This star is going to the moon

Chapter 328 The Fragile Human Society; The Wooden Kite's Maiden Flight Successfully Returns to Earth

Although Elon Musk was very excited to announce the arrival of the era of commercial manned spaceflight, and that he was the one who made it a reality.

However, the first manned mission of the Crew Dragon spacecraft was not a commercial order.

Because this was a manned test flight mission, both crew members were professional astronauts who were invited by SpaceX to conduct manned testing and to complete a 62-day stationing mission.

The reason Elon Musk dared to say this, besides his usual outspokenness, is that it was indeed the first manned spaceflight completed under NASA's "Commercial Crew Program".

Furthermore, SpaceX is a commercial space company, and Crew Dragon is also a commercial manned spacecraft. Elon Musk believes that what he said is completely correct.

Similarly, his supporters also think there's nothing wrong with it.

Your Muyuan spacecraft can be reused, and so can the Crew Dragon. The "Ma-Human Light-One Dragon" is competing in commercial manned spaceflight, not in other things like "single-stage-to-orbit" missions.

The Crew Dragon has now completed its first manned test, and both the crew and the spacecraft have returned safely. Your Muyuan spacecraft, on the other hand, has just launched a manned mission and is currently docking at the space station!
When Lu Yun's supporters saw these comments, some immediately engaged in online arguments, while others began to ponder the implications.

"Guys, this tastes wrong!"

Yeah, doesn't this sound a bit like something we used to say?

【What do you mean? 】

Back then, our country wasn't strong, and to save face, we had to use these kinds of defining terms, because only in that way could we forcefully claim that we were number one.

[That's true. Back then, even official reports on various records had to be accompanied by a bunch of qualifiers before stating that they had achieved a breakthrough or first place. I didn't expect the Americans to start saying that now.]

Indeed, the Crew Dragon and the Kite were not even in the same league. Compared to other manned spacecraft, it could easily win by a landslide. Since the advent of manned spacecraft, no other type has been as superior. But it insisted on competing with the Kite, taking over the space shuttle's space race, and even went so far as to add so many qualifiers to claim victory.

Isn't this just making things difficult for yourself?

[It's likely that other aspects aren't progressing smoothly, so they had to send the Crew Dragon spacecraft to take over.]

"No way, isn't American technology the most advanced in the world? They're the only superpower, dominating the entire world. What could possibly be going wrong?"

Being number one in the world doesn't mean all technologies will progress smoothly!

Anyway, according to my information, although NASA has received SpaceX's first commercial space tourism application and training syllabus, those space tourists haven't moved into the astronaut training center yet. So even if they start training tomorrow, it will still be at least five months before they can conduct space tourism. As for the progress of the Muyuan spacecraft, I don't believe Lu Yun would delay for five months before conducting commercial space tourism. So don't be fooled by Lao Ma's claim that he has ushered in the era of commercial manned spaceflight; the first real commercial space tourism deal will definitely belong to Lu Yun.

Wow, is this the real expert? They know so much information!

Elon Musk's initiative to start a topic related to Louis Koo has attracted a lot of attention. After all, these two are among the most famous aerospace tycoons in the world, and some of their changes may change the course of the world's aerospace industry, so this topic is quite popular.

However, even more explosive news soon attracted people's attention.

Yes, it really exploded!

On August 4, a massive explosion occurred in the port area of ​​Beirut. Eyewitnesses said, "It felt like a nuclear bomb had been detonated."

As more and more videos were released, people witnessed what a "massive explosion" truly meant.

At first, there were only things like firecrackers exploding and thick red smoke rising, but soon a huge white hemispherical shock wave spread out, blasting all the buildings it passed into pieces.

Finally, there was a loud bang!
"boom--!"

(Image of the moment of the explosion)

The videos online are all long-distance images, but some videos clearly show people at close range, but those people were directly swallowed up by the shockwave, and their fate is unknown.

Because there are no close-up shots, the extent of the damage is unknown, but many estimate it to be substantial. The main reason is that the scene did indeed resemble a nuclear explosion.

Lu Yun did know.

This was a huge matter; even Lu Yun, who had claimed to be in seclusion, knew about it, and then he was shocked to realize that time had actually reached this stage.

The Beirut port explosion in the previous life was quite horrific, causing nearly 200 deaths and more than 6,000 injuries.

The port where the explosion occurred has been razed to the ground, especially the buildings within a 100-meter radius of the port, which were razed to the ground in one second.

All buildings within a 10-kilometer radius of the explosion site were destroyed, and the streets were filled with broken glass and stones.

The airport, located about 6 kilometers from the port, was also damaged.

An explosion at a university medical center near the port destroyed half of the emergency room, leaving the remaining space unable to accommodate the hundreds of patients crowding the entrance.

The ambulances, military vehicles, and cars outside the medical center were packed with injured patients, but there were no other hospitals available to transfer them.

The explosion also damaged the power system, rendering many of the hospital's emergency equipment unusable.

Most importantly, this is the national capital, home to about 40% of the country's population, and hundreds of thousands of people, or about 20% of the capital's population, have been temporarily homeless due to the explosion!

Approximately 50,000 buildings of varying sizes, nine large hospitals, and 178 schools were damaged.

The port area had a huge grain warehouse, which was completely destroyed in the explosion, leaving the country with less than a month's worth of food reserves.

However, the country also has to thank that sturdy, massive grain silo; if it hadn't blocked a fan-shaped shockwave from one direction, the losses would have been even greater.

(The meritorious granary, besides being made of solid materials, also had a cylindrical structure and grain inside that acted as a buffer, so it was only damaged and not razed to the ground like the buildings next to it.)

Aside from these losses, the biggest impact was the direct announcement by the national leadership that "the current government has resigned."

The investigation was initiated by serious negligence on the part of the warehouse manager, which led to a fire and explosion involving 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate and a large quantity of fireworks.

However, there are also many conspiracy theories.

The situation in this life is similar to that in the previous life; Lu Yun's influence on the timeline has not spread to this small Middle Eastern country that is constantly plagued by internal strife.

After witnessing the horrific scene, many netizens couldn't help but sigh: "Human society is truly too fragile."

Yes, a massive explosion can directly impact the entire country.

This place was already unsafe, and this huge explosion has made it even worse.

Thanks to humanitarian aid from major countries, our country's peacekeeping medical team went there immediately, and the World Food Programme is also procuring food there.

May the world be at peace, may humanity be united, and may humanity's future reach for the stars!

[To my hopeful brother, I witnessed the successful return of the Muyuan spacecraft from its first manned test flight outside the space airport. Astronaut Chen Quan walked out of the Muyuan himself, and he even waved to us from behind the window of the jet bridge.]

[I was also there. Lu Yunhe showed up and spoke to reporters. He had a much broader perspective than Ma Yilong.]

Indeed, after seeing Lu Yun, I am convinced that humanity's future lies in the stars and the sea, and will not be mired in endless internal strife!

(End of this chapter)