to adopt the third-generation under-screen optoelectronic technology in next year's new models!"

"But whether it will work depends on the development of the third-generation under-screen optoelectronic technology of Wanjin Technology and whether the progress can catch up. If not, our C series and A series will have to continue to use the current front-facing fingerprint solution next year."

Ji Chenghe said: "I will go to Wanjin Technology later and urge them. It's not an under-screen ultrasound, it's just an under-screen photoelectric. It's been several years and they still haven't developed a safe and usable one."

In order to solve the future problems of the A series and C series, Ji Chenghe, Xie Jianyong and others are also very worried.

Especially when I see our younger brother Weiku Electronics, because they don’t have any high-end brand baggage and don’t even have to worry too much about safety, they dare to throw in all kinds of new gadgets, and then attract good market feedback.

This year, Wecoo Electronics has managed to boost the sales of high-end mobile phones to 30 million by relying on its not-yet-mature under-screen optoelectronics and water-drop screens.

So what about next year?
What about the year after next?
Although Xu Shenxue, as the boss of two companies, did not feel much about this, as both were his own companies, he did not care which one bought better and which one sold worse.

But the management, technical teams and even ordinary employees of these two companies care about it.

The amount of company revenue and profits is directly related to their salaries, bonuses, and options.

So after seeing the overwhelming success of the Xiaolan MAX8 Pro, many senior executives of Zhiyun Group became worried about the C series and A series.

Three days later, Ji Chenghe, the group's vice president, visited Wanjin Technology and saw the third-generation under-screen photoelectric fingerprint technology under development, as well as the under-screen ultrasonic fingerprint technology under development.

Then he had a closed-door meeting with Wanjin Technology's management and R&D department heads.

At the closed-door meeting, Ji Chenghe repeatedly emphasized the importance of C series and A series mobile phones to the company. Whether these two series of mobile phones can stop the downward trend and make a comeback next year depends on the research and development progress of Wanjin Technology's third-generation under-screen optoelectronic technology.

Wanjin Technology is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zhiyun Group, so it naturally attaches great importance to the requirements of the company's top management.

Then they announced the slogan of working overtime for three months and striving to develop the third-generation under-screen photoelectric technology before February.

The emergence of this situation is also the particularity of the mobile phone market after entering the stock market.

The fierce market competition has caused sister companies such as Zhiyun Group and Weiku Electronics to face intense competition.

This situation was not seen a few years ago.

In the past, it was all incremental markets, and everyone was doing well. Zhiyun and Weiku Electronics were each cultivating different markets and there was no competition between them.

But now, even sister companies have to compete for food!
Because the management of both companies are not only responsible to Xu Shenxue, but also to the company's large number of employees and supply chain manufacturers.

Although Zhiyun Group holds 30% of the shares of Weiku Electronics Group, the remaining shares are also in the hands of the Xu family. The Xu family and Zhiyun Group are brothers from the same mother.

However, WeCool Electronics has always been an independently operated enterprise. It has more than 40,000 employees and hundreds of suppliers who rely on WeCool Electronics for their livelihood.

Behind Weiku Electronics, there are also millions of people who rely on it for their meals and to support their families!

The hot sales of Little Blue MAX8 Pro after its launch also made countless people excited, and they are looking forward to getting a bigger year-end bonus at the end of the year.

It is impossible to give up one's own development for the sake of friendship between brother enterprises.

There are competitive conflicts between Zhiyun and Weiku, not to mention between other manufacturers.

The competition among mobile phone manufacturers this year is more intense than last year... At the same time, a major reshuffle in the mobile phone market is still ongoing.

Many second- and third-rate mobile phone manufacturers that were able to survive in the past will, if nothing unexpected happens, begin to disappear one after another this year!
Among domestic mobile phone manufacturers, Zhiyun continues to gain ground, Weiku Electronics continues to impact the high-end market, while Huawei, OV, and Dami have higher sales each year... But at the same time, there are also a large number of mobile phone manufacturers whose product sales continue to decline, and some are even going bankrupt.

The same is true for foreign mobile phone manufacturers. Among the second-tier brands, except for LG which is still surviving, the others are basically dead.

The head effect in the mobile phone industry is rapidly sweeping the world.

----

When major changes occurred in the mobile phone industry, Xu Shenxue had already given up his focus on the mobile phone business.

For Xu Shenxue, if the S16 series can be successful, then this year's mobile phone business will be considered successful. In fact, Xu Shenxue doesn't pay much attention to other mobile phone series, or even the quality of Weiku Electronics...

Whether it is other domestic mobile phone manufacturers or Wecoo Electronics, as long as they can sell more mobile phones, it actually doesn’t make much difference to Xu Shenxue... Anyway, no matter whose mobile phone it is, they have to use his semiconductor products and other spare parts.

This is the benefit of playing with the industrial chain. No matter how the market changes, you can make huge profits.

On September 29th, Xu Shenxue arrived at the long-missed Qiongzhou Island.

This time, not only Xu Shenxue came, but also many important figures came.

Because today will be a major milestone day for China's aerospace industry.

The No. 6 heavy-lift rocket, with a maximum take-off weight of more than 1,500 tons, will make its maiden flight this afternoon!
This is the rocket with the largest take-off weight ever developed by China. It is also the rocket with the largest designed payload, and it is also a reusable rocket!

It is also the official carrier rocket for the domestic space station program and the carrier rocket for Nanmen Aerospace's subsequent commercial space station.

Its historical significance is extremely important, and it has attracted great attention not only from the domestic aerospace industry but also from foreign countries.

Because the performance data of this rocket is too scary...

"Our No. 6 heavy-lift rocket uses three No. 5 first-stage rockets bundled together to obtain a maximum takeoff weight of more than 1,600 tons. The one-time low-Earth orbit carrying capacity reaches 65 tons, and the geosynchronous orbit carrying capacity reaches 28 tons."

"When three first-stage rockets are recovered, the low-Earth orbit carrying capacity reaches 32 tons, and the geosynchronous orbit carrying capacity reaches 9 tons."

"The second stage rocket uses the same type of second stage rocket as the fifth rocket, which is not recyclable."

"At the same time, our rocket can even launch a payload of 17 or 18 tons to Mars and a payload of 3 tons to Jupiter."

"We have received relevant plans for domestic exploration of Jupiter. If all goes well, our No. 6 heavy-duty rocket will also be used for domestic exploration of Mars!"

"The extensive use of mature technologies from the No. 5 rocket is an important feature of our No. 6 rocket, which can effectively reduce R&D costs and manufacturing costs!"

"The engine used in this rocket is the Suzaku C engine, which was successfully finalized at the end of last year and has been widely used on the No. 5 rocket. At present, the various technical indicators of this type of engine, especially the safety indicators, have fully met the design standards."

"The No. 5 rocket, equipped with the Suzaku C engine, has conducted more than 20 commercial flights this year without any accidents, achieving a perfect zero accident rate!"

"For the rocket body, our Type 6 heavy rocket also uses the same body as the Type 5 rocket launcher. Both are mature designs that have been tested in a large number of flights!"

"The second-stage rocket is also a mature rocket that we have used for many years. It has mature technology, good safety and low cost!"

"We adopted a lot of mature technologies from the No. 5 rocket. That's why we only spent over 2 billion to develop the No. 6 heavy rocket, which was a relatively low cost."

"At the same time, the manufacturing cost of the No. 6 rocket is not high. In the reuse mode, we can even offer an external price of about 80 million US dollars. Even if it is a one-time use mode, our external price is only 130 million US dollars. Compared with other heavy rockets at present, our No. 6 heavy rocket can be said to be cheap and good!"

"The only technical difficulty of this rocket is to control 21 engines at the same time while using three first-stage rockets. This places high demands on the engine control system. However, we have already accumulated a large amount of multi-engine control technology on the No. 5 rocket, so it is natural to use it on the No. 6 rocket. There are no major technical barriers that require new breakthroughs!"

"In general, our No. 6 heavy-duty rocket is a heavy-duty model based on the mature design of the No. 5 rocket. It does not have much technological innovation, which reduces the difficulty of research and development and reduces research and development investment!"

"Similarly, this is why we are confident in the first launch of the No. 6 Heavy Rocket!"

While listening to the introduction from the people of Nanmen Airlines, Xu Shenxue looked at the huge No. 6 heavy rocket that had been erected on the launch tower in front of him.

Then I silently hope that its first flight will be successful!

This is a core project related to many domestic aerospace programs, including the two major space stations, the Mars exploration program, the lunar exploration program, etc.

This is not just Xu Shenxue’s hobby project!
Behind the efforts of Nanmen Aerospace Company is the various technical supports provided by the entire domestic aerospace system!
The entire domestic aerospace community is looking forward to its successful maiden flight!

Especially the project team of the domestic space station project, they have already completed almost all of the space station and are just waiting for the successful maiden flight of this big rocket!

The core module of the space station they are building is a 60-ton behemoth!
As long as it is launched into space, no matter in terms of tonnage, size, or even other technical content, it will be far superior to the International Space Station!

But if you want to send such a big toy into space, you have to rely on a big guy like the Type 6 heavy rocket!

Therefore, many people are paying attention to and looking forward to the success or failure of the No. 6 Heavy Rocket!

But it is hard to say whether it can succeed... After all, although Nanmen Aerospace's technology is amazing, especially the commercial flights of the No. 5 rocket, they are not very successful.

But these are all in the mature stage... If it were the test stage, it would be normal for Nanmen Aerospace to explode its rocket.

So, although expectations are high, many people couldn't help but pour cold water on themselves and others before the rocket was officially launched.

Don't get too excited. According to Nanmen Aerospace's way of doing things, it is normal for a rocket to explode three or five times during the early testing stage.

Even when the official media reported on it, the promotional materials positioned it as a test flight, which had a high chance of failure...

There is no way. Nanmen Aerospace is too famous for bombing rockets. Its research and development model is different from that of other aerospace institutions... They are conducting research and development while bombing.

The original words of the chief engineer are: If you don't blow it up eight or ten times, how do you know where the problem is? How can you solve the problem if you don't know the problem?

For aerospace agencies of various countries, the explosion of a rocket is like the death of one's parents, but for South Gate Aerospace, after the explosion of a rocket, they calculate the cost and find it is only tens of millions of dollars, which is a loss they can afford... and then they will continue with the next stage of the launch plan.

Therefore, although many people are looking forward to it, they do not have complete hope.

However, Xu Shenxue and the engineers in the R&D project team are more confident.

After all, these are all old technologies of the No. 5 rocket, and all of them are very mature, so they don’t think there is any big problem!
(End of this chapter)