This star is going to the moon

Chapter 308 The "Wanhu" Rocket's Maximum Transport Capacity and the Basic Version of the "Space Dock"

"Rumble--"

With a deafening whooshing sound as the air was being torn apart, the "Wooden Kite" was propelled forward at high speed by the intense flames from its engines and quickly flew away from the runway.

In fact, it's quite easy to distinguish between a space airport and a regular airport, especially when the "airplane" is taking off.

After all, compared to commercial airliners or even fighter jets, the space shuttle makes a much bigger commotion when it takes off.

Because a space shuttle is essentially a type of rocket.

When the "Wooden Kite" took off from the space airport runway for the second time, the audience in the scenic area outside the venue immediately erupted in cheers.

"Watching it live was amazing! I felt the whole space was shaking!"

"I felt my blood boiling. The rumbling vibration was so powerful that I felt my heart was about to jump out of my chest."

"I feel it's not just because of the air vibrations, but also because of the Wooden Kite itself—it's so advanced and so cool!"

"Hahaha, it's even cooler knowing that it's more advanced than all of America's manned spacecraft!"

"Indeed, that takeoff posture was so cool, I could watch it a second time and never get tired of it!"

"Are you a local? I'm so envious! You can watch space launches anytime, anywhere!"

"I guess so, but my hometown is in Northeast China."

"Ah, that's definitely a local."

"..."

"I've watched it twice already. I'm from Beijing."

"AUV, Master Jing!"

"..."

Because of the successful maiden flight of the "Wooden Kite," almost everyone's mindset was purer when it flew for the second time.

Even first-time viewers were more surprised and delighted than worried.

After all, Lu Yun's space shuttle is not a Boeing spaceship. Based on his long track record of success, if he succeeded the first time, how could he possibly have a problem the second time?
The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, which is now competing with Boeing's Starliner spacecraft for commercial crew contracts, has already completed one crewed mission.

The "Wooden Kite," developed much later than other aircraft and only a little over a year after its initial development, has also carried out its second unmanned test flight.

Meanwhile, Boeing's promised second unmanned test flight of its Starliner spacecraft, which it was to fund at its own expense, is still nowhere in sight.

They said they would expedite the process, but various technical problems with the spacecraft were discovered, and they announced a postponement until next year.

Lu Yun knew perfectly well that if Boeing continued to act the same way it did in the previous life, the second flight of the "Starliner" would definitely be postponed until the year after next.

If Boeing makes an effort, perhaps the Starliner will be... delayed until the year after next!
Yes, given Boeing's current state, it's probably better for them not to make any moves at all than to try anything new.

I wonder if Boeing will really step on the gas pedal on the downhill road now that it has Lu Yun's provocation?

Just like the Americans themselves, they're stepping on the gas right now.

This matter is also recorded in "Yes, Minister".

"When a country is going downhill, someone has to sit in the driver's seat and step on the gas."

(Net map)
However, this has little to do with Lu Yun. Right now, he just wants "Wooden Kite" to complete its unmanned test objectives and then obtain the space agency's manned license.

Then, he could take An Fangfei on a space trip.

If his time management is good, he can also complete a large project.

This time, the "Wooden Kite" is not only fully operational, but its testing time has also been extended; it will stay in space for two days before returning.

After the "Space Dock" launches and docks with the space station, the "Wooden Kite" can then be scheduled for its third unmanned test flight, which will attempt to dock with the space station. Since this flight will only stay in space for two days and will not immediately return to the airport, the spectators outside the airport gradually dispersed after the "Wooden Kite" became no longer visible to the naked eye.

However, the number of viewers in the live stream started to increase.

[Unexpectedly, besides the large plush toy on the seat, there were also smaller plush toys hanging from ropes next to it.]

[Haha, that's a "zero gravity indicator." The big plush toys are all strapped to the chairs. When the smaller toys start to float up, it means we've entered weightlessness in space.]

[Look at the camera. There are other things behind the passenger cabin and in the airlock; they're probably some experimental items.]

[With such rare free test-phase spaceflight missions, it's estimated that many organizations and universities are putting their backlog of space testing projects up for grabs.]

[It's said that Lu Yun will test the Wooden Kite several times, which will likely clear a significant backlog of projects.]

[Haha, to our colleagues in the aerospace industry, Lu Yun is a great philanthropist.]

Indeed, BlueStar Aerospace has provided free payloads for many of its test missions.

[I remember when Wan Hu's rocket had its maiden flight, he deleted a lot of student work from his alma mater. His classmates watching the live stream were practically laughing their heads off.]

[This must be space! Those little toys are indeed floating on strings!]

[How amazing! I really want to go to space!]

[By the way, when does Rowoon's "sending fans to space" event end? Is there still a chance to participate now?]

Yes, bro, I have some!

[Haha, it feels so good to finish the college entrance exam! I'm going to stay in Binhai for half a month, to see the "Wooden Kite" and the "Space Pier"!]

[This is so awesome! The "space dock" will launch in eight days...]

Lu Yun arranged a very "intensive" test flight schedule for the "Wooden Kite," with test flights occurring approximately every two weeks starting from the maiden unmanned flight.

Because of the "intensive" test flights of the "Wooden Kite" and the premiere of "Tomorrow's Astronauts", the topic of space exploration has once again become a regular feature on Weibo's trending topics list after the college entrance examination in China.

Especially after the college entrance examination, a large number of high school graduates gathered in Binhai Aerospace City, so the combination of the college entrance examination and aerospace topics was even more exciting!
At this time, the "space dock" had been transported to the "Wanhu" rocket factory in the coastal aerospace city and was being loaded into an oversized fairing of a 12-hand "Wanhu" rocket.

Yes, although the "Space Dock" uses part of the space station's modules, it will not be launched using the expensive "Long March 5" rocket, but will instead consume an old "Wanhu" rocket.

However, the oversized fairing used this time was an improvement on the fairing of the Long March 5 rocket.

Because the Wanhu rocket had a diameter of 3.35 meters, which was the most common diameter for Chinese rockets, its initial fairing also had a diameter of 4.2 meters.

After all, it is based on Lu Yun's "technology integration theory", and basically all the technologies are mature technologies or improvements on mature technologies.

Later, in order to expand the large-size payload transport capacity of the Wanhu rocket, the fairing of the Wanhu rocket began to be modeled after that of the Long March 5 rocket.

This involves developing and improving an oversized "big head" fairing to suit the Wanhu rocket, based on the two fairings of the Long March 5 rocket, which are 5.2 meters in diameter and 12 meters and 18.5 meters in height respectively.

The improved 12-meter-high super-sized fairing is mainly used for launching "Star Dou" stacked satellites.

The 18.5-meter-tall launch facility is larger than the current Space Pier spacecraft.

However, the maximum payload capacity of the Wanhu rocket is 14 tons when fully jettisoned, while the "Space Dock" in its complete state is 15.5 tons.

Although it was not as heavy as the space station module which was equipped with a large number of experimental devices, it still exceeded the maximum carrying capacity of the Wanhu rocket.

Of course, this is not a big deal. Although we cannot launch the complete "space terminal", we can launch the basic state of the "space terminal", which only requires 13.5 tons of carrying capacity.

As for the 2-ton equipment, it can be installed little by little in later tasks.

In any case, the Tiangong space station was not fully operational when the first phase of the project was completed; we still had to gradually add things to it.

The most typical example is the installation of the "space station protective panel" that is required for each extravehicular activity (EVA) mission.

(End of this chapter)