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

After hurting each other for a while, the starship finally ushered in its second launch.

This time, the horrific scenario of "loss of contact upon launch" did not occur again. The engine of the B7 booster core stage smoothly started sequential ignition after receiving the ignition command, and the signal connection was quite normal.

Because of the distance and angle, neither of them could see whether all 33 engines were working properly, but they could see what the problem was for the time being.

It wasn't until the booster pushed the 120-meter-high rocket body completely out of the smoke range that the condition of the first-stage tail was fully revealed.

All the engines... no, there was a piece missing in the middle, and a piece missing on the outermost edge.

Musk is very sure that this time there will be no guide trough debris entering the engine and causing damage, which can only mean that there is a problem with the rocket itself.

Two engines failed, and 31 engines were working normally, which was still within his acceptable range.

But then the other engine opposite the peripheral failed engine was also shut down. This was to balance the thrust. The outermost engines could not be corrected by deflection, they were fixed.

Although the thrust of three engines has been lost, the remaining engines can throttle to a maximum of 110%, and the total thrust is still 6,100 tons, which is almost the same as all 33 engines working normally.

After that, there was no engine shutdown, and the combination flew upward according to the predetermined trajectory, and people around them cheered.

Soon the tail flame became smaller and smaller due to the increase in height, and due to the air pressure, the spectacular traces of the tail flame after it spread can be clearly seen. According to Musk's experience, the height is now more than 70 kilometers.

Maybe it can be completed this time?

Just as he was thinking this, the bright spot in the sky suddenly went out, and then a much dimmer bright spot appeared:

The second-level starship spacecraft separated early.

The first-stage booster, which shut down all engines, continued to rise by virtue of its inertia, but immediately began to deflect due to the loss of power.

Since there is still a lot of fuel stored in the rocket body, the violent attitude change caused the fuel to start flowing and the pressure in the storage tank was partially unbalanced, which led to the explosion in just ten seconds.

This is the most classic scene in aerospace, and it is also the reason why rockets explode after falling over. Starship boosters are obviously no exception.

The secondary stage that separated early would obviously not have enough speed to enter orbit, and could only self-destruct after a short flight test.

Musk immediately called the control room and learned another bad news:

The second-level starship spacecraft has lost contact, but it is certain that the self-destruct command has been issued and will never pollute the ocean.

When he raised his head, sure enough, there was only a large cloud of mist that spread after the high-altitude explosion in the sky.

Wayne also raised his right hand and watched the whole process.

"Elon, do you think this was a successful... test?"

“It’s a success if it doesn’t explode on the launch pad.”

"..."

"Just kidding, the performance this time is already much better than the first time. Wayne, SpecaX will definitely launch the third starship within two months. In fact, we now have two semi-finished products that are 90% progress. .”

"Then I'm looking forward to your good news."

…

4 days later, Mukala launch site.

King Hamand waved enthusiastically to the hundreds of thousands of people chanting his name. Now the number of people at the Mukalla Cosmodrome has once again broken the record, and even many non-believers are present.

Even Persia held his nose to express his congratulations on the launch mission and symbolically donated some money to the local temple.

After finally meeting representatives from all walks of life, Hamand hurried to the launch tower. Rayana and Alkarli were already waiting to get on the elevator.

When they saw the king approaching, they subconsciously held their chests and bowed, but Hamand stopped them in time.

"I am also an active astronaut, and we all received training in Institute 507."

As he spoke, Hamand raised his right hand and performed a military salute, and the two of them hurriedly responded.

They all knew that the king's obsession with going to space had not dissipated, and he might even have the idea of ​​going to the moon. However, this was something they could not control. They simply said a few words of thanks and did not dare to continue, lest they be "confused". "The crime was criticized.

Hamand had no choice but to look at the Chinese chief engineer in charge and asked directly in Chinese:

"Lee, how long has it been since the Storm arrived at the space station?"

"Your Highness the King, the docking has just been successful. The launch time of the Storm was five hours ago. After converting the time difference, the two sides were actually launched at almost the same time.

After waiting for the two astronauts from the Mecca to arrive, they will immediately set off for the moon.

Congratulations, Arbor is about to become the third country to land a man on the moon! "

"Thank you, thank you, and my friends from China who are equally friendly. I always thought that it would be Lucia or Lao Guo, who would give us the chance...

Faisal, did you give our friend a gift? "

The attendant on the side quickly replied: "Of course, everyone has at least one hundred thousand dollars."

Hamand was very dissatisfied: "Too little! If everything is doubled, Li's remuneration cannot be less than one million US dollars!"

Li Gong: "Your Highness, I can't..."

Hamand: "Lee! This is a gift between friends. Don't you want to be friends with me?"

"..."

Before Mr. Li came here, he was warned by colleagues who had been on a business trip to Abo that the current situation might occur, but he never expected it to be so exaggerated.

According to the previous practice, the country recognized that this was legitimate income and all of it was privately owned. Doesn't this mean that his net worth immediately doubled several times? !

What an evil big dog...

After expelling his tycoon aura, Hamand showed a few minutes of friendly scenes under the camera, and then returned to the observation deck, where the two astronauts also entered the space shuttle to prepare for launch.

…

Tiangong Space Station.

"They're coming!"

The space station's radar has captured the Mecca, which is slowing down and preparing to approach in parallel, and has established contact to provide guidance.

Although Tianmu-2 has a mission crew of only four people, the space shuttle will actually send seven people to the moon.

During this launch, there were five crew members on board the Storm. Three rookies from the space agency would hitch a ride into the space station for their maiden trip. Then the two Xianyuan and one astronaut from the space agency on the "Tiangong" were transferred to Inside the space shuttle, head to the moon together.

At that time, Deng Lei, Li Wei, and Rayana will still land on the moon, and Alkarli and four of them will stay at the "Black Rabbit" space station for observation missions.

While waiting for the Mecca to dock, Deng Lei and Rayana were communicating with the ground.

Tianmu 2 has four priority advertisers: Bytedance, Xinan Automobile, Huawei and C’estbon.

Except for the small advertisements printed on the surface of the space shuttle and lander, these four advertisements all have active interpretations and lines.

For example, we had to cooperate with Xin'an to launch a press conference using a lunar rover with an XCX sports car shell; use a specially made Huawei mate12 (vacuum-ready version) to open Douyin and shout out the classic "record your and my life" lines, and finally rest in the landing module It’s time to show off Ipoh Mineral Water (Moon Special Edition).

We can’t ignore it. The advertising fees of the four major players alone are in the billions. They earned back the investment in this mission in one go. Together with dozens of other small advertisements, it was achieved through advertising even before the mining started. Not low profits.

If the space agency hadn't expressed some dissatisfaction, the base would have even wanted the spacesuits to follow the example of racing drivers and conduct full-body advertising bidding.