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

"Booster separation!"

"Separation completed!"

Under the impact of the explosive bolts, the four boosters that provided more than 80% of the thrust for the first stage separated one after another after the fuel was exhausted, forming a perfect Korolev Cross in the strange flames.

However, they are not free-falling. Compared with the Yao-1 booster and core first stage, the Long March 10 Yao-2 rocket has several more small grid rudders. This is not for recovery, but to deflect and control the landing area when falling. .

Although Qiongzhou Launch Site 5 has a lower dimension, the landing area of ​​the rocket's debris after launch will pass through many countries in Southeast Asia. In order to avoid international disputes, the rocket design generally avoids landing the debris in densely populated areas.

The Long March 5B rocket of the original world line adopts a first-stage and half-orbit design and a lengthened core first-stage combustion time for this reason.

The Long March 10 is different. When the Dawn Project began, the space agency's first mission was to build a qualified rocket. Compromising the design for the landing zone was a very low priority, and was simply ignored to save time.

Therefore, the landing area of ​​the Yaoyi rocket's debris was not deliberately controlled. Most of it hit the island of Luzon, and a section of the booster debris damaged farmland, which caused a bit of a sensation at the time.

Although this is a trivial matter compared to landing on the moon, the Yaoer rocket still added several hundred kilograms of dead weight to control the landing zone and make it fall into the sea as much as possible.

Not long after the booster separated, the first stage core also ran out of fuel and separated. The four YF77Gs, which had high hopes, were started at the same time. The wider flow adjustment range allowed them to correct the direction slightly before gradually increasing the thrust. After completely crossing the low-density atmosphere, the four YF77Gs can output nearly 300 tons of thrust.

The second and third stages of the Long March 10 are the key to qualifying its carrying capacity. In the launch center, the developers of the Long March 10 and YF77G were walking around to check the working status of the engines.

Until the end of the first stage of acceleration of the four engines, the engine sensors did not send any abnormal signals.

Satellites and survey ships have also sent back measured orbit data for confirmation, indicating that there are no problems with the rocket so far and will soon accelerate into the Earth-moon transfer orbit again.

But now they have not given up. There are a total of 6 YF77s in the second and third stages. Unless the spacecraft and lander combination have successfully entered the lunar orbit, it cannot be said that YF77G has become reliable.

The journey to the moon lasted three days, and YF77G started and stopped a lot. If there are no accidents, it means that the high-thrust hydrogen-oxygen engine developed by the space agency has finally passed the test.

…

"started!"

At Blue Origin's test site in the desert, BE4 (M1) underwent another ignition test. The throttle valve increased to 100% within 50 seconds. Liquid pure oxygen and methane poured into the combustion chamber crazily. After mixed combustion, a powerful tail flame.

On the horizontal thrust meter in the control room, the numbers jumped crazily and climbed all the way up, quickly exceeding six digits.

BE4 went through a full 180-second test run, and finally left a string of numbers on the measuring instrument: 547,000 lb, 550,000 pounds of thrust, about 250 tons.

Jeff Bezos and Bumno, the director of the Aramco Launch Alliance, high-fived each other and were both happy for the first successful test run of BE4.

Unlike the original World Line, which has been lagging behind and stalling from time to time, due to the urgency of the Artemis project, NACA directly designated Blue Origin as the contractor to manufacture the lunar lander, and injected a large amount of funds and technical support.

Up to now, Blue Origin has received US$3.8 billion in funding for the Blue Moon lander alone. Its technical strength has also grown a lot, and various non-technical needs have been given the green light.

More importantly, while guiding Lao Ma’s full-flow liquid oxygen methane engine “Raptor” generation, Blue Origin’s BE4 also received support.

Compared with the "Raptor", BE4 is still a relatively backward oxygen-rich pre-cycle staged combustion mode, but its thrust is much greater. Overall, it is more advanced than Xinyuan's M220, with a thrust of 250 tons.

The successful 180-second test run of BE4 means that Blue Origin has finally won the throne of the world's No. 1 methane engine.

For Bezos, the initial success of BE4 means that the New Glenn rocket with a single stage into orbit and a carrying capacity of up to 45 tons can enter substantial development; Bruno means that ULA's new Vulcan Centaur rocket can have a qualified engine And feel happy.

Most of the rockets launched by ULA serve the Aramco military. The main ones are Delta-IV and Atlas-V. Delta-IV has a limited number of hydrogen and oxygen engines left, and Atlas-V still has 17 in stock. It is the main force now.

Atlas-V uses Lucia's RD181 engine. The 100 units purchased in the early years have been fully delivered. Ami is preparing to use its own engine to develop a one-time rocket that can replace Delta-IV and Atlas-V. This is the Vulcan.

BE4 is one of Vulcan's alternative engines, and now it seems that it is almost confirmed.

Even though the Falcon 9 is reusable, there is still a lot of demand for LEO disposable cheap rockets with payloads of 10 to 27 tons, and ULA is not losing at all.

Jeff Bezos: "Bruno, are you really not going to join me on a glamorous space flight?"

Bruno: "Thank you, but I'm very busy recently..."

Jeff Bezos may be the most "reckless" rich man Bruno has ever seen. Last year, the New Shepard suborbital rocket completed two successful recoveries, so Bezos plans to carry out manned missions after completing one more recovery. The first flight carried six passengers, including him and his brother Mark Bezos.

In any case, Bruno really admired this courage, at least he didn't dare to sit down.

Jeff Bezos didn't react strangely to Bruno's withdrawal. Not everyone has the courage to try new things like him.

So he turned to Bruno and complained: "NACA is too urgent. You know, Director Claire recently asked me to advance the completion time of the official lander from November to July. This is simply impossible.

Besides, I'm still making modifications to make it launchable from the Falcon Heavy, which is a lot of work. "

The "Blue Moon" lander is different from the lander of China's Dawn Plan. It is integral and flies as a whole to and from the landing. Blue Origin has developed ideas and preliminary conceptual designs very early.

The dry weight of "Blue Moon" is 14 tons, but it can reach 45 tons when filled with fuel. It was originally designed to adapt to the launch of the New Glenn rocket.

The New Glenn rocket enters orbit with a single stage, so "Blue Moon" needs to add a lot of fuel to fly to the moon before decelerating and landing. Moreover, the diameter of the New Glenn rocket is 7 meters, which is 3.7 meters compared to the Falcon Heavy core stage. meters is much wider, and switching to the latter for launch requires a lot of modifications.

The biggest compromise was to increase the original length from 16 meters to 23 meters in order to maintain the weight while reducing the diameter to 5.8 meters...

You must know that the "Blue Moon" lander was originally a bit high, now it is almost 7 stories high, so special attention must be paid to attitude control when descending. The astronauts also have to use an elevator to go up and down, otherwise it will be too strenuous to climb the stairs.

A lunar lander equipped with an elevator, heavy functional mission requirements, complex structural design, and an excessively high center of gravity. Although everything has been proven feasible by NACA, many people still express concerns.

This naturally included Bruno. When he learned that NACA actually asked to advance the production schedule of "Blue Moon", his eyelids twitched.

Is it really possible to complete all the inspection procedures when executing the moon landing plan in such a hurry...