This star is going to the moon

Chapter 428 Ordinary Life: "Am I competing with Lu Yun for the World Space Award?"

As soon as dawn broke in the United States, news of China launching its manned lunar landing program spread to every household.

Now the world is in an uproar again.

Although the United States carried out the first manned lunar landing mission more than 50 years ago, and then several more in the following years, those were all decades ago.

The live TV broadcasts back then were so blurry they looked like ghost images; you couldn't see anything at all.

Each mission was recorded on-site by cameras, and high-definition videos and photos were taken after the astronauts returned from the moon. However, Hollywood also made many movies about manned moon landings, so many people confuse the real footage with the movie footage.

This has led many contemporary young people who did not experience that era to disbelieve that the Federation went to the moon, and even some older people who experienced that era do not really believe it.

Many people say that some Chinese people spread conspiracy theories about manned lunar landings out of a pitiful sense of self-esteem, but such conspiracy theories have a larger market within the United States itself.

The conspiracy theories about the moon landing that exist in China originated from the United States.

Of course, the same applies to the flat-Earth theory.

The ancient Chinese and Chinese theories of "a round heaven and a square earth" are not pure "flat earth theories," let alone the "contemporary flat earth theory" which has been to space by satellites and astronauts.

Therefore, among the various voices, a large part of them are celebrating that the US landed a man on the moon in 2004, while China landed a man on the moon in 2006. The title of "humanity's first manned moon landing" definitely belongs to the US.

"Our Federation is invincible!"

While another group believes that the US conducted a manned moon landing more than 50 years ago, half a century is enough time to erase the impact of that time.

In addition, given that we are now in the information age, the second manned lunar landing mission, with the support of high-definition live streaming, may even surpass the "value" of the first manned lunar landing.

After all, high-definition video is a very powerful force!

Fortunately, the United States returned to the moon in 2004, while the Chinese had to wait until 2006 to conduct a manned lunar landing.

As for what space experts and enthusiasts say—that China is releasing a smokescreen, that China might conduct a manned lunar landing program even earlier than the United States, etc.—it's a different story.

Listen, is this human talk?
What is Lao-Zhong?
Underdeveloped countries!

What is the Federation?
The Land on the Mountain Top!

Even if China's space technology catches up now, the fact that the Federation has been the world's only superpower for so many years has become their mindset, so they certainly won't be defeated.

After all, the other superpower was wiped out by the Federation.

Has China and Laos become the new superpowers?

Obviously not!

However, although the Federation has no external rivals, there are troublemakers within the Federation!

As news from China spread, Blue Origin's submission of a 50-page protest to the Federal Accountability Office also made the news.

Blue Origin, the world's richest man, claims that NASA gave SpaceX the opportunity to revise its offer, but did not give that opportunity to Blue Origin.

It also argues that NASA's decision expands SpaceX's monopolistic control over space exploration.

NASA's decision misjudged the advantages of Blue Origin's proposal, downplayed the significant technological challenges in developing the so-called super-large lunar lander, and placed greater emphasis on cost than expected.

This situation could make the development of a super-large lunar lander difficult, putting the Federation at a disadvantage in this manned lunar landing race!

The "Small Business Team" also lodged a protest with the Federal Accountability Office.

In a statement, they said they had questions and concerns about certain aspects of NASA's procurement process and technology evaluation, and therefore lodged a protest with the Accountability Office to address these issues. They added that while they respect the process, they hope for a fair and sensible resolution for the success of this lunar race.

Then both sides hoped to freeze NASA's lunar module contract during their protests, to prevent the illegal contract from becoming a de facto contract, which would be a trampling on the federal spirit of fairness!

When this news came out, some people agreed because they felt that "bigger is better" was true, but "bigger is more difficult" was also true.

The federal government is only two years ahead of China, but with four rockets launched and four destroyed, it seems unreliable.

If it really slows down the federal manned lunar landing program, then the problem will be huge.

Meanwhile, some people are fiercely criticizing them for slowing down the federal manned lunar landing program.

Those people thought they were just jealous; their designs were outdated and nothing compared to Elon Musk's lunar rocket!

Elon Musk didn't hold back, directly ignoring the "small business team" and mocking Blue Origin on Twitter for not being able to fly.

Elon Musk: No Blue Origin rocket has yet successfully placed a spacecraft into orbit!

This refers to the fact that Blue Origin currently only has suborbital rockets undergoing unmanned test flights, and the so-called 7-meter diameter "New Glenn" rocket is nowhere to be seen.

Later, Ma Yilong still felt it wasn't enough, so he added a picture of the "Blue Moon" lander in the comments section, but the text "Blue Moon" on the lander was changed to "Blue Balloon".

They mocked Blue Origin's lunar module as merely an inflatable model, implying it was not a real object.

"Blue Moon" is a lunar lander developed by Blue Origin. It carries an upgrade lunar pressurization module, and the two together form the "national team" lunar lander.

When it flew away from the moon, the "Blue Moon" lander remained stationary; it only ignited its ascent stage and flew away.

(CG image of the national team's lunar lander flying away from the Blue Moon lander)
Its structure is a 100% replica of the Apollo lunar module, only larger and more advanced.

The Blue Moon and the ascending module stacked together are over 10 meters high, with the pressurization chamber at the very top, so the hatch is about 8 meters above the lunar surface.

Oddly enough, at such a high altitude, the "national team" lunar lander was only equipped with a ladder, requiring astronauts to climb up and down while wearing bulky lunar spacesuits.

Blue Origin's CEO is Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man. He was understandably upset by Elon Musk's mockery, so the two started arguing on Twitter.

Bezos mocked Elon Musk, saying he wasn't building rockets but bombs, as the test rockets flew four times and exploded four times.

Elon Musk mocked Bezos's outdated ideas, saying that his space company has yet to launch a rocket into orbit.

Small Business Team: Is nobody paying attention to me? I'm a participant too!

In late April, space agencies from various countries contributed another hot news story about space exploration.

That means starting the annual "World Space Award" nomination process.

The World Space Award is the highest award in the field of spaceflight established by the International Astronautical Federation. Headquartered in Paris, it aims to recognize individuals or teams who have made significant contributions to the fields of space science, technology, and engineering management worldwide. Award-winning achievements must have a profound impact on the development of spaceflight.

The nominations need to be completed before June each year, and then the International Astronautical Federation will vote twice in June to select the winners. The awards will be presented at the International Astronautical Congress in October, covering fields such as aerospace engineering, deep space exploration and technological innovation.

This year's team award recommended by Xiao Ri Zi is the Hayabusa2 asteroid probe team, because it collected 5 grams of samples from the asteroid Ryugu and successfully returned them to Earth.

Unlike Hayabusa 1, which had a "95% success rate".

However, Xiao Rizi's confidence wasn't very high, because they had to face Lu Yun!

Team Award: "Wooden Kite" class space shuttle team!
Individual awards: Chief designer of the "Wooden Kite" class space shuttle, pioneer of the new era of human manned spaceflight, major driving force behind the explosion of commercial space tourism, founder of the "Great Technology Integration Theory," and "Source God" of the global explosion of reusable rocket technology...

(End of this chapter)