Chapter 1108 Unintentionally Advancing History

While Chang Haonan was thinking about how to overcome the problem of processing large-size wide-chord blades.

France, Paris.

Jean-Jacques Dordan was looking at the two reports in front of him with similar contents but completely different conclusions.

It's all about China's aerospace engineering.

In fact, China's successful first manned space flight has become the biggest topic of the European Space Agency (ESA) in the past half month.

But on this topic, ESA is divided into two completely different factions.

One group advocates that there are never too many escape routes, and that when its own resources are insufficient, it should try to open cooperation with any other country and organization with space capabilities.

After all, just a few months ago, they even signed an agreement with Roscosmos, with the latter specifically developing a Soyuz series rocket suitable for the Guyana Space Center to alleviate the problem of tight European space transportation capacity.

From this point of view, having a few more partners is not a problem at all.

The other group believes that although China's aerospace level is in a promising situation, its foundation is not solid and the ground is shaking. Its own areas of expertise overlap closely with those of the European Union. The introduction of cooperation is simply intensifying competition, and it must also take into account the United States. human risk.

As an organization established with the support of the European Union and multiple countries, even though Dordan is the director, he does not have the unequivocal influence within ESA like his counterparts in other countries.

More often than not, he seems to work more like a coordinator.

Not only must the interests of various member states, especially the initial member states, be balanced, but the impact of the external environment must also be taken into consideration.

For example, NASA is keen on long-arm jurisdiction...

In short, the oil and water are rich, but the money earned is definitely useless money...

At this moment, a sudden knock on the door interrupted Director Dordan's sigh.

After looking up at the person who came, he performed a face-changing art at the speed of light and quickly stood up to invite the person in:

"Bernard, long time no see..."

As he spoke, he picked up two cups and placed them in front of the two of them:

"Want something to drink?"

Bernard Kandel is an ESA policy development advisor and an honorary professor at the Institut Universitaire de France.

"No."

Kandel waved his hand, obviously not accepting this trick.

He is considered a veteran within ESA, but his current title is only nominal.

He has neither real power nor much control.

If I hadn’t had a good personal relationship with Dordan, I probably wouldn’t have made the trip:

"You made a special trip to call me here, you must not just want to reminisce about old times..."

Dordan, whose purpose was directly revealed, only showed a moment of embarrassment:

"The Chinese side...it gave me a problem this time."

This sentence made Kandel immediately stunned:

"You mean... they sent their first astronaut into space?"

"Otherwise..."

Dordan sighed:

"What else could it be?"

Kandel almost laughed out loud when he heard this:

"But we...no, it's you. Haven't you given up on independently completing the manned spaceflight project a long time ago?"

There was a strong sense of schadenfreude in his tone.

But Dordan just shrank his head and glanced at the other party——

In the mid-1980s, ESA had a manned space program that was expected to cost more than 100 billion West German Marks.

Kandel himself is an enthusiastic supporter and promoter of this plan.

However, if Europeans are asked to implement such a complex project, the results will not be surprising -

ESA ultimately proposed a stifling three-stage development route.

The first is to develop a spacecraft similar to the Soyuz, and develop an improved version based on the Ariane 3 rocket to send the spacecraft and astronauts into space.

The second one is the Space Shuttle Emissary, which is slightly smaller than the U.S. Space Shuttle. It is expected to be launched by the Ariane 5 rocket that was still in the plan at the time.

The third is to develop the "Columbus" space capsule, which is actually a small space station that allows astronauts to stay in orbit uninterrupted.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the problem is already huge——

Spaceship - space shuttle - small space station.

The relationship between the three is not so much a succession relationship, but a parallel relationship.

Especially the first two items.

Indeed, even though the Soviets already had spacecraft, they still began to develop the new Buran space shuttle in the 1980s.

But after all, the Soyuz has been used for almost 30 years, and iterating new products is a smooth process.

What about your ESA?

Resources are not enough to begin with, and two delivery vehicles have to be built at the same time.

It's unreasonable no matter how you look at it.

In short, despite the mutual refusal, we finally came up with such a plan full of compromises.

The whole plan had to come to nothing.

Only the name "Columbus" has been used on a module of the International Space Station.

Kandel was also stimulated by this incident and left ESA's business line.

Now looking at the Chinese people coming from behind, it is inevitable to have the thought "you really deserve this".

Dordan, who had also experienced the whole process that year, could not easily refute, had to change the topic:

"It's not entirely related to manned spaceflight..."

He said and took the two reports on the table:

"Anyway, take a look at this first."

Although Kandel was still holding his breath, he had a good personal relationship with Dordan after all, so he couldn't just turn him down.

Besides, he was already here.

So, he finally took it and quickly read it to the end at a glance.

After a moment of silence, he slowly said:

"I think... in the field of aerospace, international cooperation is the general trend after all. Even Americans and Russians can get together to build a space station, so it's not unreasonable for someone to hope that we will be open-minded about this matter..."

Dordan's eyes moved slightly.

It seems that the other party supports the first opinion.

But before he could speak, Kandel changed the subject:

"But we must also consider that our space projects are deeply tied to NASA, and the risks mentioned in the second report do exist..."

"At present, the Chinese are good at developing functional space payloads, such as satellites and spacecraft, and their shortcoming is the lack of large rockets with strong carrying capacity, which is completely consistent with our ecological niche in international aerospace... We cannot simply judge by the situation in the EASA aviation industry..."

This remark is very high-level.

It's like saying a sentence.

Humphrey is possessed.

Dordan also showed an expression that couldn't bear to look directly at:

"I invited you here today, not to help me fetch water..."

Kandel shrugged and put down the two reports in his hand:

"I don't even need to look at the names of the report submitters to know that this is an internal struggle between the ELDO faction and the ESRO faction... You, the director, can't do anything about them, so what can I, a professor who left ESA a long time ago, do?"

ELDO, European Launch Vehicle Development Organization.

ESRO, European Space Research Organization.

These are two organizations established simultaneously in 1962 on the basis of the European Community in the early days of space exploration.

Although the two merged to become today's European Space Agency in 1975, the conflict of interest between them is not so easy to disappear.

Instead, it has become more and more serious due to resource sharing.

The extremely abstract manned space program mentioned above is also related to the infighting between the two factions.

The positions of both parties vary in different periods, but in general, the former is more inclined to open cooperation, while the latter is more inclined to bind NASA.

As for why the previous cooperation with the Russians was passed...

That was also because NASA took the lead.

Now that the cooperation partner has changed to China, the ESRO faction is naturally not so easy to talk to.

Before Dordan could speak again, Kandel continued to ask:

"Speaking of which... I remember that at the beginning of this year, we were going to cooperate with China on the Galileo satellite navigation system, but why did it come to nothing later?"

"Don't mention it..."

The former loosened the tie around his neck:

"We had just started discussing the feasibility of cooperation internally, and the news leaked out before we even decided on the candidates for the expedition team to China... The Americans put pressure very hard, and many people who were inclined to cooperate at the beginning quickly changed their attitudes, and finally had to put it on hold temporarily..."

Kandel spread his hands and showed an "I knew it" expression:

"So you see, even the cooperation on the global satellite navigation system was leaked so quickly. What's the difference between you and China in the more sensitive field of manned space flight and even deep space exploration?"

"..."

Dordan was speechless.

After a long while, he said with some sadness:

"The bond between us and NASA... is indeed a bit too deep..."

Unexpectedly, this speech, which was originally a bit self-destructive, made Kandel change his mind:

"Actually... it's not that there is no way."

"Ah?"

Dordan instantly became energetic.

"Your ESA has been infiltrated like a sieve... there is definitely no hope."

Kandel said very bluntly.

"Uh..."

Dordan scratched his head in embarrassment.

But Kandel completely ignored him:

"If you really want to break the deadlock, you can only consider opening up private capital to enter the aerospace industry, and then find a white glove to complete this task..."