This star is going to the moon

Chapter 507: The "Immortal Chariot" flies towards the Heavenly Palace Space Station; the SLS rocket is pushed back to the assembly building.
[Ma Yilong has gone mad; he wants to build a new Eden!]

Good grief, is it really okay for the Western world to claim they're building a New Eden?

[I told you there was something wrong with those twenty genetically engineered IVF offspring. Ma Yilong definitely wants to establish a second federation on Mars!]

[So when will we colonize Mars? Can the first rocket carry me? I can't stand Earth's atmosphere anymore; I want to go to Mars and experience freedom.]

[Ma Yilong is really getting desperate, haha, this is going to be interesting.]

[However, the SLS rocket is indeed useless. It's been so many years and so much money has been spent, yet it can't even pass the wet rehearsal. How can it even fly?]

[Sigh, wet rehearsals are for finding problems. As long as it hasn't flown, there's an opportunity to check, and it won't be the first flight until everything is fixed.]

I think Elon Musk is right. If the Americans had given him the resources and mission earlier, they might have already returned to the moon, or even landed humans on Mars.

[It's hard to say. How can you be sure that if you entrust all the heavy responsibilities to Elon Musk, he won't become the next Boeing?]

[Exactly. Boeing dared to do that before because it had a monopoly. But then Elon Musk came along in the US, and Louis DeJoy came along in China, which caused Boeing to crash and burn. If it weren't for those two, Boeing could have covered up all its projects.]

That's different. Elon Musk is an idealist; he can definitely...

Forget it, he's just an opportunistic schemer...

You're talking nonsense...

You idiot...

It has to be said that Ma Yilong's "having children" has indeed had a significant impact.

After all, Ma Yilong himself has a lot of popularity. He is much better at marketing than Lu Yun. He has nearly 100 million followers on a world-class social media platform like Twitter, and every word he says is watched by a huge number of people.

Then he wants to acquire Twitter and privatize it. If the acquisition is successful, his influence on public opinion will definitely be even greater.

His "having children" is not only about himself, but also about the sharp social contradictions within the United States.

It is even a global social conflict that has spread from within the United States to the rest of the world.

With these buffs stacked together, the hype exploded, sparking huge discussions.

However, while people abroad were busy with this, on April 24th, the crew of the "Xiancha" space shuttle, the replacement space shuttle for the Shenzhou-18 manned spacecraft, held a press conference.

This time, the three astronauts consist of one second-batch astronaut and two third-batch astronauts.

That is, Ye Guangfu, who flew the Shenzhou-13 mission, was the commander, with Li Cong and Li Guangsu as his team leaders.

They were originally on the Shenzhou-18 mission, but halfway through, they were switched to the "Xiancha" space shuttle.

Although changing the training syllabus halfway through is quite troublesome, they are more excited than anyone else.

Ye Guangfu, who had traveled to space aboard Shenzhou-13, was the most excited.

Because the Shenzhou manned spacecraft is simply no match for the Muyuan-class space shuttle.

There's a certain beauty in switching from a gasoline-powered manual transmission to an electric automatic transmission after six months of learning.

In fact, the Shenzhou manned spacecraft is not an unchanging old relic; it has made technological progress with almost every launch.

For example, the Shenzhou-18 spacecraft was the first to use high-capacity, long-life, and highly reliable lithium-ion batteries.

The new lithium-ion battery has taken over the baton from the high-capacity nickel-cadmium battery, a veteran of 17 Shenzhou spacecraft missions, and has begun a new journey in power supply for Shenzhou spacecraft.

Lithium-ion batteries have been successfully used in spacecraft such as space stations and cargo spacecraft, and their safety and reliability have been widely verified.

Moreover, it not only boasts higher energy density, longer cycle life, and superior high-rate charging, but also reduces the weight of the entire Shenzhou manned spacecraft by approximately 50 kilograms, further meeting the mission requirements of the Shenzhou spacecraft during the space station application and development phase. Shenzhou-18 not only upgraded the main power supply's batteries and their charging control methods, but also further extended the lifespan of the zinc-silver batteries used in the return power supply, emergency power supply, and pyrotechnic power supply. The lifespan of the zinc-silver batteries increased by 20%, enabling the Shenzhou spacecraft to support longer on-orbit berthing missions.

By gradually improving the capabilities of its power supply products, the Shenzhou spacecraft can continuously expand the boundaries of its mission applications and better support the entire space station project.

Furthermore, in order to ensure the reliability of the spacecraft's solar panels in orbit during long-term "standby" status, the developers controlled the variance of the measured data of key product indicators to within one-thousandth, and then calculated the time required for the spacecraft to deploy in orbit through testing.

After being verified by multiple manned spacecraft flights, the solar panels of the Shenzhou-18 manned spacecraft can achieve an 8-second flapping time, making it fearless of ultra-long "standby" periods.

Unfortunately, no matter how it is upgraded or modified, its basic framework will not change, and that is the configuration from the 1990s, which is now thirty years old.

Most importantly, its opponent is the Kite-class space shuttle.

The space agency knows exactly what to choose.

Furthermore, the space agency has made great strides this time, not only purchasing the Muyuan-class space shuttle, but also the "Bluestar" intravehicular spacesuit配套 (matched) by Bluestar Aerospace.

The space agency's kind of intravehicular activity suits that look very practical are now obsolete.

Of course, the spacesuit team was not eliminated, but promoted.

It was elevated to the manned lunar landing program, where research was conducted on the intravehicular spacesuits needed for manned lunar landing.

So when the three astronauts appeared wearing their "Blue Star" intravehicular activity suits, but with badges of the national manned space mission, Tiangong space station, identification badges, and the national flag, the reporters on site took a flurry of photos.

Because the next day was the opening day of the Space Day activities, they held a departure ceremony early in the morning.

From the Shenzhou manned spacecraft to the Muyuan-class space shuttle, their "expedition" no longer requires traveling several kilometers by car to the launch tower.

Instead, passengers can depart directly from the waiting area, then pass through the transit room, and finally walk across the boarding bridge to enter the cabin of the "Xiancha".

Although they had entered and exited the simulator countless times during training, when they actually entered the "Xiancha" cabin, they still exclaimed in their hearts, "It's so spacious."

As for why I didn't say it out loud, it's because it's being broadcast live!
Once they were ready, the command center gave them instructions.

"Xiancha R1, please get ready, 5 seconds until takeoff!"

"Xiancha R1 understands, taking off in 5 seconds!"

Ye Guangfu and the others held their breath and watched as the countdown on the screen reached zero. Then they felt a gradually increasing, intense push-back sensation, along with a rumbling sound.

The two rookie astronauts from the third batch exclaimed "Wow!"

Compared to the two new third-batch astronauts who were full of excitement, Ye Guangfu, who had traveled to space in the Shenzhou spacecraft, finally couldn't help but exclaim, "It really is very easy!"

Space enthusiasts watching the live stream weren't surprised, after all, when the Shenzhou spacecraft was launched before, veteran astronauts asked the rookie astronauts, "Is riding in a spacecraft fun?"

The rookie astronaut shouted, "Awesome!"

Space enthusiasts have expressed that if they were to go to space, they would definitely be even less ambitious.

Of course, there were indeed even more pathetic people at this point.

While the "Xiancha" space shuttle was carrying Chinese astronauts to the Tiangong space station, the Americans were pushing the SLS rocket back to the assembly building in the evening.

The Americans really did have diarrhea!

I'm so busy! Two major spacefaring nations are serving me, and I have to watch both at the same time.

[Haha, but one's flying into space, and the other's being pushed back...]

(End of this chapter)