Chapter 1095: There Is Something Strange About the Chinese Plan

almost at the same time

Across the ocean.

Washington, DC, 2 Independence Square.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe is reclining in his office chair, holding an analysis document relayed from the Office of Foreign Relations.

The content is naturally an analysis of China's first manned space launch mission about ten hours ago.

As a veteran aerospace executive and space research institution, NASA should be familiar with the task of completing such a report.

After all, according to relevant treaties, before a space mission is launched, the country or institution to which it belongs needs to apply or report details such as launch time and orbit conditions in advance to avoid a "space crash".

Basically, the only thing that can be kept secret is the purpose.

As for Shenzhou 5, a manned spacecraft that has been promoted by China for a long time, there is nothing worth covering up in this regard.

Although China's first manned space flight is more mature and longer than the missions carried out by Yuri Gagarin or John Green, it is still unlikely to carry out any complex scientific research missions. It basically verifies the role of humans in space. activities and accumulate experience in the management of large-scale aerospace programs.

Therefore, Director O'Keefe did not pay special attention to the report itself, or to Shenzhou 5 itself.

In contrast, it was the impact of this mission that made him care even more——

2003 was not a good year for the entire aerospace field.

Needless to say, the Columbia disintegrated and crashed at the beginning of the year.

Although more than nine months have passed, the investigation into the cause of the accident is still ongoing.

The current preliminary conclusion is that holes appeared in the outer shell of the space shuttle, which caused ultra-high temperature gas to enter the space shuttle during re-entry into the atmosphere, eventually leading to tragedy.

However, the origin of the hole itself is still controversial.

Although O'Keefe has let some media suggest that a similar hidden danger had been discovered on the Columbia as early as 1999, but it was not taken seriously at the time in order to try to shift the blame to his predecessor, Daniel Golding.

But for him, such a major disaster while in office is obviously a scandal that cannot be covered up at all.

This is not over yet.

Due to the Columbia accident, the remaining three space shuttles were also grounded. The three astronauts who were originally scheduled to return to Earth from the International Space Station in March had to extend their working hours.

It wasn't until May that they finally waited for the Soyuz TM-10 spacecraft to take them home.

As a result, something went wrong again during this mission.

Although there was no serious consequence of the ship crash or loss of lives, the final landing point of the spacecraft deviated 400 kilometers from the planned area and was not discovered until two hours after landing.

Fortunately, the spacecraft's requirements for the site were not as strict as those of the space shuttle, and it still maintained a normal landing attitude.

When the search and rescue unit arrived, the three astronauts even climbed out of the return capsule themselves...

But in any case, the continuous incidents between the United States and Russia have made people somewhat worried about manned spaceflight.

In this context, if China's Shenzhou-5 mission is a great success, it will undoubtedly form a sharp contrast.

Especially for NASA, it will be more embarrassing.

You must know that the reason given by NASA when it rejected China's application to join the International Space Station project in 1994 was that the latter did not have the relevant technical capabilities, and astronauts from the United States and Russia could use each other's spacecraft as backup, making safety issues foolproof. , there is no need for a third type of transportation to travel between heaven and earth.

This didn't seem to have much of a problem at the time.

But today, nine years later, it turned into a boomerang and pierced Director O'Keefe's back...

Therefore, he was unwilling to mention more about Shenzhou 5.

It's best to pretend nothing happened.

But the problem is that human exploration of the universe is one of the top political correctnesses at the moment.

No matter what he thinks in his heart, he still has to come out to congratulate his Chinese colleagues.

And congratulations... you will inevitably be asked questions by reporters who don't take it too seriously.

O'Keefe could even guess the problems he would face.

For example, "What do you think of the decision to reject China's participation in the space station project?"

Thinking of this, Mr. Director only feels a headache——

How can I see it?

It’s not like I want to refuse!

"well……"

He threw the report aside, closed his eyes, and pinched his forehead helplessly.

At this time, there was a sudden knock on the door outside.

When the director sat up straight again, he saw Daniel Marville, NASA's former chief engineer and now his technical advisor, hurried in from outside.

Before he could speak, the latter hurriedly put a few pieces of paper in his hand on the desk:

"Xiao, I think you need to take a look at this."

"Well……"

O'Keefe's forward swing was interrupted, and he had to look down.

It's still materials related to Shenzhou 5.

"Daniel, the secretary gave these to me just now..."

As he spoke, he pointed at the first report that he had just put down, and motioned to the other party:

"Technically, it's quite satisfactory. There's nothing worth paying special attention to. What I'm worried about now is public opinion..."

"No, this time is different..."

He was interrupted by Marville when he was halfway through his words:

"The Chinese have prepared a...probably a live broadcast to show the astronauts working in the spacecraft..."

"What kind of work can there be in the spaceship..."

Almost subconsciously, O'Keefe sneered with disdain.

As the head of NASA, he has also seen Russia's Soyuz series spacecraft.

Of course, Huaxia's models are different products, but there is no difference in terms of size alone.

It can only accommodate three people, and it's very cramped.

It is completely a means of transportation for traveling between heaven and earth.

Even during the Soviet era, real space research was carried out in larger space stations.

This is also the main reason why the United States abandoned the Mercury series of spacecraft and turned to developing space shuttles——

Larger volume and stronger carrying capacity.

It can even perform some military tasks.

However, halfway through, he realized that he had just missed the point.

"live streaming?"

Pick up the material in front of you and read it again.

Judging from the temperature on the paper and the fact that it has not yet been bound, it must have been printed just now.

And his expression gradually became weird.

Although the work carried out by the Chinese is not worthy of attention in itself.

But if it is a live broadcast...or even a quasi-live broadcast after a little processing of the picture and audio, considering that the picture resources are extremely precious, in order to ensure the continuity of the content, it is very likely that some "useful" parts will be included.

For example, some details of habits shown in the communication process between heaven and earth are valuable analytical resources for professionals.

"Let's go and have a look."

O'Keefe, who didn't care much at first, had a 180° change in attitude. He immediately stood up and picked up both reports on the table at the same time.

…

A few minutes later, the two appeared in a conference room downstairs.

At this time, several other people happened to rush over.

On the TV in front of the conference room, footage from China News Channel was playing——

Although the special program itself is not broadcast in foreign language programs, it is not difficult to get a station C channel signal for NASA.

It's just that it's slightly delayed compared to China.

This moment the cabin footage has just started to be played.

As a result, everyone sat down and stared at the situation on the screen.

At this time, it was just in time for the eighth lap of flight to begin.

The astronauts in the cabin were obviously talking to the ground.

That's what O'Keefe is most interested in.

However, because there is no translation, I cannot understand it directly.

"What are they talking about?"

He quickly asked Hannah Geringer, the only expert around him who knew Chinese.

"Uh...nothing important."

Hannah shrugged:

"Conversing with family on the ground."

"That should be over soon... If they mention any technical points, remember to translate them to me right away."

O'Keefe quickly ordered.

This kind of operation is nothing new for NASA veterans like him.

In the process of propaganda, Americans also like to engage in this form.

However, the signal resources are limited, so we definitely can’t really make phone calls for you.

So it's basically just a formality and it'll be over in a few minutes.

"Judging from the cabin environment, it doesn't seem to be much different from the Alliance spacecraft?"

Another technician next to him suddenly spoke.

Marville, who was sitting behind him, shook his head:

"This is their return capsule. It doesn't have any mission load originally. It's normal that there is no obvious difference... It still depends on what they call the orbital module... or the space station further down the line."

China announced a three-step strategy at the beginning of Project 921, which included a long-term manned space station.

So it's not really a secret.

For a time, everyone began to express their opinions on the progress of the Chinese people.

A few minutes later, Director O'Keefe looked back at the TV screen.

But I found that the picture seemed to be the same as before.

"Is this... a repeat of the clip just now?"

Since the number of footage that can be made public is limited, reusing footage is a common practice.

"no……"

But Hannah gave a negative answer:

"They just showed off the flags of China and the United Nations, as well as writing with special space pens, and space food... In addition, I have to admit that the Chinese people do prepare a wide variety of space food..."

"..."

"etc……"

Hannah was interrupted by O'Keefe mid-sentence:

"Are you sure these processes are coherent?"

"certainly."

Hannah nodded inexplicably.

But in an instant, she also realized that something was wrong -

It has been more than ten minutes since the show started playing.

NASA built a geosynchronous orbit relay satellite network covering more than 80% of the orbit as early as 20 years ago. It is not a problem to carry out high-throughput signal transmission for ten minutes or even dozens of minutes.

So no one felt anything unusual just now.

But this is the first time the Chinese have carried out a truly manned space mission.

Judging from the deployment of the other party's ground measurement and control station, it seems that it shouldn't be able to sustain continuous communication for such a long time, right?

"There's something weird about their mission..."

O’Keefe immediately made a judgment, then turned to look at Malville:

“Dan, summarize all of China’s space launch missions from last year… no, in the past three years, and report to me as soon as possible!”