Chapter 1469: People who conquered the stars (first update, please subscribe)
Our journey is the stars and the sea!
This sea of stars refers generally to new areas and new journeys. After everyone sets a goal, they will regard it as the stars and the sea.
But there is one place where their journey is indeed a sea of stars.
The sky seemed to be suffocated by thick lead clouds, and an unexpected rainstorm poured down like a torrent, shrouding the world in a hazy water curtain.
At the Wanhujiao launch site, cars were parked in the parking lot. Although it was raining heavily, thousands of people were still standing there looking forward to the next launch.
Today is the day the Prometheus 1 rocket is launched.
The Prometheus rocket has 9 methane oxygen engines, each with a thrust of 135 tons, and the total thrust is 1,215 tons!
Because this is the rocket with the highest thrust in human history, its launch not only attracted the attention of the world, but also attracted many aerospace enthusiasts. They came here from all directions, even from abroad, just to watch the launch.
Raindrops pounded heavily on people's bodies, but they could not dim their enthusiasm.
Because it is the weekend, Zhao Xiangming also came here. This is not the first time he has watched such a launch. Unlike other countries that maintain secrecy, Wanhujiao is open to the public and tourists can enter the non-security area. , and each launch will be announced in advance, and space enthusiasts can watch the launch in a designated area.
This has even given rise to space tourism.
And Zhao Xiangming is such a tourist. He occasionally casts his gaze to the dark clouds in the distance, and then says:
“It’s raining so heavily, I don’t know when it will stop.”
"Yeah, if it doesn't stop raining, the rocket won't be able to launch."
Guo Linghang, who was wearing a raincoat, also said something, and then a girl's voice came from behind them.
"Brother Guo, if the rain doesn't stop, won't we be able to launch satellites?"
Zhang Yuting, holding an umbrella in her hand, asked as she looked at the heavy rain.
"Yuting, launching a satellite depends on the weather. Even if the weather is good, you have to wait for the launch window,"
Although I am an outsider in aerospace, I still have a little understanding of some of the terminology because I have watched live broadcasts of satellite launches on TV.
Zhang Yuting asked with some confusion.
"Launch window? What is this?"
"A time range that is more suitable for rocket launch is called the launch window. The width of the window can be wide or narrow. The wide one is measured in hours or even days, and the narrow one is only tens of seconds, or even more or shorter."< br>
While Guo Linghang was explaining, he looked at the girl next to him and said:
"You will know after you watch the launch a few more times, and there are also popular science materials in the school library. If you are interested, you can check it out, A Ming..."
At this moment, someone suddenly shouted:
"The rain has lightened up!"
"It seems to be stopping..."
"It's amazing. The weather forecast is amazing now!"
There was awe all around. As an aerospace enthusiast, Zhao Xiangming certainly knew the reason for this.
Since the launch of the first weather satellite a few years ago, weather forecasts have become more and more accurate, especially with the use of large supercomputers and the establishment of new weather models, making weather forecasts more and more accurate.
Like this launch, SpaceX's expected launch window is half an hour later. Although it was raining heavily before, it has stopped now.
"This is the power of science."
Zhao Xiangming sighed in his heart. Like many others, his eyes were looking at the launch pad in the distance, full of expectation.
This is the most powerful rocket in the world.
And today is its first launch!
Although they were far apart, their faces were full of anticipation and excitement, as if at this moment, all the focus was on this huge metal body.
At the Binhai launch site, the rocket is like a giant dragon, standing on the launch pad with its head raised to the sky.
After the dark clouds dispersed, the sun shone on the silver-white shell of the rocket, reflecting dazzling rays of light, as if it was announcing its arrival to the unknown sky.
"Get in position and prepare to launch!"
The launch commander's voice echoed over the launch site, clear and powerful. The staff were busy but in an orderly manner, with concentration and anticipation written on their faces.
"The rocket engine starts normally!"
"The navigation system works fine!"
"The launch countdown begins, ten, nine, eight..."
As the countdown progressed, the atmosphere at the launch site became increasingly tense. People held their breath and stared at the rocket, fearing to miss any moment.
"Three, two, one, ignite!" the commander gave the order, and blazing flames instantly burst out from the bottom of the rocket, and the huge thrust slowly lifted the rocket up. With a deafening roar, the rocket shot straight into the sky like an arrow off the string.
"It's taking off! It's taking off!" cheers erupted from the crowd, waving their arms and jumping as if they were going to fly into space with the rocket.
The rocket drew a long trajectory in the sky, like a meteor streaking across the sky.
Its speed became faster and faster, and soon disappeared from people's sight. But the shock and excitement of that moment will remain in everyone's heart forever. "Successful! We succeeded!" Cheers burst out, and people's faces were filled with happy smiles. People cheered there for the success of the rocket launch!
The joy of this moment enveloped everyone's heart.
At the same time, in front of a nearby satellite communication broadcast truck, a reporter said to the camera lens:
"With the successful launch of Prometheus 1, we have taken the first step towards the moon - "Prometheus" will take us to the moon in the future."
……
The Prometheus rocket launched successfully!
After watching the live broadcast of the rocket launch on the TV, Korolev walked out of the conference room silently.
Then he just stood there. Smoking silently, even though the Prometheus rocket launched this time only has nine engines.
But he could still feel that the Soviet Union was lagging behind them in terms of progress.
"Each Prometheus rocket has nine methane oxygen engines. In the future, they will use three Prometheus rockets to be connected in parallel to form one "Prometheus" to complete the moon landing mission!"
He stared up at the sky and listened to the footsteps behind him. Korolev said without looking back.
"Now that they have completed the launch of the first Prometheus, within the next two to three years, they are likely to complete the launch of the moon landing rocket."
"What about us? When will we be able to launch our rocket?"
After hearing this, the general asked.
"So can we launch in advance? Can we launch in advance? We must overtake them as early as possible."
"General, until now the first-stage rocket has not conducted ground experiments..."
Looking at the falling snowflakes, Korolev said:
"30 rocket engines are used in parallel. Its technical difficulty is far more than the nine rocket engines of Prometheus, and it is also very expensive. If the experiment fails, we will lose 30 engines..."
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Korolev's brows furrowed. Deep down, he was jealous of his American counterparts. This year, those American counterparts received as much as $1.2 billion in grants for their Apollo program.
In contrast, the funds he received were very limited. In fact, without Khrushchev's support, the "Moon Landing Plan" would probably be difficult to proceed with. Because the military is not very interested in the moon landing plan, it is more willing to build missiles than to land on the moon.
After all, for the military, missiles are the most important thing. Some marshals even believed that the moon landing plan occupied a large amount of funds and affected the speed of the military's missile manufacturing.
Under this situation, Korolev did not dare to take risks easily. On the one hand, he was afraid that the experiment would fail. It gave the military an excuse to terminate the moon landing plan. On the other hand, they are worried that after the ground experiment fails, there will not be sufficient funds for the next step.
Therefore, Korolev is very depressed now. He does not have sufficient funds, which will obviously affect the entire moon landing plan.
But without some success, it will be difficult to convince the military to continue supporting their research in this area.
In this case, any choice is very risky.
If the ground experiment fails, it will become more difficult to win support from the military.
But now with the launch of Prometheus over there, there is no way to convince them to support this plan with certain progress.
Now, all Korolev can do is conduct a ground experiment.
Even a failed experiment shows Moscow that they are moving forward with this plan.
After taking a long puff of cigarette, Korolev whispered in his heart:
"May God bless everything and everything can be implemented smoothly!"
In fact, for all scientific research, the biggest factor restricting it is money first, and money second.
Only with sufficient funds can corresponding research be carried out, otherwise everything will be empty talk.
On the third day after the successful launch of Prometheus 1, three satellites with a total weight of more than 25 tons-a communication satellite, a weather satellite and a reconnaissance satellite were launched into space at Baianu. At the Seoul launch site, following Korolev's order, the first stage of the Soviet Union's N1 giant rocket conducted its first ground test.
After 32 seconds of testing, the first stage of the rocket lived up to expectations and failed. Fortunately, when the sensor sent a fault signal, they cut off the fuel supply. Otherwise, a violent explosion would have shaken the entire launch site.
But even the same thing made Korolev's face turn pale, and he just said to himself in the face of such failure.
"Fortunately, this was just a ground test. At least we didn't explode in mid-air like the Americans did."
Just yesterday - NASA also launched a rocket - Saturn 5, which is the United States' moon landing rocket.
This was also the first launch, apparently in response to the launch of the Manhu Cape Prometheus.
In this world, competition is everywhere. In a place where these three look up to the stars and try to conquer the sea of stars, the competition between them is silent and equally fierce.
The launch followed by the Americans lived up to expectations and exploded in the air.
Now, this failure at the Baianur launch site is not an exception, it is just one of the failures.
"Besides, they only succeeded 30% of the time."
Korolev comforted everyone in this way, looking at the destroyed test bench in the distance, he said:
"At least, now we have discovered some problems through this test run..."
What Korolev didn't know was that in another world, he had no chance to see the ground test of the first stage - in fact, due to lack of funds and lack of time, only 30 of the first stage engines were tested. 1/4 of the test was conducted, and no complete ground test was conducted at all.
At least, now, they discovered the problem immediately!
(End of chapter)