I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?

"Mr. Lin, sit here."

"Um, thank you."

In the launch center, Lin Ju sat in the VIP viewing seats as a spectator for the first time.

Before in Qiongzhou, Xinyuan had been sending all kinds of rockets up the road one after another, while he was in front of the console, but now it was finally the other way around.

It is now 6.30 in the morning, and the Long March 10 rocket has been brought to the launch station by the movable launch pad, preparing to launch at 9 o'clock that day.

As the core of the Dawn Plan, Long March 10 received the largest publicity resources for its launch. Four CCTV stations began live broadcasting the entire event from 6 o'clock, and the online channels of major official media also opened live broadcasts.

By 7 a.m., the cumulative number of viewers on various platforms had exceeded 130 million, accounting for about 10% of the country's population.

Globally, it is estimated that at least 300 million people watch it through online platforms.

If it were an SLS rocket launch, there might not be that many people watching it, but the space agency comes with some kind of mental BUFF bonus. After all, in people’s minds, the distance between CASA and NACA is quite huge.

As a result, CASA’s moon landing rocket flew first? Eh, that doesn't seem right.

China Aerospace is actually ahead of Aramco!

Will the Long March 10 suddenly explode in just 10 months from project establishment to first flight?

With all kinds of questions and expectations, the number of people watching the first flight of Long March 10 broke the record, even surpassing the live broadcast of the Apollo moon landing. Of course, the current communication media cannot be generalized to what it was a few decades ago.

Of course, in addition to online, the number of foreigners coming to the event in person has also increased dramatically.

Mike Griffin stood with Aldrin on the beach again.

The last time Xinyuan No. 2A made its maiden flight, Buzz Aldrin came to China and did not leave. He continued to wait for the first flight of Xinyuan No. 3.

Griffin had nothing to do anyway, so he ate and drank with the old man on the mainland. He was planning to go back at the end of July, and heard that the Long March 10th was about to fly.

This was something we couldn’t miss, so the two of them stayed for a while, until today.

Looking at the crowds on the beach that were even larger than the previous two times, Aldrin stood on the balcony of the small loft they rented in advance and said with emotion:

"In May, June, and August, the Chinese will launch three consecutive rockets capable of performing moon landing missions this year. This is more powerful than Aramco during the Apollo program."

Griffin: "Now they are the world's largest industrial country, with industrial output accounting for one-third of the world's. This is unprecedented."

Griffin has been shocked to the point of numbness by the three giant rocket launches from Qiongzhou, but this time he is the most worried, because the Long March 10 is the main force in the competition. If the Long March 10 succeeds in its first flight this time, it means that NACA's Facts lag behind.

He was in office at the turn of the century. Although NACA's funding had been severely cut by that time, it still had its power and proposed the continuation of the "Constellation" plan.

The decline of NACA is obvious to all, but what does a Chinese proverb say? A skinny elephant is bigger than a horse. NACA should not be left behind like this.

"Su Qing is fine, Su Qing is fine"

"The Universe Bureau is ten thousand years old!"

"Long March 10th No. 1 Ichiban"

"アジア人のlunar landingです"

Griffin and his thoughts were interrupted by a suddenly louder shout, and then he looked down in disgust.

I don't know when a large number of islanders gathered here. They held banners to bless the Long March on the 10th, and occasionally mixed in a few Chinese sentences. The noise made people feel irritated.

But Aldrin didn't have any worries. For a man in his 80s, his not very sensitive ears can filter out most of the noise.

He just slowly lowered his body, approached the rented telescope, and pointed it at the rocket on the launch station.

"Yuanwang 3 has arrived at the designated location, communication is normal, please give instructions!"

"Continue to monitor and maintain status!"

"yes!"

Yun Hongjun put on his headphones and put his hands on the console. As the deputy commander-in-chief of this launch mission, he constantly checked the status of the rocket and telemetry system, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

There was still more than an hour before the launch, and Yun Hongjun, who had only slept for more than two hours, had red eyes, but he still carried out various procedures in an orderly manner.

On the huge screen in front of him, the Long March 10 has been filled with more than 3,000 tons of fuel. The fuel tank storing liquid oxygen is decompressed through a small opening. The vaporized liquid oxygen freezes the water vapor in the air. It looks like There are several more holes in the rocket body, and white gas is continuously sprayed out.

The boss and Lin Ju stood not far away and clearly saw Yun Hongjun's condition, but did not step forward.

The former sighed:

"The mission of Long March 10 is too tight. Seriously speaking, the proportion of new technologies is as high as more than 75%. In theory, it should not be done... He was also ordered to build the rocket in times of crisis. It is already amazing that he was able to build the rocket.

If I were to evaluate this rocket before, it would be considered a success if it did not explode on the launch pad. "

Lin Ju: "But Long March 10 has to succeed."

"Yeah, it can't fail."

The boss clasped his hands tightly and could already feel his palms filled with sweat.

With half an hour left before the launch, Lin Ju and the overly young Serev walked out of the range of the live camera and quietly discussed the launch of Long March 10.

Lin Ju: "How high do you think the success rate of Long March 10's first launch is?"

Serev: "If it were my time, I would definitely not be optimistic. The time was too short, only 10 months. This was a rocket with a take-off thrust of 5,100 tons. If I was forced to design and build a rocket of this size within a year, then I would I’d rather be demoted and teach.”

Lin Ju: "By the way, what did you think about N1 back then?"

The N1 rocket, as the rocket that carries the alliance's dream of landing on the moon, suffered four consecutive catastrophic accidents that completely shattered its dream of landing on the moon. Many people said that Korolev might be different now, but now we can actually ask real people.

Serev had also learned about the development of Alliance Aerospace after his death. Even if some parts were unclear, he could still know what happened. At this time, when he mentioned N1, he just shook his head:

“I didn’t like polluting propellants, so I designed N1. But when I died, N1 was just a draft, far from being officially implemented. Now it seems that N1 is really unlikely to succeed with the technology at the time.

But now I feel that my thinking at that time was too limited. It was incorrect to design a single-body rocket after the Saturn V. It was right to stick to our bundled tradition.

Although NK15 only has a thrust of 150 tons, it does not necessarily have to be arranged on the same rocket body. If four NK15s are installed on each booster, and then six are bundled, plus four core stages, there are still 28 engines. A lot, but the vibrations are nowhere near as strong.

In this way, the low-Earth orbit transport capacity is about 100 tons, which is enough for us to land on the moon. "

Lin Ju nodded. It is true that the rocket ideas of the Alliance, China and Aramco are quite different. The former two like to bundle high-thrust liquid boosters, while the latter either bundles high-thrust single-core thrusters or bundles high-thrust solid thrusters.

If N1 also bundled multiple boosters, at least the situation would not be so bad.

"As for the Long March 10, based on my evaluation based on the manufacturing capabilities of our base, it should be fine. But from the perspective of traditional aerospace development, even if they have done enough safety redundancy, I still think there will be some problems."