This star is going to the moon

Chapter 326 Will the Wooden Kite space shuttle be converted into a space fighter?

The Tiangong Space Station in this life is becoming increasingly different from the Tiangong Space Station in the previous life.

The "Muyuan" spacecraft is slowly approaching the "space dock" of the Tiangong space station. The three astronauts of the Shenzhou-14 crew are standing in a row in the core module, watching the screen and waiting for Chen Quan to arrive.

To welcome him, the three astronauts also pasted four square red "welcome team" paper sheets inside the cabin.

(Image from the internet, but not crew number 14)

"Dock successful!"

Upon hearing this prompt, the three astronauts immediately began to applaud and cheer.

"it is good!"

"It's done!"

"Haha, when I first became an astronaut, I really didn't expect our space station to welcome a new teammate in this way."

"Yes, when we were studying space history, we only saw that the other side had space shuttles while we only had manned spacecraft, and we were quite envious. We never expected that we would be ahead of them now..."

Currently, the space station's audio is not connected to the live broadcast, so viewers only see the astronauts clapping and cheering, and cannot hear any other sounds.

However, the sentiments expressed by both sides were quite similar.

Absolutely 120% awesome! Blue Star Aerospace is simply amazing!

Previously, we only knew that the US space shuttle had been in service, while the Russian space shuttle was destroyed after its construction. Now, we've actually surpassed the US in the field of space shuttles—unbelievable!

The US did have a space shuttle, but their manned spaceflight development path went wrong, resulting in a lack of manned spaceflight capability for over a decade after the space shuttle's retirement.

Indeed, in terms of spacefaring capabilities, it seems that the US today is not as advanced as it was decades ago. How can this be?

Yes, China's aerospace technology development path is very clear and progressive. Russia's aerospace development relies on archaeology, while the US is strange; there seem to be huge fluctuations and gaps.

[That is a question. Are Americans just too rich? They experiment with new technologies, discard them, and then rush to pick them up again when they find others doing them well?]

Who cares? We're currently in the lead in manned spaceflight, so we're not in a hurry!

[Haha, that's right. Boeing and SpaceX should be worried; their recently successful and unsuccessful manned spacecraft are already outdated.]

I heard from the Americans that the Wooden Kite could be converted into a space fighter. Is that true?

Anyway, it's said that the cargo version of the Wooden Kite can carry 2.2 tons of cargo, but what it carries is unknown.

【Hey~】

As a new type of manned spacecraft, the Muyuan spacecraft also achieved pressure balance very quickly, completing the balance process shortly after docking.

After confirming that everything was alright at the space airport command center and the "Dawn" command center in Beijing, Lu Yun had Chen Quan leave his seat and begin entering the space station.

After Chen Quan opened the two hatches of the Muyuan spacecraft and then the hatch of the space dock to enter the space station, he immediately passed through a space of more than ten meters and saw the three astronauts in the Tianhe core module. They were waving vigorously at him, and they even seemed to float up.

"Ha ha!"

"Welcome, Teacher Chen!"

"Welcome, welcome!" The two sides immediately embraced with smiles upon meeting.

The reason why the three astronauts call Chen Quan "Teacher Chen" is because they are the second batch of astronauts, not only are they more than ten years younger than Chen Quan, the first batch of astronauts, but also because Chen Quan has taught them.

After all, there are many training subjects for astronauts. Although Chen Quan has never been to space, he learned some other basic courses very early and very thoroughly. He is more than capable of teaching these second batch of astronauts.

However, this time Chen Quan became a "greenhorn".

He couldn't maintain his balance very well in space, so after floating over and hugging the three astronauts, he rolled into a ball.

Finally, his three students helped him stand properly, and then the four of them stood under the words "Welcome Teammates" and faced the camera to report the situation.

After reporting the situation and greeting the viewers in the live stream, the live stream ended.

Chen Quan will spend a week on the space station for this test flight, where he will install some parts onto the manufacturing equipment at the space dock.

Since a previous unmanned test flight had already delivered supplies to the Tiangong space station, no further deliveries were made this time. This time, in addition to equipment parts, the supplies included Chen Quan's food and daily necessities for the next seven days.

There's no need to worry about where to sleep. The Tiangong space station is designed to accommodate six astronauts for a short shift. In addition to the three sleeping pods in the Tianhe core module, there are also three similar sleeping pods in the Wentian experimental module.

They are all independent sleeping pods with good sound insulation, and even the "doors" are made of soundproof material with a certain thickness.

It also features a "space viewing window".

In addition, the Tiangong-2 module, which was not part of the planned docking with the Tiangong space station, also has a sleeping area.

However, compared to the sleeping pods of the Tiangong space station, they are somewhat rudimentary. They are simply sleeping bags installed in relatively quiet areas, and the "pod doors" are just two curtains with no viewing windows.

(The two on the left are the sleep pods of the Tiangong space station, and the one on the right is the sleep area of ​​the Tiangong-2 space laboratory.)
Chen Quan will not be doing live broadcasts during his week in space, but he will film a few short videos, each a few minutes long, similar to the "Tiangong TV" program, to showcase this veteran's first experience in space and his work.

This is a real shame for the viewers who were just watching the live stream; they were really getting into it when it ended.

But there was nothing they could do. Chen Quan was on a mission, and the Wooden Kite had many testing missions to complete. All that money wasn't spent just to provide viewers with a live stream.

With the successful maiden manned flight of the Muyuan spacecraft, many people are already looking forward to the ticket price for space tourism, even though it has not yet landed.

As for those who know very well that they definitely can't afford it, they care a lot more.

First, I'm concerned about the lottery results on Lu Yun's side.

Secondly, it's a guessing game about which people in China will buy tickets to go to space.

The third is the expectation that the Muyuan can be converted into a space fighter.
Chinese military enthusiasts have witnessed the rapid pace of military equipment upgrades in recent years, so they are quite "fond of the new and tired of the old." In addition, many advanced technologies will definitely be used for military purposes as soon as they come out, so a space shuttle like the Muyuan should be no exception.

The first space race involved an arms race, and the US fooled the whole world with its "Star Wars" program.

So, will the Muyuan space shuttle be converted into a space fighter?
The answer is, of course, yes!

Compared to the manned spacecraft that the UAE wanted, they couldn't wait to call Blue Star Aerospace to transfer money to buy spacecraft after the successful maiden manned flight of the Muyuan.

The Lao-Chinese military stationed at Blue Star Aerospace a long time ago and was closely involved in the unmanned testing phase.

Of course, while they are closely involved, China is not as wealthy as the UAE.

(End of this chapter)