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

"Welcome Mr. Boden, we are happy to have a pleasant exchange with our colleagues."

"I'm not, I'm just a consultant."

In front of the entry security channel in Beijing, Claire wore a mask and followed the greeting staff away in a low-key manner, even deliberately lowering her head to prevent people from taking photos of her front.

Now he serves as John's strategic advisor and conducts a relatively regular visit to each other. This is something that both parties would have done regularly. Regardless of the relationship, they will have in-depth exchanges to prevent strategic misjudgments.

However, as the former director of NACA, he felt very embarrassed, especially as the director who had made a huge mistake a few months ago. He actually didn't want to come and was determined not to do anything in his capacity as a member of the aerospace industry.

But now that she has set foot on this land, Claire decides to do something.

While they were waiting for the interview arrangements, their reception staff were suddenly asked to change their itinerary, so the newly arrived advisory group got on a plane to Qiongzhou in the evening.

…

December 9, afternoon.

"Group 2, Group 4, Group 3, Group 6, Group 1, Group 5; alternately enter the launch box to check the water tightness, make sure not a drop of water can penetrate, do you understand?"

"clear!"

Academician She looked seriously at the long row of divers. These are elite soldiers transferred from the navy. They will continuously ensure the safety of the final container.

At the Aviation Development Commission, they call the general box responsible for fixing and launching the rocket a launch box. In fact, its function is very similar to the cold launch box in the missile vertical launch device, except that one uses the buoyancy of water to eject the rocket, and the other uses compressed gas.

The launch box itself also functions as a super pressure-resistant shell, which needs to withstand the huge pressure of sea water from all directions. The pressure at the bottom even exceeds that of a strategic nuclear submarine.

Fortunately, it does not need to consider many limiting factors like a submarine. You can simply increase the thickness of the steel beams and the load-bearing structure to increase the strength. Both the cost and construction period are not too high.

However, because it requires a large amount of water injection during launch, the reliability of the huge movable mechanism of the water injection door is very important. If a large amount of water leaks, it will be very troublesome.

Now the Long March 18 has completed all fueling, and in order to avoid accidents, it has been scheduled to launch at 6 o'clock tomorrow morning.

The remaining ten hours are spent constantly troubleshooting problems. After all, it uses the horizontal transfer mode before erecting it. Everyone knows the results of the N1 rocket in the same process, so we must be extra careful.

A 10-kilometer area near Wengjia Bay in the launch area has been set up to prohibit unrelated personnel from entering. The staff who stayed here during the actual launch also need to evacuate to an impact-resistant building 5 kilometers away, otherwise the rocket will not explode. , the shock wave generated is enough to shock people to death.

This leaves a large number of people who want to watch the rocket launch to wait at a distance, or try to get closer by boat. Recently, the coast guard has been busy blocking boats trying to approach the launch area all day long.

Even now Academician She can see the waves rising from the sea in the distance. It is obvious that another speedboat is trying to escape the interception of the sea view.

He just glanced at it and returned his gaze to the erected launch box. The milky white rocket body of the Long March 18 was basically hidden in the gray-black box. Only the Jiuzhang spacecraft, which was also gray-black, was exposed from the opening. , it looks like it is integrated with the launch box from a distance.

Looking at it this way, it looks more like a strange sculpture appearing on the sea. The exposed part of the launch box is the base of the sculpture. The outer surface of the erected Nine Chapters spacecraft is composed of a large number of sharp-edged geometric bodies. It looks really real. Has a lot of artistic sense.

The symbol of gray-black steel is warm and heavy; the geometry is abstract, and the combination of the two has a sense of power that seems to break away from reality. Underneath the rough appearance is the essence of the most advanced technology in the world, which is obviously closely connected. But it is full of divisions.

Just staring at this strange combination for a while, Academician She felt a little dazed and couldn't help but think of Xinyuan Company.

This company gave him the same feeling. The Aviation Development Commission was very familiar with them, but the more familiar they became, the more they felt that they were incompatible with the world. They seemed to be separated spiritually, but they also greatly affected the whole world. .

And as he and Lin Ju got along, he could feel a very hidden worry from each other, as if he was about to face some huge changes at any time.

As an old man who was born in the war years and has experienced 78 turbulent years, Academician She does not think he will be wrong.

But what is this worry?

Is it property? It’s unlikely. Lin Ju does value money, but he doesn’t care much about personal enjoyment. He basically invested all his money in aerospace. This persistence is the reason why Xinyuan can always maintain a close and good relationship with the space agency. The entire The space agency and many others are voluntarily defending them.

Is it feelings? Obviously it doesn't seem like it, neither family affection nor love seems to involve Lin Ju's entire body and mind.

Is it reputation? This is even more impossible, he is not that kind of person.

That can't be world peace. Although the confrontation situation is further escalating, it is still far away from a nuclear war. Just huge business exchanges cannot make a war start.

This doubt has been deeply buried in the heart of Academician She. Especially when the above statistics were compiled on Xinyuan's finances, it was found that a lot of the money they spent could not be found. In the final analysis, it may have flowed to the hands of "secret Chinese organizations" distributed around the world. , so they have some unknown purpose?

Academician She even accidentally learned from a big boss that the Security Bureau had secretly collected information on aliens all over the world for a period of time, which was enough to explain a lot.

Is it really just the superficial reasons that the higher authorities have begun to increase investment in aerospace and basic science?

"Old She, you are still here!"

Lin Ju didn't know when he had stood behind him. Academician She turned around with his usual expression, and what he saw was still Yang's young smile.

But compared with a few years ago, this face has become more mature and begins to have some depth accumulated over the years.

"You can't leave people alone at the scene... Are you looking for Serev?"

"No, I'm here to see you. There is someone who will be here soon. You must be willing to meet him."

"who?"

"Claire Borden is the former director of NACA, but he is now a presidential adviser. Anyway, the higher-ups have approved him to come here to participate in the launch ceremony. Is this considered king versus king?"

"Then I will definitely receive you well."

Academician She's face was immediately moved. After all, he was a colleague who had a good competition. In any case, it was very meaningful.