The military-industrial scientific research system of the academic master

However, compared to the people from all over the world who were either partying or feeling disappointed in front of the TV, the atmosphere in the CIC of the cruiser Charlotte was not as optimistic as imagined.

The interception was undoubtedly successful.

The MK142 kinetic energy warhead accurately hit the UARS satellite in the adjusted orbit, completing an unprecedented anti-satellite, or it can be said to be an anti-missile mission——

The target is different from the trajectory of ordinary satellites, but is in a rapid descent process similar to the end of a ballistic missile.

Obviously, this is a clear signal to deter China, or any country that hopes to threaten the United States through medium-range ballistic missiles.

Although this modified Standard 3 costs tens of millions of dollars, it is difficult to mass-produce and equip.

At least it's hard to match the number of ballistic missiles.

But it is enough to make opponents worry a little more before taking military risks.

But the trouble is.

Missed.

Or to a certain extent, it can be said that the shot was too accurate.

In order to make it easier for viewers to understand, after the collision, the schematic diagram used in the television broadcast will directly show that both signals disappear at the same time.

But that doesn’t mean that everything is really gone after the two things collide.

In addition to the debris that was too small to be seen by the measurement and control system, the radar also captured about 30-40 effective signals.

This is of course normal.

After a brief period of confusion, the interception system quickly recalculated the new trajectories of these large fragments.

As expected, they will quickly fall into the atmosphere due to losing their first cosmic velocity.

However, just when the surroundings were filled with joy, Major General Hawke's sharp eyes spotted a particularly obvious signal.

In the first ten seconds after successful interception, its operating status seemed to be no different from other fragments.

But as time slowly stretches out, it is not difficult to see that this signal has actually entered a new track.

Slightly lower than the 490km where the collision occurred.

But because it doesn't lose much speed, it can still maintain operating altitude, at least for a short period of time.

It is equivalent to a sudden and irregular trajectory change.

This is very scary.

Hawke, who was feeling a little nervous, quickly contacted the Air Force Space Command.

"This is the USS Shiloh. I am Rear Admiral Paul Hawke, the formation commander. I request to speak directly to General Lance Lord immediately!"

He almost snatched the intercom from the correspondent's hand.

On the other side of the radio, a steady voice sounded:

"I'm Lance Lord."

Hawke's voice trembled a little:

"Admiral, I saw on the radar message..."

Before he finished speaking, he was directly interrupted by the other party:

"I know."

Hawke was stunned when he heard this:

"But why...is this different from the pre-calculated result?"

The United States has never been afraid of condemnation, but it is one thing to produce hundreds or thousands of insignificant little fragments. It is another thing to create something that looks like a quarter of the size of a satellite and is changing its orbit randomly.

Although the entire operation was planned by the Air Force, it was Paul Hawke who gave the final launch order.

If something goes wrong, the pot will never be thrown clean.

However, Lord seemed quite calm:

"We have roughly speculated the reason... In order to minimize the size and weight of the warhead, LEAP's seeker uses a monochromatic long-wave infrared seeker, which has limited target identification capabilities, and the missile guidance system is designed At that time, a fault-tolerant compensation mechanism was chosen to prioritize the hit rate, ensuring that the warhead would be targeted at the location with the highest infrared signal strength. "

"Of course, the trajectory of this launch is very precise. When the seeker captures the target, the infrared signal almost appears in the middle of the field of view. The four attitude control engines for lateral movement are almost not used. Only one has been When a malfunctioning satellite adjusts its orbit significantly, the point with the strongest infrared signal is not the center part under normal circumstances, but relatively close to the tail..."

"Moreover, the warhead, which originally had a guidance accuracy of about 0.15 meters, performed exceptionally this time. It hit the edge of the satellite without any bias and tore off a huge solar cell sail panel from the main structure. That's the signal you saw. ”

Perhaps infected by the other party's calmness, Hawke's mentality calmed down slightly:

"Well, now that the reasons have been analyzed, I think the problem shouldn't be big... In any case, the interception itself is at least a complete success."

He breathed a sigh of relief and sat back down in the command position.

After a pause, he asked again:

"Can you confirm the new orbit data of this fragment now? I can't see it here..."

Lord was very patient:

"Charloy is connected to the C2BMC system. If you can't see it, it means that it has flown out of the detection range of our anti-missile reconnaissance system... But don't worry, I am contacting NASA to check their monitoring Is there any news from the station? I really can’t wait until the next cycle. How can I calculate it..."

"..."

…

at the same time.

International Space Station, Zvezda service module.

Marcus Pontes woke up from his sleep. After checking the time on the computer, he pushed open the hard sleep cabin door at hand and prepared to start a new "day" of work.

Of course, although it is called work, as the first astronaut in Brazilian history, his flight is more symbolic.

So there is no specific task to complete.

At most, he just helps his colleagues in NASA on the Destiny test module.

When he left the sleeping module with unskilled movements, Pavel Vinogradov, who was resting next door, had finished his first meal of the day and brought two tubes of toothpaste-like food to Pontes.

Although after entering the 21st century, the variety of space food is no longer as monotonous as in the early years, for convenience, astronauts who stay in the space station for a long time sometimes take the initiative to choose the simplest kind of life sign maintenance meal.

Don't worry about the taste, you will definitely not starve to death.

But for Pontes who just came up, even such food is fresh enough.

"To be honest, you came at a bad time."

Vinogradov patted Pontes on the shoulder.

Due to weightlessness, this action directly caused the latter to fly far away:

"I heard that in the Soyuz TMA-9 mission in the second half of this year, astronauts will be allowed to bring low-alcohol liquor into space, so life will be much more interesting..."

After that, he opened the service hatch and prepared to enter the Unity node cabin through the next-door Zarya functional cargo bay to meet with his colleagues from NASA on the opposite side.

Pontes was still struggling to adjust his posture at this time, and he felt numb when he heard this:

"Uh... I don't really like drinking."

He heard that Russian astronauts have always been fierce and have done hard-core work of manually docking non-cooperative target spacecraft.

"Is alcohol the secret?"

Pontes ate toothpaste while letting himself go in his brain, thinking about how to accurately complete the docking if he was operating a spacecraft and faced a fast and rolling out-of-control spacecraft.

But just thinking about it made me feel creepy.

Neither the space station nor the spacecraft is a standard cylinder. The cabins and solar panels scattered around are like tree branches. If you are not careful in operation, you will end up with the ship destroyed and people killed.

For no reason, he shuddered.

A spinning solar panel seemed to appear in front of him.

"No... I am hallucinating."

Pontes tapped his head lightly, as if he wanted to throw away all the random thoughts just now.

But the solar panel in front of him was still there.

? ? ?

"Am I sick?"

He had a bad premonition.

Getting sick in space is a big trouble, especially his current symptoms, which are suspected to be mental problems.

Just when Pontes was struggling with whether to report his "illness" to the ground truthfully, he heard a sharp Russian roar from the direction of the Dawn, which had not yet closed the door:

"Сукаблядь, what was that just now?"

Vinogradov's voice was almost distorted.

Then there was a burst of English:

"It seems that a solar panel flew over us?"

Only then did he realize that what he had just seen was not an illusion.

There really was a solar panel that came from nowhere, flying past in an orbit not much higher than the International Space Station.

Next, there was a silence that lasted for several seconds.

Then there was another English voice:

"Houston, this is the International Space Station."

"I think we are in big trouble..."