This star is going to the moon

Chapter 444 Market Competition: It's Always Been This Way!
Well, actually, the US's New Shepard suborbital travel rocket is quite interesting too.

After all, it's not an ordinary manned spacecraft rocket.

Instead, it has a... very unique design.

(The world's only three operational orbital-class manned rockets: China, Russia, and the United States, as well as the New Shepard suborbital manned rocket)

This is the first manned flight of New Shepard. Unlike SpaceShipTwo, which had always been test-flown by pilots, New Shepard was always test-flown unmanned, at most carrying some experimental payloads.

Therefore, although it was also the last manned flight before its official commercial operation, the New Shepard had a more luxurious crew configuration.

For example, Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, is the owner of Amazon and also the owner of Blue Origin space company.

The other passenger was his younger brother, who, although not holding a specific position, was a board member of the Bezos Family Foundation.

They are both wealthy people.

The third passenger was an 82-year-old retired pilot who was one of the candidates for female astronauts in the US manned spaceflight program "Mercury 13," but was unable to go into space because the program was canceled.

The last passenger was an 18-year-old high school student, whose father paid for his fare.

Of course, the main reason the audience came to see the New Shepard was not for that, but for its amazing design.

Previously, it didn't receive much attention, so only space enthusiasts were watching it. However, with the recent explosion of space information and the hype surrounding the difference between orbital space tourism and suborbital tourism, ordinary people are also coming to see what "suborbital space tourism" is all about.
As soon as they saw the New Shepard rocket standing on the launch pad, they couldn't hold back anymore.

Wow, this rocket's design is really... unique.

Its spaceship had a bulge at the front, really resembling a turtle... you know.

[Ahem, mainly compared to manned rockets that are tens of meters tall, this suborbital rocket is too short, only a dozen meters long. Plus, its crew capsule design is rather... well, let's just say the overall look is... well...]

(New Shepard)

Lu Yun has also been passively following these aerospace news recently.

There was nothing he could do. Although he spent most of his time filming for the "Dream of Splendor" series, and it was a period drama, the crew was made up of modern people.

With the explosive growth in aerospace traffic and popularity this year, almost everyone can chime in on the topic.

Lu Yun was the most knowledgeable person about aerospace in the crew, so many people who got to know him would always bring up some aerospace information when they chatted with him.

"Lu Yun, the suborbital tourism tickets offered by foreign companies are now six times cheaper than your space tourism tickets. Will this affect Blue Star Aerospace's space tourism business?"

"Xiao Lu, is the suborbital tour only a five-minute experience of weightlessness?"

"Mr. Lu, when are you going to become the world's richest man?"

"Brother Lu, is the world's richest man at Blue Origin Aerospace Company like the world's strongest One-Punch Man, where the strongest all go bald?"

"..."

Lu Yun did indeed know a lot of relevant information, and even knew about another timeline.

For example, a first flight slot on the New Shepard in the last century was auctioned for $2800 million.

However, the mysterious passenger couldn't go due to a scheduling conflict, so the 18-year-old high school student came from the back of the passenger list ahead of time.

This also made New Shepard's maiden flight a success, with the 82-year-old being the oldest astronaut and the 18-year-old being the youngest astronaut.

Yes, they dare to call themselves "astronauts" after only flying over the 100-kilometer-high "Kármán line".

This shows how attractive the emotional value of this title is.

However, this time it's different. The oldest and youngest astronauts have already been taken by Lu Yun's "Wooden Kite" space shuttle.

The oldest is naturally Academician Sun Jiadong, who is 91 years old.

The youngest was a 12-year-old boy whose grandfather bought five tickets for the whole family's space tourism through an "insider partnership".

So, the 82-year-old man and the 18-year-old high school student on the maiden flight of New Shepard can only be described as... average. Furthermore, in this era, orbital-class space shuttle tourism started first, so there was no mysterious person spending $2800 million to buy a suborbital tourism spot.

The secret of the previous life was later revealed: the mysterious passenger was a famous Chinese tycoon who was a cryptocurrency speculator.

Therefore, they are very good at creating hype.

He later became an advisor for the Trump family's cryptocurrency project, helping the US president to exploit investors with "Trumpcoin".

This message is quite abstract even in abstract communities.

After all, the world's leading figure, upon regaining the throne, didn't think about how to implement policies; instead, he launched a cryptocurrency to raise money. It's truly...

magical!

Speaking of the New Shepard's...unique design, it had an all-female flight in its previous life.

That is, all six passengers on a certain flight were women.

They also took a group photo in front of the New Shepard launch pad, with the magnificent suborbital rocket standing tall in the background.

(Group photo of the all-female flight)

However, just like the hype surrounding the 2800 million yuan flight in this life is over, I wonder if there will be any more all-female flights in the future.

In terms of impact, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo may be more affected.

Because it was significantly affected in its previous life.

In the previous life, the New Shepard was backed by Bezos, the world's richest man... at least for the first few years, but later Elon Musk became the world's richest man.

In this life, due to Lu Yun's influence, Elon Musk's share in the world's aerospace field is no longer dominant. Furthermore, China's electric vehicles have also seen an earlier boom due to the influence of the "Big Technology Integration Theory," which has affected many people's confidence in Tesla. As a result, Elon Musk's wealth has not increased as rapidly in this life as it did in the previous life.

So it's estimated that Bezos will be the world's richest man for a few more years in this lifetime.

Therefore, with him as a safety net, the new Shepard in this lifetime may develop even better than the previous one.

In its previous life, New Shepard continued to launch every few months until 26 years after Lord Rowe's death, but Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo could not.

After the company's founders and friends made their maiden flight in July 2001, it was not until 2003 that they officially began commercial missions. After nine missions, SpaceShipTwo was retired.

Virgin Galactic claimed to be researching more advanced... suborbital spacecraft, but 26 years after Lu Yun's death, there was still no sign of it.

Its subsidiary, Virgin Orbit, was developing air-launched rockets, but after only a few launches, the company filed for bankruptcy.

Launcher 1 rocket in Virgin Orbit has launched three times, with one failure and two successes.

If it continues like it did in the previous life, it will have to be retired after three more launches.

(Image of an air-launched rocket from an aircraft)

In this life, with Lu Yun's "Wooden Kite" space shuttle suppressing suborbital tourism with its affordable orbital-level space tourism, the situation of its parent company, Virgin Galactic, might become even worse.

But there's no way around it; that's how the market competition has always been!
At this moment, Bezos, sitting aboard the New Shepard as it took off, also felt the urgency.

The global space market is developing too fast, so he had to abandon the belief that "slow is fast" and accelerate the development of the new Glenn rocket with a diameter of 7 meters.

Previously, the New Glenn rocket had a large fairing with a diameter of 7 meters and a reusable low Earth orbit payload capacity of 45 tons, which could transport large spacecraft. The Falcon Heavy's small fairing was simply no match for the New Glenn.

But now the Long March 10 has already made its maiden flight, and they also have a large fairing with a diameter of 7 meters.

Even though the Long March 10's 25-ton reusable carrying capacity is not as good as the New Glenn, it has the heavy Long March 10 with a reusable carrying capacity of 80 tons!

So Bezos panicked!

(End of this chapter)