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

"Team 4's result: 13,000 meters!"

As messages came from the Iveco radar control vehicle, the optical tracking theodolite continuously locked onto the whereabouts of "Wild Donkey No. 1".

Finally, at that altitude, it was confirmed that the second-stage rocket had burned out and plunged into the earth with a wisp of smoke.

13,000 meters!

When the number was announced, the students watching were all dumbfounded, staring at Song Xingye and his team as if they had seen a ghost.

Cao Que and Jiang Mian were so happy they were almost floating on air.

Although theoretical calculations support this value, the shock and pride are indescribable when the "wild thoughts" in one's mind actually become reality and soar into the sky.

Today, witnessing firsthand the amazing success of the little rocket they poured their hearts and souls into making, they felt that all the sleepless nights and back-to-back work over the past few days were worth it. Nothing could be more fulfilling than this.

Xu Zhe from the third team was dumbfounded. After a long while, he finally walked over, convinced, patted Song Xingye's arm heavily, and sighed deeply.

"You guys are really strong! I just took a look, and the point of separation of the first stage rocket of 'Wild Donkey No. 1' is higher than the peak of our parabola."

He shook his head, his face full of disbelief. "I never expected that unassuming second-stage rocket to be so powerful, managing to climb another three or four thousand meters... I'm completely impressed!"

Ever since he entered the summer camp, he has been determined to be number one.

As a result, he was relentlessly suppressed by Song Xingye in every round, and even at the end of the summer camp, he still had no chance to stand out.

Suppressed and powerless.

Xu Zhe has already accepted his fate; there's nothing more to say if he's simply not as skilled as others.

But there was no disappointment, regret or frustration on his face; instead, he had a slight smile on his face.

Song Xingye glanced at him and teased, "You're still so happy even though you lost?"

"Why are you unhappy?" Xu Zhe grinned. "With you leading the Dongyu Group from now on, I can comfortably cling to your coattails, hehe."

"You're dreaming."

Song Xingye laughed and punched him lightly. "I can't carry the banner of the vast universe by myself. Stop thinking about lying down."

While the two were chatting, the subsequent launches of the other two teams were also completed.

The process was unremarkable.

The fifth team flew a respectable 4500 meters, while the sixth team completely broke the lower limit—

The rocket struggled and wobbled to an altitude of 1.5 kilometers before completely shutting down, swaying and falling like a kite with a broken string.

Cao Que gloated without any restraint, "Are Fan Xiaoying and his team building a rocket? They can't even get over Mount Tai at that height. They should just start over!"

Fan Xiaoying, who was the last to finish, blushed and was so embarrassed that she wished she could disappear into the ground.

He never expected his rocket to be so useless, actually finishing last.

……

After all the rockets had been launched, Li Ang went to the telemetry and control vehicle to retrieve the scoring sheets. Then, with a smile, he organized the students to leave the venue and return to the city by bus.

Back in the multi-functional conference room on the eighth floor of the Dongyu Building, everyone sat upright, patiently waiting for the results to be announced.

There were six squadrons in total. The flight altitudes were all measured on the spot using optical theodolites, and none of them crashed. So the result is obvious.

As for the other evaluation criterion, the limitation on rocket cost—

The requirement was to manufacture a simulated rocket within a budget of 30,000 yuan, with the lower the cost, the better. Song Xingye also had the upper hand in this regard.

Li Ang smiled and turned on the multimedia system, raising the microphone and jokingly saying:

"It seems some people broke their promises in today's match. What happened to flying out of the Carmen line?"

The student who had been bragging earlier immediately scratched his head in embarrassment.

Li Ang then changed the subject.

"However, the small goal of flying 10 kilometers has indeed been achieved by some people. This altitude is basically the same as the cruising altitude of commercial airliners."

"This is the 'Wild Donkey No. 1' rocket designed and built by Song Xingye and his team. The final result was 13000 meters! It exceeded the second-place team, Xu Zhe's team, by a full 5500 meters, which is equivalent to the height of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain."

At this point, a look of satisfaction appeared on Li Ang's face. "This achievement will probably become a record that our Starry Sky Summer Camp will find hard to surpass. We'll just have to see if there are any even more outstanding geniuses in the next few sessions."

Cao Que, standing below the stage, jokingly said, "Instructor Li, our Wild Donkey Number One can dominate the rankings for at least five years. If anyone breaks that record within five years, I'll treat them to a big meal!"

The whole place erupted in laughter, creating a lively atmosphere.

Li Ang also smiled, gestured for everyone to be quiet, and continued speaking:

"Another noteworthy point is that Song Xingye's team designed the Wild Donkey No. 1, which only cost one-third of the budget—that is, ten thousand yuan!"

One stone caused a thousand waves!

Upon hearing this, everyone present immediately became restless.

Everyone looked at each other, trying to confirm whether the numbers they had heard were true.

"A replica rocket built for 10,000 yuan flew 13,000 meters? Where does that leave my 30,000 yuan rocket?"

"How did they manage to do that? How could they possibly keep the budget so low?"

"Do you have connections with the supplier who gave you the lowest possible discount? Otherwise, the material costs alone would have exceeded ten thousand yuan..."

A chorus of doubts and exclamations arose.

There are many different opinions and all sorts of speculations.

In the end, it was Li Ang who revealed the answer.

"Most of the parts for the Wild Donkey No. 1 are sourced from automotive parts, which is the fundamental reason for the significant reduction in cost."

The large screen displayed a disassembled diagram of the rocket, and Li Ang pointed to some parts and explained:

"For example, the CPU of the control system uses an automotive-grade chip, which only costs two hundred yuan online. They installed three of them at once, forming a three-mode redundancy voting architecture, which perfectly avoids the risk of runaway from cheap chips."

"And the sensors are also automotive-grade MEMS. Although their accuracy is far inferior to aerospace-grade fiber optic gyroscopes, they installed 10 of them! They used the Kalman filter algorithm to take the average value, and they managed to achieve high accuracy by sheer computing power..."

Li Ang smiled and couldn't help but praise:

"There are many such modifications, which involve taking industrial-grade car parts, making slight modifications, and then mounting them on rockets. Although the design approach seems a bit nonsensical, or even 'rustic,' it is extremely practical and has managed to prevent these car parts from disintegrating in the sky."

Xu Zhe, a top student from Tsinghua and Peking Universities, couldn't help but raise his hand and ask, "Are the electronic components also automotive-grade circuit boards? Although the Wild Donkey No. 1 is a simulated small rocket, it still contains several kilograms of solid fuel. Can it withstand the load during takeoff?"

Li Ang glanced at Song Xingye and answered his question for him:

"Good question. Their solution was simple and crude: they encapsulated all the circuit boards used in the Wild Donkey No. 1 with epoxy resin, thus turning the fragile automotive electronic components into bricks."

"Even the most intense high-frequency vibrations cannot break the epoxy resin, thus indirectly protecting the solder joints inside."

After hearing this answer, Xu Zhe was speechless for a moment, not knowing where to begin his critique.

A classmate next to him chimed in, "Good heavens, isn't this just a flying gas cylinder with a circuit board strapped to it?"

Li Ang's eyes lit up, and he said, "That's right, that's a very apt description. Wild Donkey No. 1 may not be the most aesthetically pleasing, but it's very practical."

Then, his expression turned serious, and he began to give his concluding remarks for the ninth round of assessments.

"Dear 'Preparatory Payload Experts,' the purpose of the ninth round of assessment is to examine your commercial spaceflight mindset, including cost negotiation, supply chain management awareness, automatic control theory, and engineering implementation capabilities."

"The outstanding performance of Wild Donkey No. 1 proves that as long as the system architecture is designed properly, automotive-grade industrial parts also have the opportunity to reach for the stars."

"The future space age is destined to shift from a single, government-led approach to a more diversified, civilian-driven one. At that time, the cost-effectiveness of rockets will be their lifeline. Precise orbital insertion while remaining affordable—that's the key!"

His words stirred the crowd's blood.

After Li Ang finished speaking eloquently, he picked up his teacup, took a sip of water, and then tapped the table, saying:

"Getting back to the main topic, the ninth round of assessments is now over. First place goes to Song Xingye's Wild Donkey No. 1 Rocket, and second place goes to Xu Zhe's team..."

"The above three teams will receive rewards of 300 fuel points, 250 fuel points, and 200 fuel points respectively, which will be divided equally among the team members."

"Sorry, the other three teams, you will only receive a reward of 100 fuel points."

"After recalculating the scores, the latest rankings are as follows..."

Li Ang displayed the report card on a multimedia projector, which was then shown on a large screen.

Song Xingye topped the leaderboard with 555 fuel points, a 65-point lead over second-place Xu Zhe, demonstrating absolute dominance!

Cao Que previously dropped out of the top ten after his score was recalculated in the fourth round due to the "Guo Yanyang being reported" incident. This time, however, he directly amassed 100 fuel points.

This can be considered a case of losing one thing and gaining another. He is currently ranked eighth with a fuel value of 442 points, and has made it back onto the list, redeeming himself from his previous defeat.

After Fan Xiaoying reported Guo Yanyang, although her score in the fourth round was recalculated and canceled, she also received 20% of the reward points from the person she reported.

Therefore, this guy jumped from the bottom of the list to ninth place, briefly dominating the rankings for a period of time.

However, he performed poorly in this round, with the rocket only flying 1500 meters and scoring only 50 fuel points, which was a drop in the bucket.

After the rankings were updated, Fan Xiaoying dropped from 9th to 12th place, completely returning to her original position.