This star is going to the moon

Chapter 440 The American: Everyone, look me in the eye! I'm about to perform a special skill! (Two chapters combined)

The announcement by China and Laos regarding the roadmap for an international lunar research station has had a significant impact, even greater than the previous announcement of a manned lunar landing mission.

After all, announcing a manned lunar landing mission is a declaration to the world: "My technology has met the standards, and I'm going to compete with the US in the space race!"

Announcing the route for the international lunar research station is tantamount to declaring to the world: "My capabilities have been met, and I want to establish international influence like the United States!"

In the past, "international" was a guise that the US used to enhance its "legitimacy."

It constantly refers to itself as the so-called "international community."

Of the more than 200 countries and regions in the world, the US dares to call itself "international" just because it gathers a few or a dozen countries.

In the past, China was not strong enough, so it could only hide and bide its time, not participating in any international affairs.

Later, as a giant panda that hid behind bamboo, it could no longer hide and began to participate in international affairs to a limited extent.

And now... it's not just a giant panda, it's a giant panda that has practiced kung fu.

That's the Dragon Warrior!
or……

"I originally wanted to interact with you as an ordinary country, but instead I was met with estrangement. I'm not pretending anymore, I'm laying my cards on the table. I am an ancient ferocious beast—the Iron-Eating Beast!"

Anyway, the time has come. If you keep pretending to be stupid, people will think you're really stupid. It's time to show your true colors.

Do you really think that the three thousand disciples Confucius accepted were there to study, and that the swords at their waists were just ceremonial objects?

Sometimes, the "magical" interpretations of the Analects by foreigners are not entirely distorted!
However, now that China has made its move, the US certainly won't let China steal all the global attention.

Although the current President Dennis is not as good at making things happen as the previous President, and his approval rating has dropped sharply in less than six months since he took office, he still intends to exert his influence after reviewing the previous meeting summaries.

"Do we have any major space missions planned recently?"

"Yes, Your Excellency, yes!"

Smith said, "ULA will be launching a Vulcan rocket next month, a large launch vehicle with a core stage diameter of 5.4 meters, which is larger than the largest reusable rocket currently in use, namely China's Long March 10 rocket..."

Old Deng is getting old and may not understand other things, but if he hears that a rocket is bigger than a Chinese rocket, then it must be a good rocket!
And it's even bigger than the largest, which is the largest in the Federation!
This is enough.

This is also why Smith specifically chose to say these things.

This rocket was actually a product of internal and external factors stimulating ULA.

Around 2014, ULA, which was almost the sole player in the US space launch market at the time, encountered two "troubling" things.

An unexpected force emerged from within the industry – commercial aerospace company SpaceFork has made its mark, directly competing with ULA with its lower prices.

Later, as the reusable technology of the Falcon 9 rocket matured, the price was further reduced, and many orders were snatched up by SpaceFork, putting ULA under great pressure.

After all, ULA has a nickname: "Black Shop".

The main reason was that Lockheed Martin and Boeing jointly established ULA in 2006. At that time, there were no other space launch companies in the United States, so they once dominated the federal launch market with their monopoly.

From 2006 to 2015, it was like "making money while lying down".

ULA has secured a large number of federal launch contracts, especially for defense payloads, at exorbitant prices.

Even until last year, ULA not only received a large number of launch contracts from the military every year, but also an average of $10 billion in "launch capability maintenance subsidies" annually.

Therefore, after Space Fork rose to prominence, it broke the monopoly and quickly snatched most of the orders from "Black Shop" with its low prices, including commercial and defense orders.

Externally, in 5, Russia's relations with the West cooled rapidly due to the Rio crisis. ULA's Atlas V rocket, which used the Russian RD-180 engine, began to face restrictions on military orders.

In response to these situations, ULA initiated the development of the "Vulcan" rocket.

The Vulcan rocket is about 61 meters long and 5.4 meters in diameter. Its core stage is equipped with two BE-4 liquid oxygen methane engines developed by Blue Origin, which is quite stylish.

The second stage is the "Centaur" upper stage, which uses hydrogen and oxygen fuel, so its full name is the "Vulcan-Centaur" rocket.

它可以根据不同运力需要选配2、4、6枚固体助推器，所以近地轨道运载能力可以在10.8~27.2吨之间浮动。

Because it uses the high-performance Centaur II rocket, it has a geostationary orbit carrying capacity of up to 15.3 tons.

These capacity figures placed it among the world's best when it was designed.

Moreover, liquid oxygen methane rocket engines have many advantages, including high specific impulse, easy maintenance, easy availability, and low launch cost.

In addition, methane has good cooling performance and is suitable for full-flow afterburning cycle schemes, which can meet the requirements of high performance and reusability.

Therefore, in order to further reduce costs and compete with the SpaceX, the Vulcan rocket also considered reusable technology.

The Vulcan rocket proposed "autonomous return technology for sensitive modules" based on the requirement of reusability.

How to describe this technology? It's that while others recover the first stage of a rocket, this technology recovers the engine module of the first stage.

After the first stage rocket separates, its engine module will detach and re-enter the atmosphere under the protection of an inflatable heat shield, and then rely on parachutes for further deceleration.

According to ULA's calculations, if recovering the entire first-stage rocket can save 65% of the cost, then recovering only the engine module of the first-stage rocket can save 50% of the cost.

Although it's still not quite there, this method of recovering only critical components will be simpler and easier to implement than SpaceFork's method of recovering the entire first-stage rocket body.

Of course, the Vulcan rocket that made its maiden flight did not have this technology, and the development of the technology was relatively slow, and it will take some time for the technology to mature.

After all, the inflatable thermal shield has not been successfully tested yet; it has only undergone suborbital testing and will undergo orbital reentry into the atmosphere test next year.

Only if it succeeds can the requirements of the "Vulcan" rocket be met.

However, the "Vulcan" rocket, which ULA had high hopes for, has been somewhat disappointing, with numerous problems arising during its development.

The main problem is that its bets on the Blue Origin BE-4 liquid oxygen-methane engine and the Centaur hydrogen-oxygen level 2 engine have both encountered problems in their development and have even exploded during testing.

Let alone finalizing production, it took a long time just to investigate the cause of the explosion and improve the structure.

As a result, the launch date was postponed again and again. The maiden flight was originally scheduled for around 2019, but it was delayed until July of this year.

It was two years later than originally planned.

This led ULA to complain repeatedly: "Our partners are the biggest obstacle to the rocket's maiden flight!"

If it made its maiden flight in 2019, although Laos and China had made their maiden flight of the "Wan Hu" rocket in August 2018, Laos and China's global influence was limited, and they only took up a small portion of international orders.

Space Fork can handle most of the orders from the US and internationally, but its rocket production capacity is limited, and the orders are so numerous that it has to wait in line.

Therefore, the Vulcan rocket, which made its maiden flight on time, can secure a portion of the orders thanks to its flexible near-Earth orbit carrying capacity of 10.8 to 27.2 tons.

But by 2021, not only had SpaceX taken over most of the internal orders of the Federation, but it had also basically divided up all the international orders.

The main reason is that there are several types of reusable rockets in China and Laos, with both high and low performance, and they are also inexpensive.

There are even many countries holding onto their orders without launching them. Thanks to the open-source nature of "Lusheng," the global market for reusable rockets is booming with activity.

After several years of development, some countries' own reusable rockets are about to make their maiden flight, and they are all reusable first-stage rockets with lower costs. Of course, they want to support their own rockets.

"Vulcan" rocket?
Sorry, we're not familiar with each other!
The technology of only recycling the first-stage engine module is too outdated.

Top aerospace companies are now working on 100% complete recovery.

First there was Lu Yun's "Wooden Kite" class space shuttle, and now Elon Musk is developing the 9-meter diameter "Super Falcon" rocket.

Some companies are planning to recover the first-stage rocket and fairing, and then use an inflatable heat shield to recover the engine module of the second-stage rocket for re-entry into the atmosphere. This way, the recovery rate can reach more than 90%!

Inflatable heat shield recovers engine module...

Vulcan Rocket: "?"

These are things Smith wouldn't tell Old Deng; he only said that the Vulcan rocket's 5.4-meter diameter was larger than the Long March 10's 5-meter diameter.

It's not that the Long March 10 rocket's first-stage recovery technology and 32-ton maximum payload are superior to the Vulcan.

"President, the maiden flight of the Vulcan rocket next month will also have a very good payload. It's an unmanned lunar lander from a purely commercial space company, which can strongly refute those who say that we are inferior to China in the field of unmanned lunar exploration..."

After listening to Smith's explanation, Old Deng nodded in satisfaction.

In fact, he should thank Trump in many ways. After all, if the Vulcan had made its maiden flight on time in 2019, he would not have gained any political benefits.
Not to mention that Trump set the date for the Union's return to the moon in 2024, thinking it would be a huge political gain for him after his re-election, but it ended up benefiting him instead.

"Then let's write a tweet in my own words, congratulating them in advance on their success and declaring it a victory for the democratic world..."

"No problem, Your Excellency!"

When he tweeted on behalf of James Harden, netizens had mixed reactions.

Some people, regardless of whether they are Americans or not, are proud to be American, and they are overjoyed.

But some people who don't have any special feelings for Americans have a different mindset.

Some older Chinese netizens, especially those who use VPNs to access foreign websites, were immediately amused by this tweet.

"Isn't this just like popping champagne halfway through the journey?"

"They even set a flag!"

"Haha, I feel like this is going to be funny. Let's switch back to the domestic network first..."

Smith could fool Old Deng and laymen, but he was actually fooled by others as well.

Just like how he only looks at the Indian guy's public PowerPoint presentations, he would believe it if NASA people didn't remind him.

But those space enthusiasts who frequently follow space information are not so easily fooled.

"Damn, has this old man lost his mind? Has no one told him the truth?"

Yes, based on my understanding and analysis, the maiden flight of Vulcan will definitely be postponed!

[That's right. If Vulcan really makes its maiden flight next month, the black market would have already started promoting it, instead of remaining silent like this.]

[Did Old Deng believe it just because he saw that Vulcan was expected to have its maiden flight next month? That's because the black market hasn't publicly disclosed the progress of the Vulcan rocket for a long time, so this maiden flight date is from a long time ago.]

Old Deng has definitely been fooled. Given how he seems to fall asleep in meetings, it's normal that he doesn't know the situation.

Even if Vulcan can fly, the Peregrine lunar probe won't be ready in time for next month. After all, its company isn't a shady business; their update schedule is relatively timely. The Peregrine will need at least another six months to be ready.

I just don't understand why the Americans suddenly started popping champagne halfway through the meal.

[They were probably spurred on by the map of the international lunar research station we released, since the last one to use the word "international" and be dominated by the US was the International Space Station.]

[Oh, I remember now, we wanted to participate in the International Space Station project back then, but the Americans rejected us because they were afraid we would steal their technology. So we started building our own space station!]

Based on the released information, the International Lunar Research Station is even more impressive than the International Space Station because it includes both a lunar space station and a lunar ground station. In terms of both sophistication and complexity, it far surpasses the International Space Station!

So the American was breathing out...

Lu Yun was amused when he saw this information on the Chinese internet, because it was indeed something to laugh about.

"What are you looking at so happily? We have a sad scene to film later, don't let it affect your mood," said An Fangfei, who was sitting next to me reading the script.

"It's nothing, I just watched it for fun, and you know how I manage my emotions, I can change them in no time."

As Lu Yun spoke, her joy turned into sadness.

"Hate!"

An Fangfei slapped Lu Yun speechlessly: "I'm not worried about you, I'm afraid your emotional changes will affect me! My acting skills aren't that good, and I'm afraid you'll influence me after I've finally gotten into the right mood!"

"Okay, okay, before filming starts, just follow my lead, and I'll help you get into character quickly..."

Lu Yun, who is successful in both film and aerospace, was watching aerospace news on the set of "Meng Hua Lu" and waiting to see the Americans make a fool of themselves.

Americans are becoming increasingly abstract.

The previous "Vulcan" rocket made its maiden flight in 1924!

In this lifetime, due to the pressure he and the country created, the United States increased its investment in the aerospace field, but the Vulcan rocket and the Peregrine lunar lander were not important projects.

Even the first-stage engine of the Vulcan rocket is a commercial rocket engine developed by Blue Origin itself, which is not within the scope of federal funding. At most, the Vulcan rocket needs to use it, so a partial advance payment was given, which is equivalent to supporting some research and development funds.

However, Bezos, the owner of Blue Origin, advocates "slow is fast," but space enthusiasts jokingly call him "slow is slow," which shows the actual progress of his various space projects.

Therefore, the maiden flight of the "Vulcan" rocket, originally scheduled for July, will definitely be postponed again!
Even if they are under pressure from the elders in this life to make them faster than in the previous life, they still cannot overcome the three-year gap.

At most, it will be moved up from 2024 to 2023, or even 2022.

It definitely can't be next month!
After all, there are no reborn cheaters in America!
Obviously, the Americans didn't.

So when the head of the black market's publicity department saw the tweet from Old Deng, he was completely dumbfounded.

Because they were just about to announce a delay!
However, while the head of the publicity department was bewildered, the company's senior management was not.

"Ignore this old man, Lockheed Martin and Boeing are backing us, just release the information directly!"

"Ok."

The maiden flight of the Vulcan rocket has been postponed to the first quarter of next year due to the inability of parts suppliers to provide them on time!

Old Deng: "?"

(End of this chapter)