Chapter 1255: The Americans Don’t Care, but We Do!

Sun Yanlai was still a little worried at first. After all, if there was a risk of public opinion, it would be him, the top leader of the space agency, who would really face the pressure.

But Chang Haonan, who had long expected this situation, quickly added:

"In fact, as early as the beginning of last year, the X37 demonstrator originally hosted by NASA and specifically developed by Boeing had been transferred to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and two air drop and gliding tests were quickly conducted... Considering The final version of this project will have orbital flight capabilities, so if we have to talk about space weapons, it will be the Americans who did it first.”

"This accident is an excellent opportunity for us. It can be said that in the next ten or even twenty years, we may not be able to find such a favorable situation again, allowing us to carry out these sensitive operations in a relatively good international environment. Technical experiment..."

"In addition, we can also elevate this plan to the level of space rescue, thereby gaining a larger international market... Judging from my previous experience in the aviation field, many Western countries may not be willing to cooperate with us. , it just lacks suitable opportunities and enough motivation, and once a breakthrough is opened, the rest of the things will be much easier, and even logical..."

In fact, the first one here is purely to give yourself a reason to convince yourself.

But the last two are very important.

Especially the part about striving for the international market and international cooperation can solve Sun Yanlai's urgent need.

Since entering the new century, the Long March series of rockets were once very competitive in the space launch field with their outstanding reliability and cost-effectiveness.

However, due to certain off-site factors, it is difficult to further expand the market.

After the stunning debut of Shenzhou 5, the situation has improved compared to previous years. However, for the same reason, emerging commercial aerospace companies are still the main ones offering cooperation.

Although everyone knows that these companies are nothing more than ESA's gloves.

But it was just like the Ciro Company that was established secretly back then.

There is a layer in the middle, which is always inconvenient in many cases.

Recently, there are rumors that the United States is preparing to launch a ban on all organizations and individuals that cooperate with China in the aerospace field.

From a technical perspective alone, China Aerospace has always maintained a highly independent development path, but it is not afraid of this threat.

But this is not the case at the market level.

Looking at the aviation industry colleagues next door who have made a lot of money in just ten years, it is obviously impossible for Sun Yanlai not to be jealous at all.

For him, the best way to respond is to refer to the strategies in the aviation field and deeply participate in the global industrial chain while ensuring autonomy.

Even if the opponent moves to impose sanctions and bans, it will only have a superficial impact at best.

At most, it’s just multiple middlemen making the difference.

It's just that there has been a lack of a suitable manager.

Now seeing that Chang Haonan seemed to be planning to "volunteer", he almost performed a 180° turn in the air on the spot.

"Well, it does work!"

The leader, who was watching the scene through the big screen, was slightly delayed. He was still hesitating whether he should eliminate Sun Yanlai's concerns by himself.

As a result, he was directly blocked by the latter's Sichuan Opera face change, and the words that had reached his mouth also became:

"If comrades have no other opinions, I think it would be better to end today's meeting here. As for the final opinions, it is best to formulate a written report and submit it as soon as possible..."

Of course, when the chief said "come here", he meant that he himself was participating here, rather than actually ending the meeting right away.

Therefore, after the video conferencing system was turned off, most participants remained to discuss specific implementation details.

First, there's the name.

A piece of space debris almost hit the International Space Station. It is impossible to hide such a huge event.

The whole world will know this afternoon or evening at the latest.

It's just whoever breaks the news first.

To achieve what Chang Haonan said, "make a clear statement at the first time", it is inseparable from a name that can leave a deep impression on people.

Considering that from the perspective of working methods, this rope net capture scheme is indeed somewhat similar to that of a trawler.

Therefore, this emergency plan to clean up space debris was finally named the "Interstellar Fishing Ship" project.

Don't ask, just ask: the Milky Way is also a river, and the stars and the sea are also seas.

So you can catch fish...

…

Compared with the aerospace practitioners who are facing a formidable enemy and are either thinking about countermeasures or thinking about how to shirk the blame, the people who eat melons are naturally not so well-informed——

In fact, it has only been about three hours since the Standard 3 interceptor collided with the UARS satellite.

Only more than an hour has passed since ABC's broadcast ended.

Although some viewers have noticed that the show ended abruptly, some of them were particularly keen, and they also found that the expressions of the host and guests during the final stage were unnatural.

But facing such a historic moment, most people will still be involuntarily immersed in their own emotions.

Especially in China.

As early as last night, the administrator of a certain forum had opened a special live broadcast discussion thread on the top page.

Now it has been built to several thousand floors.

And the heat didn't drop at all.

However, the test launch of the intermediate-range missile that was almost mistaken for a UFO incident a month ago was still hot, but today, the opponent on the other side of the ocean poured a bucket of cold water on it.

So the atmosphere of the entire discussion seemed a little lost.

[The Americans said that they were intercepting a scrapped satellite, but they were actually demonstrating to us, right? ]

[Do you even need to ask this... The orbital altitude of that satellite is similar to that of an intermediate-range missile, and the interception method is a typical direct ascent type, which is just short of slapping the four words "anti-missile test" in our faces. ]

[Not only anti-missile, but more importantly, sea-based anti-missile... The test on New Year's Eve happened to be an anti-ship ballistic missile, which was originally a trump card weapon in our country's anti-access operations, just to avoid the situation ten years ago... But others used Aegis to perform an anti-satellite, obviously to prove to the outside world that they have the ability to ensure the safety of the aircraft carrier formation! ]

[……]

Of course, some people are more professional or tend to be optimistic.

[From a technical point of view, although the target altitude is similar, the satellite has been operating in a specific orbit for a long time, the flight parameters are fixed, and it is also the American satellite. All the data are known in advance by them, and the difficulty is much lower than the real anti-missile. ]

[Yes, although it is a big threat to us, there is no need to be too pessimistic. The United States has also conducted real anti-missile interception tests before, and the success rate is only about half. Even if the difficulty of intercepting intermediate missiles is smaller than that of intercontinental missiles, as long as we can ensure the number of salvos in one salvo, we can still overload the opponent's missile defense system. ]

In this timeline that has undergone tremendous changes, such relatively rational and confident voices are obviously mainstream.

But no matter how the objective situation changes, there will never be a lack of guys who are willing to sing the opposite tune in reality.

[Where are the people who shouted to drive the United States out of the second island chain some time ago? Why don't you call for a change now? /laugh//laugh//laugh/]

[I advise you to be sober. Don't you know how many missile brigades the Second Artillery has in total? Even if all the intermediate missile units are equipped with anti-ship ballistic missiles, how many salvos can they fire? Even if others intercept one with 3-4 missiles, it would only take two Aegis ships...]

[I have already said that conventional missiles look powerful, but if you study them a little, you will find that they are the weakest... They do not pose any effective threat to the opponent. The US military has long given up the long-range missile anti-ship approach. Only your country is clinging to the Red Navy's stuff, and you can't even copy it well, which is a complete waste of resources/grin//grin/]

[...]

Although this group of people is not in a dominant position in terms of number, they are too eager to express themselves, and objectively speaking, the US military did complete a very beautiful show of skill today.

The last time a similar achievement was achieved was also by the US military.

The US military 30 years ago.

After all, the things in the 1990s are a thing of the past.

Since entering the Internet age, most people have faced such a direct and realistic gap for the first time.

Even some netizens who initially felt a little regretful could not help but feel a little discouraged...

Round after round of verbal battles, it lasted from morning to evening.

Until the 7pm news broadcast.

A more explosive news than the morning came-

"At noon today, the US Navy's USS Charlotte launched a Standard 3 interceptor missile in the central Pacific Ocean, hitting a failed meteorological research satellite at an altitude of about 480km. The collision process produced a large-scale space debris of up to 4.5 meters * 1.5 meters, and then passed by only two kilometers away from the International Space Station. At present, this space debris is still running in an orbit of about 400km, seriously threatening the operation safety of the International Space Station and other manned spacecraft..."

"As early as a month ago, we made a kind reminder of such risks, but the US side still ignored the dissuasion and insisted on taking risks. All the consequences arising from this must be borne by the US alone..."

"…………"

The whole world was shocked!

The interception operation actually threatened the safety of the space station!

And it was also predicted by the Chinese side!

What kind of prediction level is this?

Those who had previously ridiculed and mocked wildly on the Internet were slapped hard by this sudden situation.

After all the bragging, it turns out that everything is under China's control?

ABC News' phone was almost blown up by angry citizens, but the concept stocks of private aerospace and space garbage cleaning rose accordingly, and a large number of people gained their own new wealth...

Of course, being slapped in the face does not mean giving up.

Many people are still very stubborn.

After all, no matter what, the interception process itself was a real success.

If a war really breaks out, who will care about how much space debris is generated during the interception process?

Intercepting is winning!

In a word, your China's trump card weapon was still dissolved by the opponent.

However, even such a face-saving did not last too long.

Because after the 7 o'clock news, there is also an interview program that lasts about 20 minutes.

And the theme of today's program is-

"The Death of American Spaceflight"

What is even more heartbreaking is that.

At the beginning of the program, it was not the CCTV host that everyone is familiar with.

It was a small podium with the China National Space Administration logo printed on it.

And the serious face of Sun Yanlai, director of the space administration:

"Although this crisis was entirely caused by the United States' willful behavior, we solemnly promise here that if the United States is unable to deal with the serious situation caused by itself, China will immediately launch a plan codenamed "Interstellar Fishing Boat" to remove this highly dangerous space debris from orbit and destroy it, so as to set an example for the international community..."