This star is going to the moon

Chapter 289 A space airport for humanity goes into operation; SpaceX Aerospace Company, which has always been a "backup plan"

In theory, NASA will announce the three companies that have won the "commercial crew lunar lander" development contracts in the "return to the moon" program on an evening in late April.

But people with connections can get top-secret information from the White House, let alone from NASA.

Therefore, the relevant companies knew about the "five-to-three" list five days before it was announced.

Those who were selected were naturally happy, while those who weren't...

This time I was outmatched, so I'll have to try to get revenge somewhere else next time.

There's no other way. We've already used a lot of methods in this selection process. If we use any more methods now that the results are out, it would be breaking the rules.

NASA has consistently used a three-section lunar module as a design reference, but in March of this year, the head of NASA's crew program suggested that the first lunar landing might skip the transit point at the Lunar Gateway space station.

He also hinted that NASA's requirements for the lunar lander had changed.

It was pointed out that new concepts that have never been used before should be avoided in order to reduce project risks and speed up project progress.

In addition, the tender for the lunar lander was originally scheduled to be released last July, but due to insufficient funding, it was postponed to October, then to January of this year, and has been delayed until now.

The repeated postponements of the announcement of the bidding results all indicate that there will be major changes to the lunar landing route.

This change, aside from funding issues, is naturally due to the various methods employed by different companies.

The results are finally in, and there's nothing that can be done about those who weren't selected.

However, compared to the mixed feelings of Americans, the Chinese on the other side of the ocean are much happier because the world's first space airport has passed acceptance and officially been put into use.

The scene was incredibly lively.

The sound of gongs and drums filled the air, firecrackers crackled, red flags fluttered, and crowds thronged the streets!
Besides various leaders, representatives of workers involved in the construction of the space airport, operators of the space airport, staff of the space airport medical training center, representatives of the design and manufacturing of "Muyuan", and the maintenance team of "Muyuan" were also present.

Even commercial astronaut trainees who had already gone through two rounds of elimination were brought out to make an appearance.

The trainees were very happy and had a great experience.

The acceptance ceremony was held at the entrance of the hangar, and the most eye-catching thing was naturally the "Wooden Kite" space shuttle, which was white on top and black on the bottom, parked in the hangar.

(Wooden Kite)

Moreover, there are not only many people inside the space airport, but even more people gather outside the space airport.

Especially tourists and space enthusiasts at the surrounding viewpoints.

The only pity is that the first human space airport was only put into use, not into operation, because the "Wooden Kite" space shuttle, which is the main character and is parked in the hangar, has not been fully assembled and passed the test. It is now just an empty shell that looks good and is suitable for taking pictures.

After all, once the assembly is completed and the tests are passed, how could the "Wooden Kite" just sit obediently in the hangar? Lu Yun would have to make it perform its maiden flight on the spot, so that the space airport could go from "put into use" to "put into operation".

However, many people are already satisfied. The space airport is in use, and the space shuttle is parked in the hangar. At most, in another month, the "Wooden Kite" will be able to make its maiden flight into space from the world's first space airport!

At the observation point outside the space airport, many people were watching the live stream on their phones, using binoculars to observe the scene, and chatting with their companions and anyone around them.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm dreaming. Our country has never even developed a space shuttle, and we can't even reuse manned spacecraft. But suddenly a space shuttle has appeared, and now a real space airport has been built. It's too sci-fi."

"Haha, most science fiction is just fantasy, but this is real, right in front of us."

"Yeah, a lot of people were making fun of director Guo Fan before. Look, he's standing right next to Lu Yun now. He's filming a sci-fi movie and he's actually filming on set. Does that mean his sci-fi movie can still be considered a sci-fi movie?"

"I'm a big fan of Lu Yun's film and television career. After the Muyuan rocket's maiden flight, will his space missions be temporarily over? Hurry up and go back to filming, we won't have anything new to watch." "Little sister, what you're saying isn't quite right. There are even more important space missions waiting for him after the Muyuan project, which is the manned lunar landing! He's the chief designer of the manned lunar landing rocket. Others can take a break, but he can't."

"Ah, but the country hasn't acknowledged that it's a manned lunar landing rocket, has it? They only say it's a domestically produced heavy and super-heavy reusable rocket."

"Little sister, just wait and see. Once the Long March 10 rocket has successfully completed its maiden flight, it will immediately become a nationally recognized manned lunar landing rocket."

"Sigh, who will make up for the movies and TV series I missed starring Lu Yun? Is there no one in China who can replace Lu Yun? He's only 26 years old."

"He acted in 'The Three-Body Problem,' so we just have to wait for it to air..."

Many people don't actually understand the importance of Lu Yun, or rather, they don't understand the super project led by the state.

The level of freedom that Lu Yun enjoys is already quite outrageous.

If Lu Yun weren't truly so important, he wouldn't have been able to have so much freedom; instead, he would have devoted himself entirely to a project like the other chief engineers.

According to Lu Yun's analysis, the analysis of him above should also be quite thorough. At most, they may not know that he has a cheat code, but they probably regard him as a strategic-level scientist like Qian Xuesen.

These kinds of people can indeed be a little willful.

However, those who can reach the "strategic level" are all beings who have accumulated experience over time and possess extremely strong mental fortitude.

Someone like him, only in his early twenties, is a vibrant young "strategic" figure, a "sun" at eight or nine in the morning—it's probably quite rare.

This is similar to the saying "If one's virtue is not commensurate with one's position, disaster will surely follow." If your virtue is commensurate with your position, then many things will actively cooperate with you.

No country's leaders are fools.

Of course, we can't rule out the possibility that some are used to being robbers, suffer from dementia, or are insanely self-centered...

forget it. I'm done here.

Damn it, if even a superpower can be a makeshift operation, what else is impossible?

While China was heavily promoting the world's first space airport, the United States was not to be outdone, and finally announced its latest "return to the moon" mission schedule at the end of April.

Many people speculated that Boeing, using its own SLS rocket to launch the monolithic lunar lander, might overtake Boeing. However, when the bidding results were announced, everyone realized that these speculations were completely wrong.

Boeing was kicked out of the game. The contracts were awarded to the "national team" led by Blue Origin, a "small business team" of small companies, and SpaceX, which went it alone.

Then, something that gave Ma Yilong a strong sense of déjà vu came again.

The first phase of the lunar lander contract is for 10 months. This period is for the three companies to use the money to develop the initial design of the lunar lander. The next round of lunar lander evaluation will be conducted in February next year, and the contractor for the lunar lander for the first mission in 2024 will be selected.

The first phase of the lunar lander contract was worth a total of $9.67 million, of which the "national team" led by Blue Origin received $5.79 million, the "small business" team received $2.53 million, and SpaceFork received $1.35 million.

Space Fork once again became a backup option, just another runner-up.

However, Ma Yilong was much more carefree this time.

After all, this had happened once before. Last time, it was used as a backup, and its "Crew Dragon" was ready to carry people, while the "Federal First Son" Boeing spacecraft, on which high hopes were placed, had a bunch of malfunctions, and manned missions were nowhere in sight.

Purely a "flying object for American use"!
This time, he will still make a comeback!

(End of this chapter)