This star is going to the moon

Chapter 324 A veteran space astronaut fulfills his dream of space exploration; the ultimate strength of Chinese spacefaring!
"Chen Quan, like me, was among the first batch of astronauts in our country. He is two years older than me and is a true veteran of the aerospace industry."

The first Chinese astronaut to enter space, now the director of the China National Space Administration's Manned Space Office, told the live broadcast host: "However, at that time, our country's space technology was relatively backward, and there were not many opportunities to enter space."

"So of the first 14 astronauts, six have never been to space so far, and he is one of them."

"Two of these six people are my instructors, the other three are Chen Quan and the others who have now joined Blue Star Aerospace, and the other is Deng Qingming, who is one of the first batch of astronauts who have not yet retired but have never been to space..."

In other words, the official space missions that haven't been announced yet need to be kept secret. Otherwise, we would know that Deng Qingming is also going to fulfill his space dream, because he will be on the Shenzhou-15 mission a few months later.

In his previous life, the Long March 5 rocket delayed the space station mission by more than two years. Many space enthusiasts thought that Deng Qingming had no chance and would have to retire. But Shenzhou 15 finally went on.

The space station mission in this life is progressing very smoothly, and he is not too old, so space enthusiasts are not too worried.

Moreover, the emergence of the "Wooden Kite" gave retired astronauts the opportunity to go to space, which made space enthusiasts very happy.

Of course, space enthusiasts would be even more delighted if they could also go to space.

Now, accompanied by Director Yang's commentary, the "Wooden Kite" has flown out of people's sight, and the live broadcast begins to switch back and forth between the external camera, the internal camera, and the command center of the "Wooden Kite".

As for the hosts and experts, they'll just have to make do with being relegated to a corner, since Lu Yun knows what the audience wants to see.

But the happiest person has to be Chen Quan.

After more than 20 years as an astronaut, he was almost 60 years old when he finally flew into space.

The sky outside is so blue!
The space shuttle climbs faster than a fighter jet!

This riding experience is far superior to that of my "former colleagues" who rode the Shenzhou manned spacecraft!
As an astronaut, although he has never been to space, he has ridden in a 1:1 model during training and knows how cramped it is.

Although the model couldn't fly, it had a vibration platform underneath, so he knew how bumpy it was to ride in the Shenzhou spacecraft.

At most, it's just a situation without acceleration and G-force, so the simulated turbulence is not as good as the turbulence in real flight.

According to astronauts who have carried out space missions, the turbulence in real flight is even greater.

But the space shuttle is completely different; its cabin is so spacious that it's not crowded at all.

Even with him as the only passenger and the two seats behind him removed for cargo, the space still felt somewhat empty.

The vibration and turbulence were much less noticeable. The initial takeoff felt like riding in a military transport plane, but once airborne, the vibration was somewhere between that of a military transport plane and a civilian airliner.

The acceleration under G-force is also very small, feeling about the same as the acceleration level of a regular airplane.

However, the Wooden Kite had a greater angle of ascent, so he felt like he was lying down while sitting in his seat.

Because it was so easy, he could forget about the training on the Shenzhou manned spacecraft and didn't have to be as obedient as when riding it. He could move his neck left and right to look at the scenery outside the window.

The buildings on the ground are getting smaller and smaller, but because the acceleration of the Muyuan spacecraft is much smaller, it takes about 20 minutes for a conventional manned spacecraft to enter space.

Normally, this time would pass quickly, but for Chen Quan, who had been waiting for more than twenty years, it was still a bit slow.

"Chen Quan, how are you feeling?"

Lu Yun's voice came through the headset.

Chen Quan quickly composed himself and replied, "It feels great, Mr. Lu."

How was the ride?

"It feels very relaxing, the seat provides excellent support, and it's very comfortable to sit in..."

Because the Muyuan spacecraft is highly automated and the astronauts do not need to operate it throughout the entire process, Chen Quan's participation in the manned test flight included other test flight missions.

That is to test the manned mode of the Muyuan spacecraft, find out what problems there are, put forward suggestions for improvement, and make final preparations for future commercial space tourism.

After all, the needs of commercial space tourism are quite different from those of national manned space missions.

In particular, the Muyuan space shuttle, as a completely new space shuttle, is different from traditional manned spacecraft. After all, the Muyuan is designed to carry out frequent space tourism projects, unlike manned spacecraft that only fly space tourism once every few months or even years.

Therefore, Chen Quan's manned test flight is just the beginning. There will be many more manned test flights in the future, including those with professional astronauts, those combining professional and commercial astronauts, and those involving commercial astronauts and ordinary people.

After nearly twenty minutes of flight, Chen Quan suddenly felt a lightness in his body, and he knew that he had arrived in space.

The dream of flying for so many years... has finally come true.

When the little green man doll and the blue space doll, which act as "gravity indicators" in the cabin, floated up, the viewers watching the live broadcast immediately knew that the astronauts had entered weightless space, and the barrage of comments immediately filled the screen with "666".

Even though the Muyuan had already conducted several unmanned test flights, the feeling and awesomeness of being manned versus unmanned are completely different.

Just like how people like to talk about manned moon landings these days.

【666! 】

【Niubi! 】

【It’s done! 】

[A historic moment!]

[I feel that the successful maiden manned flight of the Muyuan spacecraft is no less significant than the first human spaceflight!]

Calm down, calm down. We're not back yet, don't open the champagne halfway.

It has been 59 years since humanity's first manned spaceflight. Human spaceflight technology has finally made a great leap forward; it's truly been a remarkable achievement.

[Has it already been almost 60 years? The development of human space technology is really slow.]

[It wasn't slow to begin with; the space race during the Cold War spurred rapid development in space technology.]

Indeed, they already had space shuttles back then, and were also developing nuclear-powered rockets and single-stage-to-orbit rockets.

Yes, it's a pity that after the Russians died, they stopped developing space technology so rapidly, and only now do we have space shuttles.

Fortunately, we've caught the wave of the second Cold War and the new space race, and someone pulled off something big right from the start.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what amazing things Lu Yun will do next. After all, he's only in his twenties, and his era has just begun!

After the Muyuan spacecraft successfully carried Chen Quan into space, many people breathed a sigh of relief and then excitedly discussed with others the arrival of a new era of manned spaceflight.

Even though Lu Yun has not yet announced the ticket price for the Muyuan space tourism, people already know that it will be much cheaper than the current hundreds of millions of RMB or tens of millions of US dollars.

It will be at least several times cheaper, for example, down to ten million US dollars.

Although this price is still far beyond the reach of ordinary people, at least there is hope, because a new model of space shuttle has appeared in some of Blue Star Aerospace's latest publicity. It is much larger and can carry dozens of people at a time.

However, it's just a general model, without specific data and technical details.

However, many people believe that Blue Star Spacecraft can be built within about ten years, or at the latest fifteen years, at which time the price of human tickets to space will probably drop to "dirt cheap".

This is the ultimate strength of China, which possesses a complete industrial chain!
Once it fully masters a certain manufacturing process, the industrial product will immediately become as common as cabbage.

Of course, this is in comparison to the dirt-cheap prices of competitors.

This test flight of the Muyuan spacecraft not only obtained a manned license, but also received permission to dock with the Tiangong space station. After all, Chen Quan is a regular astronaut from the national team, not a commercial astronaut from Blue Star Aerospace, so he can be completely trusted.

Furthermore, the space terminal still needs improvement, which is also one of the tasks of this test flight.

As the Kite approached the space station, many Americans were hurling insults.

"We must expel the Chinese students; they're here to steal our space technology!"

(End of this chapter)