Chapter 226 - 220 There Will Be Some Problems_1

"Mr. Lin, please take a seat over here."

"Ah, thank you."

Inside the launch center, Lin Ju took his seat as a VIP observer in the viewing area for the first time.

Previously in Qiongzhou, it was always New Yuan launching various rockets one after another with him at the control console, but now the roles had finally reversed.

It was now 6:30 AM, and the CZ-10 rocket had already been moved to the launch platform by the mobile launcher, ready for liftoff at 9 AM the same day.

As the core of the Dawn program, the debut launch of CZ-10 garnered the most extensive media coverage, with 4 Central Television Station channels broadcasting live from 6 AM, and major official online media channels doing the same.

By 7 AM, the cumulative number of viewers across all platforms had already surpassed 130 million, reaching about 10% of China’s population.

Globally, it was estimated that at least 300 million people were watching via the internet.

If it were an SLS rocket being launched, perhaps not as many people would be watching, but the space agency has a certain spiritual buff, after all, in people’s minds the gap between CASA and NACA is quite substantial.

The result: CASA’s lunar rocket took to the skies first? Hmm, that doesn’t seem quite right.

China’s aerospace industry is actually leading America!

CZ-10 going from project approval to maiden flight in just 10 months, could it unexpectedly explode?

With various doubts and expectations, this is what made the number of viewers for CZ-10’s first flight break records, even surpassing the broadcast of the Apollo moon landing back then—of course, the present-day media cannot be directly compared to those from decades ago.

Of course, aside from the online audience, the number of foreigners who came to the scene in person also increased sharply.

Mike Griffin stood on the beach again, accompanying Aldrin.

Last time, after the New Yuan-2A’s maiden flight, Buzz Aldrin came to China and never left, waiting for the New Yuan No. 3’s maiden flight.

Seeing as Griffin had nothing else to do, he spent his time with the old man on the mainland, eating and drinking, and was ready to return home at the end of July when he heard that CZ-10 was going to fly.

This was something not to be missed, so the two of them stayed a little longer, all the way until today.

Observing the crowd on the beach which was even bigger than the previous two times, Aldrin stood on the balcony of the small pavilion they had rented in advance and said with emotion:

"May, June, August—Chinese people are set to launch three rockets capable of a moon mission in one year; this is more powerful than America during the Apollo era."

Griffin: "They are now the world’s leading industrial nation, with their industrial output reaching one-third of the global total, it’s unprecedented."

Griffin had become numb to the shock of Qiongzhou’s three giant rocket launches, but he was most concerned this time because CZ-10 was the main competitor in the race; if CZ-10’s maiden flight was successful, it would mean that NACA was actually behind.

His tenure occurred at the turn of the century, and even though NACA’s budget had been greatly slashed at that time, it still had its influence and proposed the extended "Constellation" program.

NACA’s decline was evident for all to see, but what’s the Chinese proverb again? A thin elephant is still bigger than a horse; such a fall from grace should not be befitting of NACA.

"It’s amazing, it’s amazing."

"Long live the space agency!"

"CZ-10 is the best."

"An Asian moon landing."

Griffin’s thoughts were interrupted by the sudden increase in volume of the cheering, and then he looked down with disdain.

Here, a large group of Islanders had gathered, holding banners to bless the CZ-10, occasionally mixing in a few Chinese sentences, creating a noisy scene that was irritating.

However, Aldrin wasn’t bothered at all. To his 80-plus-year-old ears, which were not so sensitive, most of the background noise could be easily filtered out.

He simply bent down slowly, leaning in towards the rented telescope, aiming it at the rocket on the launch pad.

"New Yuan No. 3 has reached the designated position, and communications are normal. Please advise!"

"Continue monitoring, maintain status!"

"Roger!"

Yun Hongjun wore his headset, hands braced on the control console. As the deputy commander of this launch mission, he continually confirmed the status of the rocket and the telemetry system, beads of sweat already apparent on his forehead.

With over an hour until launch, and having slept for only a little over two hours, Yun Hongjun’s eyes were bloodshot, yet he methodically carried out each procedure.

On the huge screen in front of him, the CZ-10 had already been fueled with more than 3000 tons of propellant. The liquid oxygen storage tank relieved pressure through a small opening, causing the vaporized liquid oxygen to freeze the moisture in the air, looking as if several holes had appeared on the rocket’s body, continuously ejecting white gas.

Big Shot and Lin Ju stood not far away, clearly seeing Yun Hongjun’s condition, but they didn’t approach.

The former let out a sigh:

"The CZ-10 mission is too pressured. Seriously speaking, the new technology accounts for over 75%, and theoretically, we shouldn’t operate like this... He too is commanded at a time of crisis. Just being able to build the rocket is already impressive.

If it were up to me to evaluate this rocket before, not exploding on the launch pad would be considered a success."

Lin Ju: "But the CZ-10 cannot afford to fail."

"Yes, it cannot fail."

Big Shot clenched his fists, already feeling his palms fill with sweat.

With half an hour until launch, Lin Ju and the overly young Xie Liaofu stepped out of the range of the live broadcast camera, quietly discussing the maiden flight of the CZ-10.

Lin Ju: "What do you think the success rate of the CZ-10’s maiden flight is?"

Xie Liaofu: "If it were my era, I definitely wouldn’t be optimistic. The time is too short, only 10 months. This is a rocket with a lift-off thrust of 5100 tons. If I were forced to design and manufacture a rocket of this size within a year, I would rather be demoted and teach."

Lin Ju: "By the way, what did you think about the N1 back then?"

The N1 rocket, as the bearer of the Union’s lunar dreams, suffered four consecutive catastrophic explosions that completely shattered those dreams. Many people say that if Korolyov had been alive, things might have been different. Now, it’s indeed possible to ask the man himself.

Xie Liaofu was already aware of the Union’s space program’s development after his death. Even if some details were vague, he knew what had happened. When talking about the N1, he only shook his head:

"I do not like propellants that cause heavy pollution, which is why I designed the N1. But when I died, the N1 was only a draft, far from being ready for official implementation. In hindsight, given the technology of the time, the N1 indeed did not have much chance of success.

However, I now feel that I was too limited in my thinking back then. It was incorrect to imitate the design of the Saturn V with a single rocket body. We should have stuck with our tradition of cluster-type rockets.

Although the NK15 only had a thrust of 150 tons, we didn’t need to arrange so many on the same rocket body. If we let each booster have four NK15s, then clustered six of them together with four more in the core stage, we would still have 28 engines, which seems like a lot, but the vibration would not be nearly as intense.

This setup would still allow a payload capacity of around 100 tons to low Earth orbit, which is sufficient for a lunar mission."

Lin Ju nodded in agreement. Indeed, the rocket philosophies of the Union and China differed significantly from America’s—the former two preferred clustering large liquid boosters, while the latter either used a single large core stage or clustered large solid boosters.

If the N1 had been equipped with multiple boosters, the situation might not have been as bad.

"As for the CZ-10, if I were to evaluate it based on our facility’s manufacturing capabilities, it should be fine. But from a traditional aerospace development standpoint, even with sufficient safety redundancies in place, I still feel there would be some issues."