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

"10 seconds left..."

Song Xingye reached out and slowly opened the green polycarbonate lid in front of him.

The button was so close, it seemed to be enveloped in a sacred light.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6...

Shoot!

In the simulated world, high-speed cameras and photoelectric theodolites distributed around the launch tower and at close-range observation points all opened their shutters.

The film and sensors began to spin rapidly.

Five, four, three, two, one...

"ignition!"

Song Xingye muttered to himself and finally pressed his thumb on the green button.

As the countdown reached zero, his voice betrayed a hint of excitement.

On the large screen in front, a high-definition video popped up—it was a real recording of the rocket ignition.

Without any preheating or the roar of a turbopump starting up like in a liquid engine, the ignition of a solid rocket is violent and crisp.

Within a thousandth of a second of the ignition command being issued, a solid propellant charge weighing tens of tons detonated in the combustion chamber!

Rumbling--

In an instant, sand and stones flew across the Gobi Desert, and solid fuel sprayed out aluminum oxide particles, which exploded in a ring shape like a violent silver-white gas wave.

Immediately afterwards, a dazzling white light core, like a giant's fist, slammed into the cooling water channel, instantly evaporating and rising into a sky-covering white mist.

The launch pad was as bright as the epicenter of a nuclear explosion.

A small sun, its eyes blazing with fury, quickly transformed into a raging orange-red flame, sucking up every single molecule in the air.

1 seconds, 2 seconds, 3 seconds...

"take off!"

Song Xingye stared at the remote sensing data on the screen.

At this moment, the rocket finally lifted off the ground, its thrust exceeding its own weight, and began its battle against Earth's gravity.

The launch pad was surrounded by thick, almost solidified gray-white dust, which was eventually dispersed by the rocket's exhaust plume.

With its terrifying thrust-to-weight ratio thanks to solid fuel, the rocket is like a sharp sword violently ejected from its sheath, piercing the sky.

About 10 seconds later, Song Xingye saw the rocket complete its programmed turn and accelerate towards the southeastern land.

The tail flame then traced a full, orange-red arc.

As the rocket continued to climb higher, Song Xingye's thoughts finally returned to reality, with only the constantly refreshing remote sensing numbers on the screen jumping in his field of vision.

This hurdle... I guess I've passed it?

Although it was just a simulation, the sense of pressure of being the "01 Commander" was incredibly real, and Song Xingye even felt that his back was soaked with sweat.

However, after glancing at the three old men beside him, he felt a chill run down his spine and continued to stare intently at the situation on the big screen.

It seems that completing the launch procedures isn't enough...

Could there be another trap in store?

Thinking of the student who had just left dejectedly, Song Xingye tried his best to stay alert and didn't dare to slack off in the slightest.

On the large screen, data streams refreshed like a waterfall.

One minute after launch, the rocket enters its peak mechanical stress moment, MaxQ.

At 1 minute and 20 seconds, the first-stage solid rocket motor burned out completely and exploded and separated.

Then the engine hood separated!

At this point, the rocket had climbed to an altitude of 20 kilometers, was 15 kilometers away from the launch site, and its speed exceeded 1.2 kilometers per second.

It sped off towards the southeast.

Gradually, as the rocket soared higher and higher, Song Xingye's brow began to twitch.

Looking at the wall full of data, he had a bad feeling.

Song Xingye quietly activated the "Fault Prediction Eye," and sure enough, several lines of telemetry data were marked with large red boxes.

"The second-stage rocket is experiencing an abnormal temperature, and it's still...rising?"

Song Xingye immediately noticed the change in the data and quickly determined that a structural fire must have occurred at that location.

Before the thought was even finished, a message popped up on the screen—

[WARNING! Second stage rocket engine compartment temperature exceeds threshold!]

At the same time, a buzzing sound suddenly rang out in this small simulated launch hall;

The system also announced with a voice prompt: "The system has preliminarily determined this to be a fire alarm. Please take immediate action!"

Song Xingye was startled by the buzzing sound and quickly turned it off, thinking to himself that the real test was indeed hidden here.

The focus of this round of assessment is naturally not the process of commanding from 01.

Rather, it is a person's decision-making ability and psychological qualities under extreme pressure in emergency situations.

However, during the visit a few days ago, the military expert never mentioned how to solve this problem, or perhaps he deliberately didn't mention it.

Therefore, Song Xingye was also somewhat hesitant at this moment.

As the 01 commander, what should you do when a rocket catches fire tens of kilometers in the sky?

Fortunately, at this moment, an "Emergency Operation Procedure Checklist" automatically popped up on the control panel screen in front of me.

Song Xingye quickly checked the contents of the table.

The first step is to analyze whether the fire on the second-stage rocket was a false alarm.

Song Xingye's gaze immediately swept across the large screen, where temperature sensors, smoke sensors, pressure sensors, and infrared cameras were all alarming.

It can be largely ruled out that the sensor is malfunctioning; this is a real fire.

So Song Xingye calmed himself down, picked up the walkie-talkie, and reported the mission via the public channel:

"Attention all units, second-stage rocket fire alarm! All units enter emergency response mode!"

Immediately afterwards, the computer responded with three suggestions:

① Ignoring the fire hazard, the rocket continued to fly as planned;

② Send instructions to activate the onboard fire suppression protocol, urgently vent the gas from the second-stage rocket control system, and perform rocket body separation in advance;

③ Initiate flight termination system assessment, enter rocket self-destruct pre-activation state, and wait for the safe zone to self-destruct.

Three suggestions await Song Xingye, the 01 commander, to make a choice.

He immediately glanced at the high-tech globe projected on the glass table.

The ideal flight trajectory and the actual flight trajectory of the rocket are marked with green and red lines, respectively.

It can be seen that although the second stage rocket caught fire, the green and red lines remained close together and did not deviate from the flight path.

Choice...

As Song Xingye was weighing his options, several simulated arguments came through his earpiece.

It was as if they were pressuring him to quickly choose a suggestion to implement.

"The fire situation is serious. Let's initiate the rocket separation process ahead of schedule, causing the burning second-stage rocket to fall and saving the upper stage!"

"It's not that simple! Premature separation will result in insufficient velocity increments, making it impossible to enter the intended orbit!"

"It's better to be unable to get in than to be blown up! As long as the satellite is still there..."

"What's the point of continuing? To compensate for the lack of orbital accuracy, the satellite has to consume its own fuel in advance. This directly cuts the satellite's lifespan in half, so even if the launch is successful, it's a tactical failure!"

"That's right. In this way, the satellite's lifespan will be shortened by at least half, or even rendered unusable in two or three years..."

The focus of the debate lies entirely with Option ②.

Nobody cares about the first or the third point.

Should we ignore a fire?

That's absolutely unacceptable.

Why not just detonate it and destroy the hazard, thus eliminating the problem once and for all?

That's easy. A rocket and satellite worth billions of dollars can be self-destructed with a single click. That's billions of dollars wasted on fireworks. Who can take responsibility for that?

Logically speaking, option ② seems to be the only compromise solution.

Song Xingye's mind raced as he quickly began to ponder the matter.

But before he could figure it out, a new argument broke out in his earpiece:

"We're almost at Jiayuguan. We need to decide quickly: should we separate early or blow it up?"

"Let's blow it up! What if the fire burns through the control system and causes the rocket to go out of control..."

"Are you crazy? That's billions in assets! You're going to write the accident report? You're going to take the blame?"

"Make a decision quickly, while it's still uninhabited. Whether it separates or self-destructs, there's still time... Once we reach Jiayuguan, there are many villages and towns around. If the rocket goes out of control and deviates from its trajectory, the consequences would be unimaginable..."

The synthesized voices urged Song Xingye to make a choice quickly.

He observed the telemetry data on the screen, weighing the pros and cons in his mind.

In that short period of time, it seemed like a lot had happened, but in reality, only two minutes had passed.

According to the predetermined procedure, the second stage rocket should separate at 3 minutes and 50 seconds.

At this moment, there are only 30 seconds left in the window before we fly out of the no-man's land and arrive at Jiayuguan!

If a decision isn't made now, and the flaming rocket veers off course, disintegrates, or explodes near the town...

That would no longer be a launch accident, but a major disaster that would shock society!

Then Song Xingye, the commander of 01, deserves an even greater punishment!

Beside him, the three senior experts in charge of scoring stopped taking notes and stared intently at the young man's back.

They carefully observed Song Xingye's actions, waiting for him to make his choice.