This star is going to the moon

Chapter 310 The American public needs to open their eyes to the world; "Wooden Kite" docks with "Space Pier"

Although it was close to midnight, there were still many viewers watching the live broadcast of the docking between the "Space Pier" and the Tiangong space station.

This is a big guy, after all.

Everyone likes big ones.

Most importantly, this time we not only have the perspective of the space station and the dock, but also a third-party perspective.

Although the "Space Dock" didn't bring many things to reduce weight, it still carried a 3-kilogram mini-satellite to shoot from a third-person perspective.

(A panoramic view of the first phase of the Tiangong Space Station in this lifetime)

Host: "As you can see, this is the third-person perspective full view from the last shoot."

Expert: "Yes, if we ignore the manned spacecraft and various solar panels located 'below' the space station and obscured, the main body of the first phase of the Tiangong space station is a standard 'cross' shaped structure."

Host: "That's right, but after the space terminal docked with the Tiangong space station, its main structure underwent a new change."

"This is new footage taken by a mini-satellite launched from the spaceport. Let's take a look..."

(A new panoramic view after docking at the spaceport in this lifetime)

Experts say, “We can see that the space terminal has replaced the original location of the cargo spacecraft, and the cargo spacecraft has docked at the space terminal’s ‘side’ docking port.”

"The reason why the space terminal needs to be connected to the 'backward' docking port of the Tianhe core module is because the 'forward' docking port of the Tianhe core module node module is the extended docking port of the second phase of the Tiangong space station project. It will be connected to the 'backward' docking port of the second core module in the later stage."

"That means that during the second phase of expansion, Tiangong-2 will also need to be moved to the docking port of the space terminal..."

The experts were giving detailed explanations, but the viewers in the live stream were just looking at the pictures.

Just like when new books are distributed at the start of a new semester, and the teacher is lecturing, the students always look at the pictures of the new books first.

[That's great! The Tiangong space station has increased in weight by more than ten tons, and it's getting bigger and bigger!]

[Haha, it's just that the shape is no longer a cross, which looks a bit odd.]

Since Lu Yun got involved in the space project, he's been posting more and more space-themed selfies. No wonder he's in the commercial space industry.

Indeed, many previous space-related promotional materials consisted of a lot of text; the current approach, which combines text and images, is much better.

[Once the space dock is connected, the docking port of the Tiangong space station will no longer be strained, and the Muyuan spacecraft can dock.]

The Muyuan spacecraft can only dock with the forward-facing docking ports of the spaceport, as these are large rectangular docking ports with a diameter of 1.2 meters.

I'm really looking forward to when the Muyuan spacecraft will dock with the space station!

[It should be soon, probably around ten days to two weeks according to Lu Yun's timeline?]

The previous Wooden Kite returned on the 14th after its second flight, so it should be around the end of the month...

That is indeed the time, because Lu Yun announced the third flight time of the Muyuan spacecraft the day after the space docking with the Tiangong space station.

He posted a video directly on his Weibo account.

"Hello everyone, I'm Lu Yun."

Standing in front of the Muyuan spacecraft, Lu Yun said earnestly, "Thank you all for your attention to my country's space program. With the successful docking of the space terminal with the Tiangong space station, the test flight of the Muyuan spacecraft will enter a critical stage."

"We have checked the status of the Muyuan after its second flight and return, so we have scheduled the third unmanned test flight for the morning of June 25. If this test flight is successful, the fourth test flight will be the first manned flight!"

This news shocked the aerospace community both domestically and internationally, because the speed of this action was simply too fast!

It's not that the fourth flight after the maiden flight will be very fast; after all, the Crew Dragon only carried people on its third test flight.

It's because time flies by too fast.

The Crew Dragon carried passengers on its third test flight, but there was a fourteen-month gap between its maiden flight and its first manned flight. Now, the Wooden Kite has only taken one month from its maiden flight to its third flight.

If the third flight goes smoothly, how long will the fourth flight take?
It's impossible that the first three test flights took a total of one month, and the fourth flight would have to wait a year, right?

If it can carry out a manned mission just two months after its maiden flight, then its speed is truly unmatched!
However, we'll have to wait and see the results of the third unmanned test flight.

But judging from Lu Yun's previous perfect record, there is a 99.9% chance that there will be no problem.

As a result, most Chinese people were very excited, and most foreign space enthusiasts who were following the news were also excited, looking forward to a new level of human manned spaceflight capabilities. However, the emotions of people in the United States were more complicated.

With the successive successes of the "Wooden Kite" spacecraft, it is now very close to manned missions. As a result, related news has broken through the information cocoon of traditional media and penetrated into the news circles of ordinary people through the publicity of space enthusiasts and social media.

Only then did they suddenly realize what was happening outside the Federation.

Are these reports true? Why was I never aware that China's manned spaceflight capabilities were so strong?

[More advanced than the Space Shuttle and Crew Dragon spacecraft? That can't be right!]

[Where did this fake news come from? Don't pollute my clear understanding of the world!]

[Haha, I can't believe someone actually believed that China had a space shuttle. Don't they still wear queues and eat bats over there?]

Wait, something feels off. Could there really be something there?

[A generous gift of crabs! They actually have a space shuttle that's even more advanced than the Space Shuttle!]

Why is this happening? How did this thing suddenly appear?

[It didn't happen suddenly; it has a complete research and development timeline, you just weren't aware of it before.]

Why are our media outlets blocking this news?

[Bullshit! Our media is controlled by capital; they don't let us know the real world at all!]

I still don't quite believe that the Chinese are more technologically advanced than us. After all, we are the most powerful country in the world, and we also have God's blessing; we are a city on a hill...

Stop dreaming, buddy, it's time to open your eyes and see the real world...

Whether or not the American public has opened their eyes to the world is none of Lu Yun's business; his mind is preoccupied with the upcoming manned flight.

Three days after the launch from the "Spaceport," a "Wanhu" rocket, manufactured by the national team, launched the 55th Beidou satellite using an upper-stage booster recovery mode, marking the completion of the Beidou-3 global satellite navigation system constellation deployment.

However, unlike the previous one, the BeiDou-3 global constellation in this one is no longer independent. It has been incorporated into the "Zhou Tian Xing Dou Da Zhen" and will exist as an early navigation satellite of the "Xing Dou" system.

Of course, the military has independent internal usage rights, and the same goes for "Starry Sky"; they are not entirely for civilian use.

Two days later, the "Wooden Kite" made its third unmanned test flight.

"I really enjoyed myself this time. I spent half a month in Binhai and saw the Muyuan spacecraft twice, the space terminal once, and a civilian satellite launch."

"I feel that our country's number of space launches will surpass that of the United States again this year, but does the Muyuan spacecraft's flight count as a space launch?"

"Why not? Haha, you can't exclude it from space launches just because it's too advanced."

"Let's watch the live broadcast this afternoon to see the Muyuan spacecraft docking with the Tiangong space station. It's a huge machine that's over 20 meters long and wide and weighs nearly 30 tons."

"Absolutely no problem. I trust Lu Yun's technical designs; he's never failed before!"

"Let's not make such big claims, or we might blow Lu Yun away."

"What did you say?"

In the afternoon, the Muyuan docked perfectly onto the 1.2-meter diameter square docking port at the space pier!
Lyu once again maintained his undefeated record!

(End of this chapter)