Chapter 260 Xizong

H2M, or the entire H2 family series, follows the Soviet route. Unlike the American space shuttle and rocket booster that participate in orbit as a complete system, the H2 series is launched completely as a payload.

The conventional methane version changes three A100 nuclear-powered engines into three 50-ton liquid oxygen methane engines. The nozzles are specially optimized for vacuum, so they are very huge.

The entire machine has an empty weight of 78 tons, which is lighter than the nuclear-powered version. It carries a total of 14 tons of oxidizer and fuel. The curb launch mass is about 95 tons. The maximum take-off weight is 132 tons. The cargo hold can accommodate up to 37 tons of cargo.

What is this concept? The empty weight of the C919 is 42 tons, and the maximum take-off weight is only over 70 tons.

When the leaders of the space agency who came to the base and Lin Ju performed the offline ceremony in the factory, everyone was shocked by this huge thing.

Unlike all previous space shuttles, H2M does not need to replace the insulation tiles in order to achieve a full life of 100 times. It does not use piece-by-piece insulation tiles like Aramco and Alliance. It is a whole from the inside. Equipment maintenance and door gap treatment are almost perfectly smooth and smooth, just like a passenger aircraft.

Except for the nose, which has to withstand almost twice the temperature of the fuselage, some black reinforced insulation tiles are used. The rest are dark gray, which looks very clean in the bright factory building.

The wingspan is 38 meters, which is almost 7 times the width of H1. It has a strong visual impact.

Academician She, who arrived a day later, was almost dizzy when he saw that the H2M's body alone was nearly 10 meters wide and high.

"This...we have built such a big space shuttle? Although I have seen your plan a long time ago, it is still too big and scary."

Next to him is Ji Xiuhua, an old astronaut who is about to retire. He only participated in the program when he was semi-retired the year before last year. He said that the reason why the space agency did not follow the trend in developing space shuttles in the 1980s was not due to technical factors, but because the space shuttle was backward.

After H1 broke this impression, he believed that the reason for the failure of the space shuttle was that it was too big and unsafe, and smaller ones would be more reliable.

But when she saw the H2M, the largest space shuttle in history, Ji Xiuhua immediately became a staunch space shuttle fan.

Ji Xiuhua: "For such a large space shuttle, the upper limit of the Tiangong Space Station is not 280 tons, but more than 500 tons."

The others were stunned for a moment, then understood.

This year's Tiangong Phase II project has been completed. The two main experimental modules have been successfully launched and operated. Next year's Phase III project will soon be completed.

Currently, in the space agency's planning, there are only these three phases of the Tiangong Space Station. On the one hand, they are enough, but on the other hand, the structure of the Tiangong Space Station cannot bear more mass.

The current Tiangong Space Station is a third-generation technology, and its strength is maintained entirely by the docking interfaces of each module. It is usually fine, but if it needs to change orbit, such as to prevent debris collisions, then if the overall mass is too large, the docking interfaces may not be able to withstand strength damage. .

The current Tiangong Space Station mainly relies on several large cabin sections based on the XS-62 as "replacement trusses". Their docking interfaces are large in size and can withstand greater forces. However, after the completion of the third phase of the project, the mass of more than 280 tons is The limit of safety range.

Although the Tiangong Space Station is fully sufficient for domestic use for ten years, considering the need for external cooperation, the issue of expansion must be considered.

H2 obviously provides a solution. Customized trusses for the current space station are installed by the space shuttle. The potential of the steel structure truss assembly jumps to more than 1,000 tons, transferring the pressure from the cabin section to the truss.

The truss modification plan can also extend the life of the space station. It is not a big problem to extend the scheduled 10-year life to about 20 years with repairs.

The boss also looked at the H2M up and down with emotion. The assembly of two 100-ton space shuttles was completed at the same time, and the third one was also highly completed. Such manufacturing capabilities are simply beyond imagination.

However, he always felt that it was a bit inconsistent and something was not right. After watching it for a long time, he was finally satisfied when a group of people ran over and put two big red flowers on the noses of the two space shuttles on tripods. He nodded.

Next to him, Lin Ju and Serev stood side by side with smiles that could not be suppressed on their faces. The latter even murmured "Ula" in a voice that only he could hear.

Lin Ju: "Corvo, H2M is offline 41 days ahead of schedule according to the plan of 'Shan Hai'. You are great. We are moving towards space at an unprecedented speed."

Serev: "H2M is very important. Such a large mobile platform can do so much. We will start astronaut training next month. The assembly of the Advance is very complicated and requires the best astronauts."

More than ten minutes later, all the work on site was in place. The group hurriedly walked to the middle of the two space shuttles and stood in the middle. Behind them were 174 employees from the final assembly workshop and key parts manufacturing.

The cameraman stood far away. He wanted to capture the entire picture of the two space shuttles. The huge size of H2M was the key point.

As the flash came on, 192 smiling faces were recorded by the camera.

…

In the early morning of November 8, Aramco Eastern Time, the Election Committee preliminarily completed all vote counting.

Chris, the official in charge of statistics, couldn't believe the results she saw and rubbed her red and swollen eyes hard.

"Victor, Victor! Look, God has abandoned Ami."

Chris called her companions, and Victor's heart beat twice as fast as he looked at the election results.

John, who ran for election at the age of 58 and is now 60, defeated Diane and won the 2016 election with 304 votes to 232 votes!

John was born in a wealthy family. When he was young, he made movies and held concerts with Michael Jackson. In the middle of his career, he became a state legislator. He was no different from a rookie in the American political world.

Such a person was elected as the boss of the American?

Chris felt like she was suffocating.

But no matter what, the election results have been determined and no one can change them.

At this time, John was having a party in a high-rise building named after his family, bragging about himself drunkenly.

From the moment he was nominated as a candidate, he knew that the next boss had been decided for Diane. He was just going through the motions. It made no difference whether he was a rapper or not.

But as a person who loves hype, he can participate in TV shows in the future as a candidate. How exciting is that?

The staff who gave him advice were just doing their duty before, and they were all put together from here and there. They also casually held their glasses and watched the girls showing off their bodies in the swimming pool, happy that they could relax.

In such a happy atmosphere, an abrupt figure rushed into the scene. John blinked and vaguely recognized that it was an assistant of his campaign team, the mixed-race girl Twissey who was really working hard for the election.

"Tweety, you're just in time. Go change your clothes and dance with the girls."

"Hahaha..."

"Tweety, compete with them to see who's sexier!"

A group of drunkards shamelessly flirted with the young assistant who had just graduated, but the latter just blushed and excitedly raised the phone:

"Mr. John, the internal statistics are out. You won the election. You will be the next A-Me boss soon!"

"Oh... um, then congratulate Diane for me. She is still working for the United States at such an old age." John was almost asleep. He only heard the key word "election" and didn't hear what Tweety was saying at all.

His staffer Mike Pio had a good alcohol tolerance and was relatively sober. It took him a few seconds to process the information. Then his eyes suddenly widened and he jumped up from the sofa. The bottle of wine hung on the ground and fell into a pile of glass fragments.

John, John actually won the election? Then according to convention, wouldn't I be the Secretary of State?

"?!"

The rest of the people who were not completely drunk could not believe the news. They asked Tweesey several times and called to confirm. Finally, they got a positive result.

Although it has not been made public yet, the internal results have come out. The next boss is John!

Pio rushed to John. The election results will be announced in a few hours. He can't let people see that the future boss is as drunk as Boris Nikolayevich!

Updates will be added in the evening depending on the situation