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

"Shuguang, please make sure the fairing door is closed."

"Shuguang understands!"

Zhang Zhiguang answered on the radio, then turned to give Fang Lin a look.

The latter was still looking at the moon still in the sky through the external camera of the fairing, and immediately closed the fairing door after hearing the instruction.

The command module of the Dawn spacecraft has a 25cm diameter hard glass window. Although its design is sufficient to support the ablation of direct exposure to the atmosphere, a shield is added for safety reasons, which can be opened and closed manually or electrically.

He could have seen the sky directly outside, but the lunar mission required a fairing, which did not have a large area of ​​glass.

Zhang Zhiguang has completed the ship-arrow joint self-inspection and is calmly staring at the parameters and waiting for the launch command.

Now there's only 15 minutes left until launch.

The trestle connected to the entrance of the fairing was disconnected, contracted and moved aside under the action of the hydraulic mechanism, and the hatch on the fairing slowly closed.

The three astronauts tightened their legs slightly and adjusted their posture slightly to make their backs fit more closely into the seats.

Although they are supplied by the same manufacturer, they still feel that the electric seats of the Shuguang spacecraft are not as comfortable as those of the space shuttle, and they do not have the sense of integration and tolerance.

In the launch center, Lin Ju confirmed that the Unity at the Xinyuan launch site was also in good condition and maintained a state of rapid refueling and launch within 6 hours.

The Apollo spacecraft did not have a rescue backup, but the Dawn spacecraft did.

Both Progress and Steadfast are still on the Tiangong Space Station. Only Unity is on the ground. It is now mounted on a Xianyuan-2 rocket. Some seats and other facilities have been removed from the cabin to reduce weight. The 19-ton empty Relying heavily on the capacity of the Xinyuan-2 rocket is enough to reach the lunar orbit.

This is the only space shuttle that can be used now. The Storm is still resting at the base. The long-term voyage of nuclear power still exposed some minor problems. The base needs to make minor modifications in mid-July to be completed; the Pioneer and the Glory were released in June. They returned on the 14th and 15th of July and are also undergoing renovations. All three H2s will not be able to fly again until mid-July.

Fortunately, H1 is enough. If the situation is too bad, at least there is a space shuttle that can be used. With the "Black Rabbit" space station, the preparation methods are already very complete.

By comparison, Artemis 2 has only the "Gateway" that provides temporary shelter: 4 cubic meters, one cubic meter for each person, which is fair.

At least Lin Ju really couldn't figure out what the use of the "Portal" space station was, with only 8 cubic meters of space in its entirety, so it could only be used as a bathroom to make room for it.

"One minute!"

The announcer's voice woke him from his thoughts and returned his attention to the big screen.

The three astronauts had already clenched their fists, and their necks were slightly tilted back to find a solid pillow.

Although this is not the first time he has carried out a launch mission, Zhang Zhiguang now feels that the voice in the radio is gradually becoming hollow, his mind has flown out of his body, and his eyes are just a window to record the picture, faithfully executing what he has already done. It's almost becoming a parameter check of muscle memory.

The two YF130s in the central core stage started first. The throttle valve opened at a relatively gentle speed, but strong vibrations could still be felt when transmitted to the command module at an altitude of 100 meters.

Four seconds later, the eight engines of the four boosters also started to ignite, and then it took 5 seconds for the 10 engines and 20 nozzles to enter 100% working condition. Every second, 25 tons of fuel were discharged from each tank. The medium loss provided the entire rocket with more than 5,100 tons of thrust, and the four support points at the bottom of the rocket began to separate from the launch pad.

On the beach a few kilometers away, people first saw an orange light emerging from the gap of the launch pad, and then a large sheet of smoke silently covered the rocket and the launch station, until the cone of the escape tower emerged from When the smoke appeared above, people who had already felt the vibrations on the ground heard the sound waves in the air.

More than a hundred islanders gathered around Yamamoto Kazuki. They were frantically holding bright red flags and shouting something, but this was all covered up by the sound waves in the air. It seemed like a large-scale event against the background sound of rockets. Amazing mime.

The camera that was set to track the target intelligently started following the shooting, but he still carefully corrected it manually. The contrast of the picture was automatically lowered because the brightness of the tail flame formed by the 20 nozzles was too high. Lowering the exposure will only capture a large ball of white light.

When he raised his head, the moon could still see a little outline. From the current angle, it seemed to be almost as high as the rocket.

"Long live China!* @%Long live"

Serizawa Tamao's voice finally reached his ears. The former was waving the flag and jumping around, roaring excitedly.

The Apollo program's moon landing operation allowed NACA to stand proudly in the world for half a century. Now, their pride is coming to an end, Yamamoto thought.

…

The sun is rising in Qiongzhou, but Florida is still going dark.

I don't know when the starry sky has been covered by clouds, and Claire can only see the hazy yellowish moonlight behind the clouds.

At 21.09, after he scrolled down to refresh Twitter again, CADC finally updated a tweet:

"Shuguang 3 was launched successfully"

The accompanying picture is a photo captured on the ground with the outlines of the rocket and the moon overlapping each other. After zooming in, you can even see the thermal insulation foam falling off the surface of the rocket body.

He did not watch the live broadcast, and at the same time blocked the news as quickly as possible. Basically, no one in the control room knew that Shuguang-3 was launching early. They only knew that Director Claire asked that the launch time be advanced by 30 minutes. The reason was to "prevent thunder and lightning from gathering dark clouds." .

Although it is a bit rushed, it is still within the adjustment range, so it is not difficult to do.

At 28 minutes and 20 seconds, the diversion trough began to spray water into the core stage engine. The four RS25 engines swayed slightly, and finally it was confirmed that the control was normal.

"ten, nine, eight, seven, six...four engin start."

The four liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen engines started, and four seconds later, the two SRB boosters ignited.

The people who had been working anxiously outside the launch site for half an hour saw the numbers on the huge timer and burst into cheers excitedly.

The working method of the solid booster is extremely violent, and it is much louder than the liquid engine with greater thrust. In the dark, people only feel that the whole earth is shaking, and the expanding light ball at the launch pad seems to be coming from The monster emerged from the cracks in the ground, roaring to leave the prison of gravity.

The two SRBs and the core-stage RS25 steadily pushed the rocket away from the launch pad. The wake generated by the solid booster quickly merged into a smoke column with a width of more than ten meters. It glowed under the firelight, as if the night was artificially destroyed. Cutting a wound that promises to penetrate the sky, or it may be reminiscent of the mythical Tower of Babel.

In the past 30 minutes, two rockets carrying lunar landing spacecrafts took off from the east and west hemispheres respectively. Two small points of light appeared on the light side and the dark side, and entered orbit one after another.

They will each accelerate 2 to 3 times in low-Earth orbit, and then embark on a journey to the moon together.

CBS quickly issued the first report after the launch of Artemis 2. The title came from Susanna who was still in Qiongzhou:

“Two rockets, two skies, and the only moon (two rockets, two skies, and the only moon)”

Today, Monday and Tuesday are quite busy...