Reborn in 2011, I am the chief designer of aerospace.

On the day of the launch, Song Xingye and his crew met with their parents and friends at the Suzhou Satellite Base, separated by a medical and epidemic prevention window.

To avoid the spread of the epidemic, even though all relatives have been in quarantine for two weeks, they are still unable to have direct contact with the astronauts.

Nevertheless, this last meeting before their departure dispelled the last lingering doubts in their hearts.

Launch day arrived quickly. In the early hours of the day before departure, three aerospace doctors gave the Yuanzheng-1 crew a full-body check-up.

After undergoing a special medical procedure called an enema, each astronaut was disinfected and then ate breakfast in their room.

After leaving the aerospace apartment, a bus took them to the launch pad. Along the way, they were accompanied only by the desolate Gobi Desert and green mountains. Several police cars flashed their lights on the deserted road. When the patrolling guards along the way saw the bus, they would stop and salute them.

Upon arrival at the launch pad, the bus doors opened, and under the supervision of the space doctor, the three crew members each took a painkiller and a motion sickness pill.

Although everyone involved is a trained professional, severe vibrations and dizziness are still unavoidable during rocket launch, so these two pills are mandatory.

White smoke curled up near the launch site, and the scaffolding of the service tower was covered with a thick layer of frost. After Song Xingye, following the instructions of Chang Shengtianhong and driver Han Jing, got out of the vehicle, he looked at the Great Wall No. 5 shining brightly in the dark night and silently clenched his fist.

The rocket was so close that you could almost reach out and touch its icy outer shell, because inside was liquid oxygen at a cryogenic temperature of -183 degrees Celsius, which was cold enough to freeze all the water vapor in the surrounding area into ice.

The elevator from the bottom to the top of the launch pad hummed as Song Xingye and his team arrived at the top of the service tower and entered an empty corridor that led directly to the Shenzhou spacecraft's return capsule structure.

The spacecraft, carrying hundreds of tons of liquid oxygen and kerosene at its lower part, is now poised for launch.

Song Xingye controlled his body, carefully entered the return capsule, sat in his assigned seat number 3, and immediately connected the oxygen tube, ventilation tube, medical monitoring patch, and communication microphone to his spacesuit.

Once all the cables were connected, he adjusted his posture, trying to curl up in the seat like a baby. A staff member next to him helped fasten three restraint straps, which looked to be made of a material similar to car seat belts.

Once preparations were complete, the staff left the return capsule and closed the hatch from the outside.

Song Xingye and his two teammates remained curled up, using a telescopic baton in their hands, just like they would in the Soyuz spaceship, to reach out and poke the buttons on the control panel.

In the following time, the escape tower's emergency escape system was activated, and everyone tried to regulate their breathing and carried out pre-launch spacecraft checks according to the technical manual.

Ground-based astronauts checked each person's medical parameters using medical patches.

After all the checks were completed, a brief silence fell over the return capsule.

At this moment, the presence of the Long March 2F rocket seemed to swell, and various noises could be faintly heard in the headphones: the hum of the ventilation system, the vibration of the oil pipeline, and the friction and exhaust sounds of different metals.

Song Xingye glanced at the countdown. In just over ten minutes, the rocket would release its astonishing thrust, sending the small spaceship above him into space to search for the space station of the Eastern Kingdom.

With ten minutes left in the countdown, the three men received an order from Commander 01 to close their helmet visors.

Outside their fishbowl-like helmets, there was a layer of gilded face shields to protect them from the sun's radiation.

After everyone waited patiently for a while, the commander's voice broke the silence again. After confirming that the three astronauts were ready, he approved the ignition of the Long March 2F rocket.

Immediately afterwards, the engine roared to life.

Large amounts of liquid oxygen and kerosene are pumped into the combustion chamber, where the propellant mixes and burns.

Soon, the vibration and noise of the engine became intense on the launch pad, and the turbopump and injector began to run at full speed. Song Xingye, lying in his seat, could almost feel a tremor from the depths of his soul.

At 5:15 a.m., after the commander confirmed the launch to the Yuanzheng-1 crew via radio, the rocket left the launch pad.

With its powerful and stable thrust, the Long March 2F rocket sent the Shenzhou spacecraft out of the Suzhou Satellite Launch Center and continuously adjusted its attitude, maintaining it on a correct predicted trajectory.

Almost every second that passed, the rocket shed a ton of weight, its fuel burning wildly and releasing sky-blue Mach rings through its nozzles.

As the rocket continued to accelerate, Song Xingye felt himself being pressed tightly against the seat, as if he were becoming one with the spaceship.

Soon, the boosters and the core stage rocket jettisoned one after another, and the fairing also actively exploded and separated after leaving the von Kármán line. After the rocket shook violently a few times, Song Xingye saw the portholes on both sides light up.

The Shenzhou spacecraft's solar panels and antennas were deployed, and it entered an initial orbit with an orbital period of approximately 89 minutes and an inclination of 50 degrees.

In just a few minutes, the Expedition 1 crew reached an altitude of 200,000 meters above the ground, looking down at the blue planet.

Song Xingye opened the visor of his helmet, reported the flight check results to the ground for verification, and temporarily lost radio communication with the Jingzhou Flight Control Center.

What followed was a telemetry window of several tens of minutes, during which they continuously monitored the engine's operating status.

Before officially docking with the Tiangong core module, the engine will be ignited once more to propel the spacecraft closer.

About 50 minutes after launch, communication with the ground was restored, and the Shenzhou spacecraft ignited.

Song Xingye spotted the core module almost effortlessly; it stood majestically in space, gleaming with a warm, bright light.

The solar panels shone with an intense white light, as if they were burning.

Soon, the Shenzhou spacecraft successfully docked with the core module. Following the commander's instructions, Song Xingye and the pilot checked the hatches on both sides of the connecting passage for leaks.

The examination lasted approximately two hours.

After confirming that everything was in order, the hatch of the node module was opened, followed by the opening of the docking hatch of the Shenzhou spacecraft.

The three entered in single file, passing through two hatches before closing them tightly.

They looked around the layout of the core cabin with great curiosity, and after a brief stroll, they got busy with the important matters of their trip.

After the Yangtze River experimental module docks with the core module, many follow-up tasks require astronauts to perform extravehicular activities.

Although the design of the Dongkuk Space Station has moved as close to automated assembly as possible, a considerable number of components still require manual assembly or assistance such as tightening a screw.

In the first few days, Song Xingye was not used to the weightless environment in space, which was completely different from training in the swimming pool.

However, he eventually adapted and developed the habit of sleeping upside down on the ceiling like a bat.

A week later, even the vomit bags he carried with him could be thrown away, as Song Xingye had completely adapted to the living environment in space.

The Yuanzheng-1 crew will stay in space for about a month. Only after completing the assembly of the Yangtze River experimental module can they return to Earth, and then the next crew will take over to continue assembling the Yellow River experimental module.

Song Xingye was mainly responsible for the maintenance and auxiliary operations of the core module and experimental module. The most dangerous spacewalks and extravehicular activities were usually assigned to Chang Shengtianhong and pilot Han Jing.

He wandered around the vast core module, which contained about 20 computers, somewhat like laptops firmly fixed to the walls of the space station. Astronauts could open any of them at any time and process the space station's commands and controls.

Soon, about a month later, the second Tianzhou cargo spacecraft arrived at the core module and docked at the hatch.

The Expedition 1 crew excitedly unloaded the supplies from the spacecraft, because it meant that the next crew was ready to depart and they would soon be able to return to Earth.

After emptying the Tianzhou spacecraft of its supplies and filling it with the garbage they had generated during this period, the Tianzhou spacecraft left space and re-entered the atmosphere with the garbage.

The day of departure soon arrived.

After inspecting the core module, the three crew members put on their spacesuits, each drank a large glass of water, and swallowed a sodium chloride tablet.

This is something the space doctor instructed them to do, because when astronauts return to Earth, the sodium chloride content in their bodies should ideally reach 5 grams to avoid some physical discomfort.

Once everything was ready, Song Xingye returned to his long-missed seat number 3. The Shenzhou spacecraft began to expel all the air from the docking hatch to avoid generating unnecessary thrust when separating from the space station.

They lowered their helmet visors, successfully disconnected from the core module, and after gliding a few times on the track, braked and slowed down on a route heading towards the airspace of the Eastern Kingdom.

As the spacecraft braked repeatedly, its altitude began to decrease.

Commander Sheng Tianhong issued a series of commands, and the pyrotechnic devices on the Shenzhou spacecraft exploded, instantly separating the return capsule from the rest of the spacecraft.

Song Xingye felt the re-entry capsule almost burst into flames upon re-entry into the atmosphere.

Through the porthole, one could see a cluster of multicolored flames outside; the spaceship had entered the blackout zone, and radio communication was completely cut off.

Several tens of seconds later, the spacecraft's parachutes opened in the sky. After a jolt, this set of parachutes was automatically cut off, and the second set of main deceleration parachutes began to deploy.

Song Xingye saw the clouds passing overhead through the porthole, and when the reentry capsule was less than ten kilometers from the ground, its speed almost dropped to its limit.

Finally, they landed safely in a desert northeast of the Suzhou Satellite Launch Center.

Soon, the sound of the rescue convoy came through the radio. They immediately opened the spacecraft's hatch and carried the three astronauts out.

Song Xingye was carried onto a cot and then taken to a helicopter, where he was sent back to the base.

The astronaut doctor checked him over on the plane and, after confirming there were no problems, asked him to try standing up and walking around.

Song Xingye was initially a bit flustered, swaying unsteadily like a baby learning to walk.

However, he was soon able to open his legs and take his first step back to the ground.

As the crews of the Tiangong project set off one after another, the core module, experimental module, node module, and airlock module were successively assembled.

Having successfully completed his space mission, Song Xingye soon received a new assignment.

In coordination with the Xihe Project, as the first echelon of crew members for the Mars exploration mission, they will travel to Mars, 200 million kilometers away, to carry out exploration tasks.

……

R country participated in the early preparations for Project Xihe.

Song Xingye also got to meet some acquaintances, such as Mira, the Mars probe astronaut selected by the R country's Aerospace Force, and Dima from the Lavochkin Design Bureau.

Song Xingye and Mira sat side by side in the third module of the double-cone simulator on the Mars landing module. The airtight pressure suit he was wearing made him feel unbearably hot and uncomfortable. The interior of the module was a one-to-one replica of the internal structure of the real MEM, but from the outside, this motion-based simulator looked particularly bulky, completely encased in a thick white hydraulic system.

"Mira, OMS ignition is ready, acceleration is possible at any time," the simulator's voice rang out inside the cabin.

"Received." Mira's reply was brief and concise.

Around Song Xingye, electroluminescent reading devices and dials began to flash and awaken. The pointers jumped, and the cathode ray tubes lit up one by one, displaying the engine temperature, cabin pressure, and remaining fuel and oxidizer levels in real time.

Mira sat in the pilot's seat on the left, and Song Xingye on the right. The cockpit windows were square and wide, just eye level, making one feel as if they were nestled in the nose of a small passenger plane. The instrument panel emitted a soft green light, filling the entire space like mercury spilling across the floor. Song Xingye felt as if he were sinking to the bottom of the sea.

Outside Song Xingye's porthole, a crimson glow shone. Through the glass, a simulated Martian landscape, with its salmon-like color and soft, undulating curves, rose majestically from the ground. This scene was actually a cross-section of painted plasterboard, with a television camera light somewhere being slowly and controlled to move horizontally below. The sky overhead was pitch black, devoid of stars, likely just a backdrop. But a few streaks of orange light flickered abruptly within it: those were the exhaust plumes of simulated biconical radar dome thrusters, reflecting off the thin Martian upper atmosphere.

"Ignition detection successful. Three-tenths of the residue remains. Pitch maneuver successful," the simulator announced again.

"Okay," Mira replied.

Before Song Xingye took over, the pointers on the dial flickered, and various abbreviations scrolled rapidly across the CRT screen.

"The forward RCS propellant is depleted," he reported to Mira. "The reconfiguration of the OMS and RCS after ignition is complete, and the auxiliary power units have been activated. Two of the three APUs are currently operating at rated power."

Mira glanced at the dial. "The attitude readings of the inertial ball don't match my data. I'll have to manually adjust the readings to the middle value. Do you mind?"

No problem, Mira. We agree.

"Enter the interface," Song Xingye said. "Mira, we have entered the atmosphere, at an altitude of 58,000 meters, and the spacecraft is ascending at a 40-degree angle."

Mira asked, "What tricks have they got up their sleeves for this time?"

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