The military-industrial scientific research system of the academic master.

Almost at the same time

Across the ocean.

2 Independence Plaza, Washington, DC

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe was leaning back in his office chair, holding an analysis document that had been forwarded from the Office of External Relations.

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

As a veteran aerospace administration and space research organization, NASA should be familiar with completing such a report.

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

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

As Shenzhou V is a manned spacecraft that has been promoted by China for a long time, there is nothing to hide 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 tasks. It is basically to verify the precautions of human activities in space and accumulate management experience of large-scale space programs.

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

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

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

Needless to say, the disintegration and crash of Columbia 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 preliminary conclusion so far is that holes appeared on the outer shell of the space shuttle, causing ultra-high temperature gases to enter the space shuttle during re-entry into the atmosphere, ultimately leading to the tragedy.

However, the origin of the hole itself is still a matter of debate.

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

But for him personally, such a major disaster occurring 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 work time.

It was not until May that they finally waited for the Soyuz TM-10 spacecraft to take them home.

As a result, something went wrong during this mission.

Although it did not result in serious consequences such as the destruction of the ship and loss of life, the final landing point of the spacecraft deviated from the planned area by 400 kilometers and was not discovered until two hours after landing.

Fortunately, the spacecraft's requirements for the site are not as stringent as those of the space shuttle, and it still maintained a normal landing posture.

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

But no matter what, the consecutive accidents in the United States and Russia have made people somewhat concerned about manned space flight.

Against this background, if China's Shenzhou V mission is a great success, it will undoubtedly create a sharp contrast.

Especially for NASA, it will be quite embarrassing.

You should know that the reason NASA gave in 1994 when rejecting China's application to join the International Space Station project was that the latter did not have the relevant technical capabilities, and that astronauts from the United States and Russia could use each other's spacecraft as backups, which was foolproof in terms of safety and did not require the participation of a third means of transportation between the earth and the sky.

This didn't seem to be a big problem at the time.

But today, nine years later, it turned into a boomerang and stabbed Chief O'Keefe in the back...

Therefore, he was reluctant to talk more about Shenzhou V.

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 thought in his heart, he had to come out and congratulate his Chinese colleagues for the sake of face.

As for congratulations... then you will inevitably be asked questions by reporters who are willing to take the trouble.

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

For example, "What do you think of the decision to refuse China from joining the space station project?"

Thinking of this, Mr. Director just felt a headache -

How can I see it?

It’s not like I want to refuse!

"Ugh……"

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

Just at this moment, there was a knock on the door.

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

Before he could even open his mouth, the latter hurriedly placed the papers in his hand on the desk:

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

"Uh……"

O'Keefe's spellcasting was interrupted, so he had to look down.

It's still material related to Shenzhou V.

"Daniel, the secretary has just given these to me..."

He pointed to the first report he had just put down and signaled to the other party:

"Technically it's just OK, nothing to worry about. What I'm worried about now is the public opinion..."

"No, this time is different..."

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

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

"What kind of work can there be on a spaceship..."

Almost subconsciously, O'Keefe sneered with some disdain.

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

The Huaxia models are certainly different products, but there is no difference in terms of size.

It can only accommodate three people and is 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 the development of space shuttles.

Larger size and greater carrying capacity.

It can even perform some military tasks.

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

"live streaming?"

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

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

And his expression gradually became strange.

Although the work done by the Chinese is not worthy of much 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 also very likely that some "useful" parts will be included.

For example, some habitual details shown in the communication process between heaven and earth are very valuable analysis resources for professionals.

"Go and have a look."

O'Keefe, who didn't care much at first, now had a 180-degree change in his 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, the China News Channel was playing.

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

It's just that there is a slight delay compared to China.

The images inside the cabin have just begun to be played.

So, everyone took their seats and stared at the situation on the screen.

At this time, the eighth round of flight just started.

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

This is exactly what O'Keeffe is most interested in.

But, since there is no translation, I can’t 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.

"Talking to family on the ground."

"That should be over soon... If they mention anything technical, remember to translate it for me right away."

O'Keefe quickly instructed.

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

In the propaganda process, Americans also like to use this form.

However, the signal resources are limited, so I certainly can’t really talk on the phone with you for a long time.

So it was basically just a formality and was over in a few minutes.

"From the perspective of the cabin environment, it seems that there is not much difference from the Alliance spacecraft?"

Another technician nearby suddenly spoke up.

Malville, who was sitting behind, shook his head:

"This is their return capsule. There isn't any mission payload, so it's normal that there's no obvious difference... We still have to look at what they call the orbital module... or the space station in the future."

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.

All of a sudden, everyone began to express their opinions on the progress of the Chinese.

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

But I found that the picture seemed to have not changed much from before.

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

Due to the limited amount of footage that can be made public, reusing footage is a common practice.

"no……"

But Hannah gave a negative answer:

"They just displayed the flags of China and the United Nations, and also used special space pens to write, and also displayed space food... And I have to admit that the space food prepared by the Chinese is indeed of many varieties..."

"..."

"and many more……"

Hannah was interrupted by O'Keefe halfway through her speech:

"Are you sure these processes are coherent?"

"of course."

Hannah nodded somewhat puzzledly.

But in a flash, she realized that something was wrong.

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

Twenty years ago, NASA built a network of synchronous orbit relay satellites that covers more than 80% of the orbit, making it no problem to carry out high-throughput signal transmission for more than ten or even dozens of minutes.

So no one noticed anything unusual just now.

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

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

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

O'Keefe immediately made his judgment, then turned to look at Malville:

"Dan, summarize all of China's space launch missions from last year... no, from the past three years, and report to me as soon as possible!"