This star is going to the moon

Chapter 442 Orbital-level space tourism monopolized by Lu Yun! Holy crap, this young man!

In fact, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic had no choice; they really didn't expect that manned spaceflight technology would experience such a rapid explosion in just a few years!

It's like someone cheated!
After all, not to mention the previous few years, even when their suborbital spacecraft was nearing maturity in 2019, Elon Musk's "Crew Dragon" spacecraft had only just completed its first unmanned flight.

As for Lu Yun's "Wooden Kite" space shuttle, it is only testing the engine, and the first flight is still unknown.

Even if Lu Yun's reusable "Wanhu" rocket for cargo transport is fast, how long will it take to develop a manned, groundbreaking single-stage-to-orbit space shuttle?

After all, the "Wanhu" rocket had the mature "Falcon 9" rocket to copy, but there was no ready-made reference for a single-stage-to-orbit space shuttle.

According to their calculations, a ticket for Elon Musk's Crew Dragon spacecraft costs more than $5000 million.

Compared to the exorbitant prices of 80 to 90 million US dollars per ticket charged by Russians for passenger transport, that is naturally much cheaper.

While Lu Yun's "Wooden Kite" space shuttle is touted as "cheaper," how much cheaper can manned spaceflight be?

Compared to the $50 million price tag of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, they felt it shouldn't be less than $10 million, and perhaps $30 million would be more appropriate.

After all, the ticket price for China's own Shenzhou manned spacecraft is also around $5000 million.

So in 2019, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic were planning to raise their prices.

They felt that their initial offer of $25 was too cheap!
Inflation has increased significantly in recent years, so ticket prices should be raised, even to $50 a ticket would not be excessive!

then……

Deng!Deng!Deng!
The "Wooden Kite" makes a dazzling debut with its orbital-class commercial space tourism offering tickets priced at $150 million each!
It's tens of millions, but tens of millions of RMB!
So when netizens learned that they planned to use their boss's "first trip into space" as a gimmick to launch their own commercial suborbital "space tourism," they all began to offer their blessings.

[The Americans are so meticulous; they take seven or eight years of test flights before commercializing manned spaceflight, unlike Lu Yun, who dared to launch commercial space tourism after only a few months.]

[Your description is inaccurate. That was a safe suborbital space trip that skirted the Kármán line at 100 kilometers, not Lu Yun's dangerous orbital-level space trip at 300-400 kilometers.]

[Skimming the edge? Where is the edge skimming?]

Wow, you really know how to spot keywords accurately!

[In my opinion, their optimal time for commercialization was 2015, but it was delayed until 2021. By then, orbital commercial space tourism had already been dominated by Yunus's space shuttle. And for many wealthy people, the difference between $250,000 and $1.5 million isn't that big, but the "level" they represent is vastly different, and that's what wealthy people care about.]

[Well... there's a significant difference between $25 and $150 million, but with the space shuttle already taking center stage, the number of potential users willing to spend $25 to experience a few minutes of weightlessness at an altitude of 100 kilometers will definitely be much smaller. It might even be fewer than the number of people willing to spend $150 million to experience orbital space.]

[It's not that it's impossible, it's certain. The latest news is that Blue Origin's New Shepard will conduct flight missions every few months after their boss's maiden flight, while Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo will not officially begin commercial operation until two years after their boss's flight.]

【? 】

Is this a case of "what's the use of trying"?

Indeed, with the "Wooden Kite" class space shuttle about to transition from monthly trial commercial space tourism flights to weekly official commercial space tourism flights, why is their suborbital tourism only once every few months or even years?

[That's true! In the first half of this year, the "Ingenious Idea" flight flew once a month, but starting in July, it will be operating a regular weekly flight. That's amazing!]

【I, Lu Shen, am invincible!】

[I'll have to take a good look when their boss does suborbital space tourism next month. After all, orbital space tourism is common now, but suborbital space tourism is really rare.] [Indeed, it sounds amazing...]

At this time, Lu Yun, who was invincible, took leave from the "Dream Record" production team to attend an important progress report meeting on the manned lunar landing project in Beijing.

This report meeting is the first comprehensive report meeting since the manned lunar landing project was approved. The purpose is to examine the progress and coordination of the various sub-projects after the overall project was approved.

Compared to the heavy-lift Long March 10 rocket, the lunar spacecraft and lunar lander were initiated earlier. For example, the prototype test vehicle of the new generation manned spacecraft was test-flown in May 2018.

So the current progress is going very smoothly. We can conduct a zero-altitude escape test of the spacecraft escape tower this year, and a high-altitude escape test of the spacecraft's maximum dynamic pressure can be conducted in the first half of next year.

The lunar lander project was initiated around the same time as the maiden flight of the new manned spacecraft.

Although the manned lunar landing project had not yet been officially launched at that time, the higher authorities had always had this idea. So, after they felt that the technical accumulation was sufficient, they allocated some funds to set up a group to start technical pre-research.

China and Laos did not compete with the US in lunar lander projects because there were no extra and capable teams in China.

In addition, the Chinese and Laos had a very pragmatic goal and did not emphasize the idea that "bigger is better" in this project. A giant lunar rocket that is 50 meters tall is even more impossible.

The new-era lunar module that China needs only needs to be larger and more advanced than the American Apollo lunar module from decades ago, enough to allow two astronauts to stay on the lunar surface for a week.

After all, the last Apollo 17 lunar module of the last century stayed on the lunar surface for a little over three days, and the astronauts spent a total of 22 hours on the lunar surface.

The new manned lunar landing in the new century will definitely take much longer than in the last century, at least twice as long.

The more radical aspect of the Lao-Chinese approach is to make the lunar lander reusable.

Or, to put it another way, because they were stingy and wanted to save money, the lunar module was reused.

However, the lunar lander project was initiated relatively late, and it is a manned lunar landing device that China has never developed before, so the progress is slow. It is estimated that it will take two or three years before it can be tested.

That's alright. Testing the lunar spacecraft first, and then the lunar lander, is in line with the procedure.

Let alone that it doesn't conflict with the "explicit goal" of achieving a manned lunar landing by 2026 at the latest.

It doesn't conflict with the "dark goal" of directly confronting the US and advancing the manned lunar landing to 2020 or 2024.

After all, the progress of the US's own 50-meter-tall giant "super lunar module" is even more mysterious, because it is just a new rocket. The "super lunar module" can only be developed after that super rocket is successfully developed.

Many people doubt whether it can succeed in 2024, let alone return to the moon in 2024.

As for the Long March 10 Heavy Rocket, Chief Designer Lu Yun, who was "not doing his job" but making movies, said easily and confidently: "The progress of the Long March 10 Heavy Rocket is normal, and the maiden flight time next year can be further refined to July."

"So if the new spacecraft can complete the high-altitude escape test in the first half of the year, it can catch up with the maiden flight of the heavy Long March 10 in July. In that case, our maiden flight mission of the heavy Long March 10 will be the same as the maiden flight time and mission of the American SLS rocket."

"That is, just like its so-called 'Artemis 1' mission to return to the moon, namely, an unmanned deep-space spacecraft orbiting the moon..."

Upon hearing this, everyone at the meeting exclaimed inwardly, "Holy crap!"
Holy crap, this young man!
We're really going to have to go toe-to-toe with the Americans at the mid-lane!
but……

Very good, very energetic!
He truly deserves to be a leading figure among outstanding young people in the new era!
(End of this chapter)