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

"I declare that the launch and recovery mission of the Long March 18 Yaoyi rocket was a complete success!"

At 6:27 in the morning on December 10, half an hour after the launch order was issued, the boss in Beijing officially announced the success of the mission at a press conference.

However, he ignored the enthusiastic reporters and left, leaving the scene to Shen Zuozhou.

More than an hour later, he saw Wu Yi and Ye Changsi who had been waiting for a while at the entrance of the United Mining Headquarters.

"I'm not late, am I?"

"Of course not, everyone is waiting for you."

Today, both Ye Changsi and Wu Yi have serious expressions on their faces, and their eyes are slightly bloodshot.

After the successful first flight of the Long March 18, United Mining will conduct a mobilization meeting for the follow-up missions of the Sky Curtain series.

This conference is mainly aimed at the large number of engineers transferred from the space agency. The number is not large, only 54.

According to the arrangements and coordination of the Aviation Development Commission, the construction tasks of Guanghan Palace No. 1 Base and Yushu No. 1 Base are highly overlapping, and both personnel and equipment need to be utilized as much as possible.

The personnel of the two construction plans are divided into permanent and non-resident, and are treated differently.

The permanent personnel include all professional astronauts and some engineers (load experts); the non-resident personnel are such as various experts who need to go to the moon for inspection, and their mission time is relatively short.

After discussions with the Aerospace Development Committee, they decided to professionalize all middle-aged and powerful payload experts in the permanent staff as astronauts. However, unlike professional astronauts, they are basically only responsible for professional-related tasks when going on missions.

In the plan of the Aviation Development Commission, the priority of the Guanghan Palace No. 1 base jointly constructed by the Huayin organization is not as high as that of the Yushu No. 1 base. The latter is planned to be developed into a self-sufficient industrial base, both in terms of personnel and scale. Much bigger.

At this time, the space agency discovered a problem. There were thousands of engineers in Xinyuan alone who had qualified as preliminary astronauts. There was no pressure to send some of them to the moon, but the space agency was in trouble.

Although many professional astronauts also have solid professional skills, they are obviously not as good as real engineers. If the latter want to station on the moon for a long time, they must undergo considerable education in aerospace knowledge.

So three months ago, the space agency began to screen young engineers who were younger than 45 years old, in good health and with passing professional knowledge, and then sent them to Institute 507 for surprise training, and finally obtained the first batch of 54 semi-professional astronauts and engineers.

Although it is not worth mentioning compared to Xinyuan's astonishing number of over 5,000, so many people in the early stage are completely enough, and they can keep up with the training as planned later.

This plan was promoted by the big boss, and he certainly has reason to say something to these national team players who are about to participate in real space development.

However, Ye Changsi and Wu Yi knew that another important reason was that the boss was about to be transferred and the space agency was about to undergo a major change.

The big boss will be transferred to the Science and Technology Commission. There is also news that Academician She’s position will remain unchanged, but he will also withdraw from front-line work.

It is normal for Academician She to withdraw from front-line work. He is nearly 80 years old and it is difficult for him to undertake scientific research tasks anymore. Wu Yi probably knows some of the reasons for the transfer of the boss. It may be related to the preparation of the above to adjust the direction of aerospace development. The new director is most likely to do Nuclear technology background.

The above have always known that Xinyuan's next development focus will be nuclear power. The Long March 18 also means that Xinyuan has reached the end of the road of chemical rockets. If it wants to make a breakthrough in the future, the price it will pay will not be proportional. So the space agency There is no reason not to switch tracks.

The boss's speech was not very long. After a while, he found Ye Changsi alone.

"Changsi, what's your next plan?"

Ye Changsi was stunned for a moment, then said naturally:

"Of course it is to develop the moon. Xinyuan has invested all the ore resources in it.

The long-term plan is to develop Mars and use it as a base to seize the resources of the asteroid belt, but that should not be carried out until the construction of the lunar base is mature. "

The boss kept staring closely into Ye Changsi's eyes, trying to find something, but the other party's expression was as usual, and he even showed a somewhat doubtful expression appropriately.

He finally gave up the idea of ​​looking for flaws in the communication and said as usual:

"The development of space is an arduous and complex project that requires not only advanced technology, but also strong control and execution. Xinyuan has done a good job in this aspect..."

He struggled briefly in his heart, but still said the second half of the sentence:

"It's too good to be a company. Your vision is not what a company should have. I have never seen a company like this."

"Because space gives us a mission, we are all united by that purpose."

Ye Changsi answered very seriously, and his intuition convinced the boss that this was the truth from his heart, but this did not solve his doubts.

If he wasn't about to be transferred, he wouldn't have rashly asked these questions.

But now he was regretting it. He should have known that it would be impossible to get the answer.

"Then... I hope everything goes well for you."

After saying this, he left quickly without even closing the door.

Ye Changsi stood there looking at the empty corridor and relaxed a little.

This private test also made him nervous, and the photos of Plain Zero taken by "Lihuo" came to mind.

The detectors have conducted all-round exploration there in the past two months, but still found nothing. This unknown fear has been lingering over the base, just like the boss saw the fog on them.

…

Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

The LC39A launch pad has been opened, and a large group of space center employees are performing maintenance and inspections on it in preparation for the upcoming launch mission.

Victor Grover, who had just watched the live broadcast of Long March 18, stood with his arms akimbo on the lawn outside the launch pad. Next to him was Reed Wiseman.

They launched the Artemis 2 mission just five months ago, but now they're heading into space again.

"It's no longer a shame for Koch, she was a great astronaut."

Victor thought of Koch, who was assigned to the astronaut training center. If it weren't for the persistence of his fellow astronauts, he might even be forced to retire.

Wiseman: "I don't believe she has a mental problem, but... anyway, we will find out everything when we go up this time, right Commander?"

His last name made Victor chuckle. Due to the outstanding performance of the Artemis 2 mission and the temporary inability to find better astronauts, NACA decided to let the Artemis 2 crew continue to perform the mission. The Artemis III landing mission, and Victor also became the first black commander.

"Yes, there are still...ten days. Oh, I hope I don't miss my ticket to Edo. I can't miss the nuclear explosion."