Chapter 1259 Dongfeng 31’s laid-off and re-employment
With the acquiescence and support of the European Space Agency, Hengxing Company, which had already established a cooperative relationship with China, did not even wait until the working day. Instead, it submitted an application for intent to the China Space Administration and the Aerospace Science and Technology Group on Saturday. It also announced on its official website that it will become the first commercial aerospace company in history to participate in actual space debris cleanup missions as a first-tier supplier.
Of course, Stellar did not block other possibilities, but said it was still open to similar business being prepared by any other country.
But anyone with a discerning eye can see that this is just a symbolic statement.
Although Roscosmos stated that it has prepared two Progress cargo spacecraft and a Soyuz manned spacecraft to take the space station out of orbit in the worst case scenario, it did not mention any plans to clean up space debris. .
Clearly not ready to leave his comfort zone.
Therefore, currently only China and the United States are capable and willing to resolve this crisis.
Considering that Hengxing Company has already participated in China's space fishing ship program, it is basically impossible for the latter to provide important supply contracts to the same company again.
What's more, the domestic commercial aerospace companies in the United States are also waiting for help. How can they allow the fertilizer to flow to outsiders?
But that's enough.
The market is all about expectations.
Now even the earlier and more well-known private aerospace companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin are still in the stage of trying to make a big pie in the eyes of the outside world.
Stellar has already begun to participate in actual projects.
Even if you are a supplier rather than a contractor, you can at least see money coming back instead of a bottomless pit.
So after trading reopened on Monday, Stellar's stock almost rocketed into the sky.
If this momentum continues, I am afraid that within two to three years, a new Fortune 500 company will be born.
Except for the real investment master Major General Wilbert Pearson Jr., probably no one could have predicted this scene.
Even Chang Haonan was stunned.
"I originally thought that the biggest winner this time would be us, but I didn't expect that there would be experts..."
He looked at the profile information of Hengxing Company summarized and submitted by Aerospace Technology Group, and shook his head with a nervous look on his face.
"This isn't the end yet..."
Xing Muchun next to him said while flipping through another thicker document:
"Look at the conditions they came up with. The catalog alone is almost fifty pages long..."
"ROGER robot, and solar storm detection data... No, where did they get these things?"
He was originally engaged in the overall design of rockets. Starting from the second half of 2004, he was directly attracted by Chang Haonan to participate in the hypersonic missile project. Therefore, he did not have much communication with the European side and did not know the details of this stellar company.
Fortunately, Zhou Pingjian is quite clear about this:
"The Stellar Company is nothing more than a white glove... If there is only the orbital cleaning robot, it may also be the lone behavior of the company's senior management and some ESA staff, but with the latter item, it 100% represents the European Space Agency. The official attitude of the space bureau is that the other party is worried that we will not be able to accomplish anything, so they have not contacted us through official channels.”
"Next, as long as Academician Chang can lead us to overcome a few key nodes, I think the Europeans will rush to find him..."
Chang Haonan's initial purpose was to use this opportunity to open the door to international cooperation for China Aerospace, but before that he was somewhat worried that the Europeans were not strong enough.
Now that I have the certificate of investment from Hengxing Company, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief.
"No matter whose white glove he is, since he is standing on our ship, he must give full benefits."
He put down the information in his hand, reached out and tapped the Hengxing Company's LOGO on the cover:
“I’ll have a chance to ask the other party later if they can provide two aerospace-grade cameras with high enough resolution. One of them needs to be wide-angle and the other needs to be telephoto. They need to be integrated on the same image module and compact enough. ”
Zhou Pingjian didn’t react for a while:
"This thing is not difficult, and it is not a core module of the mission. We have very mature solutions in China... At most, it is just a little worse in terms of zoom performance or color accuracy, but it will certainly not have a big impact on the actual effect... ”
"I know."
Chang Haonan waved his hand, indicating that the other party misunderstood what he meant:
"Just because it is not a core functional module, I am going to hand it over to Hengxing Company to complete it."
This time, Xing Muchun, who had been working with him for more than a year, was the first to figure it out:
"Do you want to live broadcast the entire process of dealing with space debris to the whole world like the previous Shenzhou-5 mission?"
"That's right!"
Zhou Pingjian suddenly figured it out:
"The Americans' live broadcast of anti-satellite broadcasts almost brought an irreparable disaster to the International Space Station. Our live broadcast of cleaning up space junk is a dual response to them both technically and politically. As long as we can guarantee success, it will definitely be heard by the whole world. Clear ears! ”
It should be said that the two people have now thought of the third level. But Chang Haonan stood on the fifth floor:
"Yes...but not entirely."
As he spoke, he leaned forward and closed the distance between him and the two deputy mission commanders:
"Although the conditions for aerospace commercialization in our country are not yet mature, we can learn from the advantages of market-oriented operations in developed countries..."
"Imagine if we set up an advertising space on the live camera..."
Almost visible to the naked eye, Zhou Pingjian and Xing Muchun took a breath of cold air at the same time.
Wild.
This road is too wild.
But in the next moment, Zhou Pingjian realized the risks involved:
"But Academician Chang, there has never been any precedent in our country to embed commercial advertisements in aerospace missions... In addition, you are too young and may not know that when conditions were the most difficult in the 1990s, some people actually proposed to use them during the Long March. Advertising spaces were embedded on the surface of the rocket body and auctioned, but later the impact was not very good, and the relevant suggestions were directly rejected..."
"Academician Chang, you are now in a position of great concern, and your future is limitless... When it comes to money, especially commercial money, it is best to be cautious."
Anyone with a brain can hear it. This is definitely a well-intentioned reminder.
Therefore, Chang Haonan nodded very solemnly to indicate that he understood.
"Don't worry, Chief Master Zhou, I'm not prepared to take such a big step in one step..."
“This advertising space is not up for auction, but is provided directly to lens module suppliers.”
Xing Muchun, who was also a little worried just now, suddenly understood:
"So... Hengxing Company... is equivalent to buying horse bones for a thousand dollars?"
"Judging from the statements made by various national aerospace departments this time, there is definitely more than one European Space Agency that has the idea of cooperating with us."
Chang Haonan explained:
"The reason why there is no action is that, in addition to worrying that we will not be able to achieve things as Commander Zhou said just now, another important factor is that the interests of the aerospace industry are indeed not big enough and it is difficult to provide enough motivation... In this case, we will Use Stellar to give them a look.”
When he turned his attention to Zhou Pingjian again, he saw that the latter had taken out a notebook from somewhere and started writing furiously.
"Lao Zhou, don't rush to remember... there is another thing."
Speaking of this, Chang Haonan showed a little tangle on his face:
"I am not going to use the Long March rocket to complete this launch mission..."
Zhou Pingjian stopped writing instantly.
Xing Muchun also raised his head again in disbelief.
"Our country's current preparation time for space launches is still relatively long, and the launch windows of the three major launch sites from June to August are very tight. If we force the queue to be cut in the middle, it will interfere with rocket production tasks and space launch tasks. It will be big.”
This is a real problem.
In fact, when Chang Haonan initially set the six-month deadline, the two of them had relevant concerns.
However, the space agency promised at the time that it would prioritize ensuring the launch of the space fishing boat project into orbit at all costs.
So I didn’t mention it.
"But this mission is too symbolic. It might not be appropriate to launch it with a foreign rocket..."
Xing Muchun frowned slightly, seeming to be thinking of a solution that had the best of both worlds.
"Of course it won't work with foreign rockets."
Chang Haonan said:
"So my idea is to apply to the superiors to transform a Dongfeng 31 ballistic missile into a solid fuel rocket...the payload is changed from the warhead to a satellite, and then to a larger fairing, approaching from Qiong Province or Yuesheng Launch the missile directly into orbit from the equator’s launch position!”
(End of chapter)