Chapter 267 Pedro
On November 17, the Unity shuttle, which completed its fourth 7-day tourist flight to the space station, returned with four foreign tycoons and two domestic tycoons.
Five space agency researchers who will go to space in December stood in the tower of the Xinyuan launch site and watched the Unity shuttle land in an extremely gentle manner and glide about 3,800 meters on the ground before stopping.
This mission is very different from the previous ones. Xinyuan tried for the first time to use the autopilot system to take over the landing instead of manual control by the driver.
The test was quite successful. The return route of the Unity was automatically calculated by the program, and there was no problem on the ground, which means that the safety factor of the Unity is higher.
Director Huang of the Launch Administration said with a smile:
"Students of the Tiangong Advanced Training Class, the next launch after the Unity is ready will be you."
Because it is nominally space learning, the annual training quota is now called the Tiangong Space Station Advanced Training Class Students, and no one thinks there is anything wrong with it.
After planned training, although the five experts are not perfect in age and physical condition, they also meet the conditions and can carry out the launch mission.
The other four people were all overjoyed, only He Tang was a little sad.
Tang Weitian knew why. Just the day before yesterday, the low-altitude vertical landing test of the core stage of the Long March 6A failed, and a core stage exploded.
The Long March 6A is a derivative development model of the Long March 6. The original world line design is two YF100 engines in the core stage plus four solid rocket boosters with a thrust of 120 tons, and a 700-kilometer SSO orbit capacity of about 4.5 tons.
Now it is no longer necessary. The SSO capacity of the new Long March 8 is the same as that of the old Long March 6A, and it is still recoverable, so the configuration of the Long March 6A has naturally changed.
The LEO capacity of 10 to 25 tons is covered by the Long March 8 and 7, and the small rockets below 2 tons are the Long March 6, so the interval of 2 to 10 tons is a blank area, and there is no cheap reusable rocket.
In order to solve this problem, the Space Administration decided to develop a medium-sized single-rocket body recyclable rocket with a low-Earth orbit capacity of about 7 to 8 tons based on the Long March 6, and the Sixth Academy was still responsible for the development task.
After careful consideration and preliminary research on future rocket recovery technology, He Tang boldly decided to develop a Long March 6A rocket with a core stage using three YF100Ks and a LEO capacity of about 8 tons.
The three YF100Ks can output 390 tons of ground thrust, the second-stage engine is a YF115B engine, the third stage uses a YF50 engine, the takeoff weight is 288 tons, the inland recovery capacity is 6.9 tons, and the recovery capacity at sea or Qiongzhou is 8 tons.
The design is not the best, but the cheapest. The rocket body is still 3.35 meters long and there is no new technology.
The only special thing is that the core stage squeezes out three YF100Ks, and the recovery control system has higher requirements, so a core stage was built first for 1,000-meter low-altitude hovering and recovery tests.
This is the same as the layout and number of the recovery engines of the future Long March 9, which is equivalent to preparing for the future and increasing the information in the technical library.
The landing was successful, but for some reason, it suddenly caught fire more than ten seconds after landing, igniting the remaining fuel and exploding.
The test can only be regarded as a failure. The preliminary investigation results show that the bottom pipeline was too crowded and cracked, but the body of the Long March 6 rocket is so big, so it is a bit troublesome to solve it.
He Tang: I am tired~
Oh, there is also the "chopstick" recovery technology that is still under development, that is, the recovery of the clamping grid rudder. Two Long March 6 modified verification rocket bodies were blown up, and the third one is ready to try again before the end of the year.
The space agency has also changed its thinking due to the surge in funding. It is more tolerant of the success rate of testing rockets. Anyway, the Long March 6 is not expensive to build, so let it explode.
The Long March 6 now has a production line. The number of launches this year has reached 22 for seven rockets. One land recovery failed and the rocket body cracked, and one sea recovery failed. The rest have achieved the original success, while the number of launches of the New Yuan 1 series this year is only 16.
The latter has undertaken more foreign missions and has launched many small satellites for the desert countries. On the contrary, most of the domestic scientific missions have been taken up by the Long March 6.
SpecaX's Falcon 9 took the lead, and has undertaken 29 launch missions so far. Many European countries have chosen the relatively cheap and correct Falcon 9. At the same time, the ISS also used the Falcon 9 to launch a supply mission.
Due to the restrictions of the Wolf Clause, domestic commercial launch missions can only be limited to Asia, but there are still many, which is acceptable for the time being.
In any case, the Long March 6 and the improved models under development are still the most successful reusable rocket series of the Space Administration, and He Tang's future is still bright.
Shen Zuozhou, a space propulsion technology expert from the First Academy, wanted to liven up the atmosphere:
"We will suspend work for training and rest in the remaining 20 days. Why not find something to do? The Tianwen plan should be approved. The Mars Atmosphere Round Trip Vehicle should be given to the Sixth Academy, right? Just study it?"
The Aerospace Development Commission has been holding a small meeting these days to discuss the long-term plan for manned landing on Mars, which is temporarily named the Tianwen series plan.
In the mid- to late-stage missions, the temporary idea is for the Sixth and Fourth Academy to undertake the development of a reusable atmospheric round-trip vehicle that can travel between the surface of Mars and the Martian low-Earth orbit spacecraft.
Several people looked at each other. Among the five of them, one was the chief designer of the rocket body, one was the chief designer of the engine, and three were the chief designers of the spacecraft. That was enough.
“0.38G gravity, so we can easily transport 5 tons of payload to orbit?”
“How many seats? Three seats are enough.”
“It should have basic ground life support facilities, and it can also be used as a rapid maneuvering tool on the surface…”
…
“Dream Chaser block1-Falcon-9 MISSON READY!”
“The assembly is in good condition and ready to launch.”
“Countdown 30 minutes.”
“…”
At the Kennedy Space Launch Center, the fully-functioning Dream Chaser 1 was installed on a Falcon 9 rocket that had undergone two successful recovery missions. The extremely low temperature brought by liquid oxygen made the latter’s rocket body surface covered with white frost.
After nearly a month of re-preparation, the current Dream Chaser B1 space shuttle has fully met the manned requirements and has obtained the manned license from NACA. It is equipped with 4 expensive dummies and is ready for the last test launch before manned flight.
At the launch center, Spanish astronaut Pedro Dick squinted at the huge fairing that wrapped the Dream Chaser.
Due to the use of more advanced technologies, the preparation time of the Dream Chaser can be shortened to less than half a month, which is similar to the Falcon 9, so the launch time of the next manned mission is in December.
The first manned flight will carry three astronauts, a NACA engineer and a professional astronaut, and the Spanish astronaut Pedro Dick.
The latter has the most experience and was selected as the commander.
"Pedro, how do you feel? You are going to fly the space shuttle, which is much more exciting than the Soyuz spacecraft."
"You are not an Amis, but you are the first astronaut to fly her. This is our attitude towards our allies."
The officials at the launch center chatted with Pedro, but the latter just forced a smile.
What are you talking about the attitude of allies here? ESA has a total of 3 quotas, 1 for orbiting the moon and 2 for subsequent landings. How can it be a marginal country like Spain? He definitely has no share, so NACA let him fly the Dream Chaser as "compensation".
Damn Yankees, always wanting to exploit old Europe, do you think ESA is as weak as India?
Pedro cursed in his heart, and at the same time prayed that ESA's Selene plan would be approved as soon as possible, so that he would not work for the Americans in vain.