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

Looking at the iron filings, which were barely larger than a hair, Zongping let out a long sigh of relief.

He didn't waste any words, just waved his hand, urging the maintenance department to install the machine quickly.

The grinding machine is restarted, the material is loaded, and processing begins.

As coolant splashes, a new part is machined into shape.

Zongping didn't even use calipers; he simply reached out and lightly touched the surface of the part.

This time, his tense face finally relaxed, and he nodded repeatedly, saying:

"That's it! This is the precision we need; this is the level this grinding machine should be at!"

The others took it to measure, and it was indeed as Zongping had said.

This precision machine tool from Country R has been completely repaired.

Zong Ping's gaze towards Song Xingye changed immediately, as if he were looking at a strange person. "Director Song, how did you manage to figure out the malfunction in just two days? Just from those two manuals? I really don't believe it."

Song Xingye laughed and said, "Zong Gong, you can't erase all my credit with just one sentence. The contents of those two Russian manuals are too profound. I haven't slept much these past two days."

Zongping looked at the other person's bloodshot eyes and had no choice but to believe it.

Regardless of how the other party found the fault in the grinding machine, at least they accomplished something.

Perhaps geniuses have extraordinary minds; what seems like an extremely difficult problem to others can be solved by simply going through their thoughts once.

Zongping was a rough man; he was convinced in his heart, but he didn't mince words.

He patted Song Xingye on the shoulder heavily. "Alright! Consider this a favor I owe you. Feel free to ask for anything!"

Song Xingye had been waiting for this question, so he seized the opportunity and said, "Engineer Zong, could you please take charge of the machining in our fifth workshop from now on? In the entire Hongxing Factory, your skills are the most trustworthy among all the workers."

Zong Ping felt quite pleased with the flattery, so he proactively took out a cigarette and offered it to him, readily agreeing.

"No problem, I'll do your work from now on!"

After a minor hiccup, Song Xingye finally managed to recruit Zong Ping, a seasoned mechanic.

Thus, the core members of the lightning-guided rocket research group have expanded from four to five.

Song Xingye, the team leader, personally oversaw the overall design and propulsion, Jiang Mian was responsible for pneumatic control, Zhao Yuehe focused on structural heat protection, Chang Jian handled integrated electronics, and Zong Ping was responsible for a series of machining processes and prototype production.

Regarding the Thor 1.0 version of the lightning-inducing rocket, Song Xingye and his research group discussed several versions of what kind of propellant combination to use.

Ultimately, he decided to use Wild Donkey No. 1, who had previously achieved excellent results at the Starry Sky Summer Camp, as a template.

Asphalt and potassium perchlorate were used as fuel.

That day, they made thorough preparations in Workshop 5. Zongping led several workers to weld a simple launch bracket. A temporary rocket launcher made of seamless steel pipe was filled with a mixture of heated asphalt and potassium perchlorate.

After they cooled into solid propellant columns, everyone stood far away and began to remotely ignite them.

The launch pad was surrounded by a pile of sandbags, resembling the sandbag array in "Shock Wave," except instead of a timed bomb with a one-minute countdown, it contained a small solid rocket that was firmly fixed in place.

"ignition!"

Then, Song Xingye heard a series of low, muffled hissing sounds.

He and Jiang Mian exchanged a glance, both reading the puzzled look on each other's faces.

This is not the kind of noise you should hear when a normal ignition starts.

Immediately afterwards, a violent explosion rang out from the sandbag formation.

"boom!!"

Then came the sounds of metal fragments banging and piercing the sandbags, as well as scraping against each other.

Countless metal fragments shot out like a rain of needles, violently cutting through the sandbags, scraping against each other with a piercing shriek, and finally crashing onto the surrounding concrete ground with a "crackling" sound.

The violent shockwave echoed through the enclosed workshop, making the windowpanes rattle like thunder from a clear sky.

When Song Xingye looked up, he even saw a piece of metal debris the size of a palm hanging crookedly on the edge of the door. The metal was completely deformed, which showed how terrifying the impact of the explosion was.

For several minutes, the atmosphere in the workshop was frozen.

Jiang Mian and Zhao Yuehe huddled together, stiff and incredibly quiet.

Song Xingye was also stunned by the sudden explosion and it took him a long time to come to his senses.

Once the dust had settled, he rushed over to help his companion up and check his injuries.

Fortunately, the sandbag array they built was sturdy enough that most of the shockwaves released after the asphalt/potassium perchlorate explosion, as well as the metal fragments produced, were absorbed by the sand.

Apart from being covered in dust and looking somewhat disheveled, everyone was unharmed.

No one was hurt, but some trouble is inevitable.

Upon hearing the news, Director Cheng rushed over and gave the group a severe dressing-down, finally ordering Song Xingye to submit a profound self-criticism of three thousand words.

The task of writing the self-criticism naturally fell to Zhao Yuehe, who was the team's pen expert. She was always adept at writing various reports, polishing texts, and creating PPT presentations.

Having just caused trouble, Song Xingye, Jiang Mian, Chang Jian, and Zong Ping squatted on the cement floor, whispering to each other about the reasons for their failure.

"Adding potassium perchlorate to asphalt still results in too high an energy density."

Song Xingye wiped the soot off his face and said in a deep voice, "Thor's small physique simply cannot withstand such a fierce explosion."

"We need to change the formula. We need to find a more moderate energy combination, and we must keep the rocket's takeoff speed firmly below 200 m/s."

Song Xingye presented his viewpoint.

Chang Jian said, "Is this speed of 200 m/s reliable? Does it have to be limited to this range? Can't it be faster?"

Upon hearing this, Zong Ping shook his head and said, "This speed is already the limit. 200 m/s is 720 kilometers per hour. What does that mean? It's about the same speed as a civilian airliner."

But the problem is, it's not just about the speed of the Thor rocket; it also has a 'metal wire' trailing behind it. This metal wire is the key to attracting lightning, while the rocket is just a transportation tool...

As Zongping spoke, he gestured as he spoke.

"If you think of this as flying a kite, then the kite string in our hands is the metal wire, and the kite is a Boeing 747 that can reach speeds of up to 720 kilometers per hour!"

"If you want to fly a kite well, you must first make sure that the kite string is not broken. Once the speed exceeds the limit, the huge kinetic energy will instantly tear the metal wire to shreds."

"Based on my current understanding of materials, if a metal wire like this is to be stretched to a distance of 500 meters or even 1000 meters, and also has to withstand the kinetic energy and speed of a rocket launch, it must not exceed 200 m/s."

Song Xingye nodded. The system had matched him with a science fiction novel category; click to view details. He echoed, "Zong Gong is right. I even think 200 m/s is questionable. Perhaps later, to match the strength of the metal wire, we'll have to find a way to slow the rocket down."

……

Since the asphalt option was rejected, everyone could only discuss other feasible fuel combinations.

Everyone's fighting spirit remained high, but the fifth workshop had become visibly deserted.

Following the previous explosion, four workers have applied for transfer.

Factory Director Cheng naturally refused to approve it, so the workers simply pretended to be sick and asked for leave. In short, they refused to come back no matter what, fearing that one day they might "heroically sacrifice themselves" for the sake of scientific research.

Therefore, Zongping's burden became even heavier, and Song Xingye and Chang Jian also had to step in and help out from time to time.

Fortunately, Zongping is very skilled. He can always make the most of the simple equipment in the workshop in the shortest time and with the most efficient processing methods.

Although the workers at the Red Star Factory privately called them the "Suicide Squad," Song Xingye didn't care. He just pushed forward the Thor rocket's schedule day after day.

They spent less and less time in the research labs in the main building and more and more time in the fifth workshop.

Sometimes they would arrive early in the morning and sit around that tattered table with peeling paint, discussing things until late into the night.

The night was deep and quiet, and all was still.

The five members of the "Suicide Squad" could clearly see the dazzling Milky Way overhead when they opened the window.

Song Xingye often felt that the starry sky of this era was far purer and cleaner than it would be twenty years later.

Perhaps it's because there aren't tens of thousands of Starlink satellites flying around overhead like Musk's?

At least at this moment, a series of glowing satellites will not drift across the night sky for no reason, creating light pollution in space.

The velvety black sky provided the perfect backdrop for their discussion of the Thor rocket design.

The conversation flowed freely, ranging from rocket fuel to auxiliary wings, and they talked about everything under the sun. As they talked, they began to imagine the limits of the universe and what era it would be when humanity first left the solar system.

They always ridicule the illogical spaceship designs in Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters, but they are more enthusiastic about the meticulous script of "Interstellar" and pay high tribute to the screenwriter.

In that boundless fantasy, they tirelessly depicted the perfect interstellar warship in their minds.

Most of the time, Song Xingye led the conversation.

He was the most imaginative and charismatic member of the Suicide Squad, his mind always brimming with endless whimsical ideas.

However, whether these ideas can be applied to the Thor rocket project remains to be seen and will require verification by Jiang Mian, a competent partner.

This "Little Chen Jingrun" has first-rate mathematical talent. She only needs a piece of scrap paper and a ballpoint pen to translate Song Xingye's wild physical ideas into lines of rigorous mathematical equations.

More often than not, she would point to the densely packed equations on the paper, composed of logarithms, exponents, and trigonometric functions, and draw a definitive conclusion:

Song Xingye would then relentlessly press, "Is there absolutely no feasibility?"

After Jiang Mian nodded again, Song Xingye gave up his idea.

He almost blindly trusted the mathematical calculation ability of the woman beside him, because Jiang Mian was the most mathematically gifted genius he had ever met. To her, those tedious formulas were as comfortable and natural as a second skin, and she had never made a mistake.

Although his plans were repeatedly rejected, Song Xingye was always full of ideas, and he would soon have a flash of inspiration and come up with a new good idea.

Then the girl beside him would continue to patiently calculate and verify for him, never showing impatience or resistance, and then shake her head to tell him:

"It's still not quite right, shall we think about it some more?"

Everything seemed to have returned to the time at the Starry Sky Summer Camp, where Song Xingye accurately and vividly described the physical characteristics of the aerodynamic problems faced by the Thor rocket and precisely identified the key to the problem.

Jiang Mian helped him further clarify his thinking and handle the various details of applied mathematics, filling in the blanks with line after line of formulas, turning abstract concepts into steps leading to reality.

The former was responsible for thinking, and the latter for doing. With their orderly and well-defined cooperation, the Thor rocket was advancing its development at an almost whirlwind speed.

However, the team still ran into trouble regarding what kind of propellant to use for the rocket, and they still had no good clue.

In order to send the Thor rocket into space, the choice of propellant is a key factor in achieving their goal.

They had to calculate which propellant combination was best suited for the Thor rocket.

Propellants include not only fuel but also oxidants. Just like cellular respiration, there must be substances like oxygen that actively steal electrons, triggering a strong redox reaction to release enormous energy.

Therefore, the principle of redox reactions is the same whether in rockets or human cells.

Without the assistance of an oxygen-rich oxidant, fuel alone cannot burn; therefore, such a substance is one of the necessary conditions for chemical combustion.

However, rockets are often sealed and cannot come into contact with external oxygen, unlike airplanes which can use oxygen from the air, so they must carry sufficient oxidizer.

This means they need to conduct a massive amount of testing to find the one and only answer among countless combinations.

Song Xingye is a leader who dares to make mistakes and take responsibility, but the problem is that Cheng Long chickened out first.

After several unsuccessful attempts to talk to Director Song, Director Cheng directly restricted his application for and use of solid fuel.

After all, the Suicide Squad's reputation was growing, and more importantly... recently, almost every two days, a loud bang would erupt from that makeshift sandbag formation in Workshop 5, shaking the entire factory area and causing widespread panic.

Given the extreme danger they posed, Factory Director Cheng decided to find them a new office space and made contact with them very quickly.

When Song Xingye came out of the factory director's office, Cheng Long practically ran to see him off, a relieved smile on his face, waving and saying:

"It's a bit far... but the factory can reimburse the gas money. If you need any help, just let me know..."

After seeing off this plague, Factory Director Cheng wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and breathed a long sigh of relief.

He had never been so humble in his life.

After all, he's the head of a factory; there's absolutely no need for him to act like this. However, Comrade Song has given Hongxing Factory a lot of ideas, and he's also a favorite of Lu Zhenhuan...

Even if you don't care about the monk's feelings, you should still consider the Buddha's feelings. No matter how reckless Cheng Long is, he would still need to discuss this decision with the other party properly.

Upon seeing Song Xingye return, Chang Jian, Jiang Mian, Zhao Yuehe, and others quickly surrounded him, asking him all sorts of questions.

Song Xingye shrugged and said, "Director Cheng said that from now on, fuel ignition tests are no longer allowed to be conducted in the workshop..."