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

Chapter 526 SL-X

"What's the separation speed?"

"2.5 kilometers per second. The separation speed will be much higher when there is no recovery mission. In the case of recovery, the separation speed may be reduced to about 1.8 kilometers per second."

Robert is now at the starship manufacturing base, carefully reviewing the records of the entire process of the third launch of the starship.

SpecaX is actually a quite unique company. Unlike XAP, which focuses on using high-tech capabilities, Musk is trying his best to pull aerospace off its lofty throne.

The entire starship manufacturing base is actually very crude (for an aerospace company). The largest factory building and assembly center are made of steel frames and plates, and look like an oversized tent from the outside.

A Taiwanese starship and super-heavy boosters were shipped out from here, but more than half of them were scrapped during ground tests, and only a few of them could pass the standard inspection before launch.

The B10 booster launched this time is very different from the original design. The main reason is that NACA canceled the swing function of most of the first-stage engines in order to obtain a single-use first stage.

The previous design allowed a total of 13 engines in the inner two circles to control their nozzles with vector control. In the B10, only the three engines in the center could swing.

If the steering force is insufficient, the engine throttle on one side is adjusted to create a thrust difference to complete the steering, which is equivalent to combining the N1 steering method.

There are also many other scattered improvements. Although the early launches of SpecaX were not intended for recycling, there are still many designs prepared for recycling. All the B10s have been cut off, simplifying a lot of the structure and reducing the cost. Computer stress.

Since the second launch of the Starship has basically solved the reliability problem of the 33 engines working together, the B10 achieved its goal perfectly after significantly lowering the design expectations. Only the second-stage Starship spacecraft still blew up.

Robert led people to carefully check the entire record of the B10 launch process, including the mission log sent by the computer in real time, and found no doubts.

"Tom, set the parameters of B10 immediately. All B11 to B13 in your warehouse will be improved to the same condition as B10. How long will it take?"

Tom Mueller frowned and thought for a moment:

"In fact, this launch proves that many designs of the B10 can still be optimized. Maybe we..."

Robert interrupted:

"No, just B10, freeze its technical status and don't make any changes. We don't have time to pursue better things now. NACA only needs rockets that can be successfully launched."

"...Okay." Tom could understand Director Robert's anxiety. Although the B10 also saw many areas for improvement after launch, changes were risky after all.

Be careful when modifying the original design.

"But in fact, we have only basically completed the manufacturing of B11, and B12 and B13 are only semi-finished products. SpecaX can deliver B11 at the end of October, and then deliver the remaining two in November and December."

"Very good, then we will use B11 and ICPS to carry out the Artemis 3 mission in November, and carry out the Artemis 4 second manned lunar landing mission before January 1."

Director Robert replied quickly.

During the third Starship launch, he had already planned to transplant the ICPS used in the original SLS rocket to the super-heavy booster, which is equivalent to replacing the core first stage and booster of SLS with the first stage of Starship. , the lunar orbit carrying capacity of the new rocket can reach 46 tons, which is equal to a Saturn V.

The name of the new rocket will continue to use SLS and is called the SLS-X rocket, which can also be referred to as SL-X.

The goal of SLS-X is to hit a deeply modified "Blue Moon" lander and carry out an unmanned lunar landing mission. If feasible, a second SLS-X will be launched.

The structure of SLS-X remains unchanged. This time it will inject an Orion spacecraft and a fuel tank used for "Blue Moon", and then refuel the Artemis 3 lander to achieve the first goal. Second manned moon landing.

As long as the first level is reliable, the mature ICPS upper level will definitely be able to meet the mission requirements.

In fact, the super-heavy booster potential of the starship is very great. If the Centaur VI upper stage with three RL-10 engines is used, the low-Earth orbit transportation capacity will reach 180 tons and the lunar orbit transportation capacity will reach 55 tons;

If it is five RL-10 EUS upper stages, the low-Earth orbit transport capacity will reach an astonishing 70 tons.

The ICPS upper stage is equipped with SL-X block1, the Centaur VI upper stage is SL-X block2, and the EUS upper stage version is SL-X block3.

Although none of them can be reused, they are cheap and powerful, and are destined to become the main force in the next two years.

The new SL-X is an "assembled" rocket, but the Raptor engine used in the first-stage booster can easily control the flow. The overall rocket test is not too difficult in Robert's opinion.

After Artemis 2 in July, Robert also embarked on a major overhaul within NACA. Now he has set this year's goal as "returning to the moon". Launching at least one SL-X within two months is No problem, it might as well be a try to launch the second one at the tail end of the Gregorian New Year.

…

October 8th is the first day after Golden Week.

The base also has a seven-day holiday during the Golden Week, but many people still stay on duty to cooperate with other people involved in the design bureau of Tengyun Engineering to maintain and inspect the aerospace aircraft.

After four days of inspection, the design team found that the condition of Tengyun was unexpectedly good. A quick inspection of the entire aircraft inside and out revealed no problems, perfectly achieving the required "normalized launch" goal.

Theoretically, Tengyun can take astronauts into space for the second time without doing anything as long as it is refilled with fuel. This is a huge improvement compared with space shuttles and recyclable rockets.

The first test flight of "Tengyun" was different from the aircraft process. Although it was named a prototype, all configurations were fully in place. Subsystem tests were also conducted during the few days in space, and no problems were found.

Therefore, during the second flight mission, Lin Ju intercepted Hu's "public use for private use" and immediately prepared to arrange for a new person to fly.

All 22 passengers for this mission gathered on the runway, 18 of them were "load experts" and 6 were from the space agency.

Yun Hongjun touched the ultra-light spacesuit inside the cabin, but it still felt unreal.

The day before yesterday, Lin Ju told him that Serev wanted to discuss the design issues of the high-intensity booster separator and hoped that he could go there as soon as possible, so he flew over in a C810 the next day.

As soon as he landed, he was set up by several technical experts from the space agency at the base and rushed to the medical center. When he came out, he knew that he would take a space shuttle to space the next day...

Serev’s explanation was that Tengyun’s previous test flights were just to test the aircraft, and there were no important tasks, so everyone on this flight was a guinea pig.

During the entire last flight, the maximum acceleration experienced by the astronauts was 2.55G, lasting 3.3 seconds, and the average G value was 1.59G.

What is this concept? The maximum takeoff acceleration G value of a civil aviation airliner is 1.5. The maximum acceleration of a roller coaster can reach 4.8G and last for 6 to 7 seconds. The physical fitness requirements of aerospace aircraft for astronauts can be relaxed to the point where they can do it without any training. Ordinary humans…

Moreover, the second flight was only an independent mission lasting 24 hours. Lin Ju boldly asked all passengers except the main and co-pilots to be ordinary people - including Serev himself.

Before gathering at the airport, he even secretly drank half a glass of whiskey. When he stood next to Yun Hongjun, the alcohol smell was a bit offensive.