Chapter 1096 Conducting aerial reconnaissance on China?

After receiving the order, Malville quickly got up and left.

O'Keefe quickly turned his attention back to the TV screen.

However, compared to the content, this time, he was more concerned about the length of the program.

He even took off his watch and put it aside.

One minute.

Two minutes...

In the end, this mediocre live broadcast lasted for about eighteen minutes and thirty seconds before the screen was finally cut off.

Inside the studio, the show returned to the format of a normal talk show.

Almost immediately, Hannah Geringer, who had just been asked, also raised her head:

"I just checked and found that during the duration of the program, the target spacecraft should be operating in the corresponding orbit between the eastern coastal area of ​​China and the central Pacific region."

"This result basically corresponds to the lighting conditions presented in the picture."

To put it bluntly, it is real live broadcast.

It is not made by splicing and editing pictures.

However, this somewhat peculiar location confuses many people.

After all, most of the locations in this section do not even correspond to the sky above China.

And no matter what kind of black technology, it is impossible to support such a long signal transmission——

Even if there are synchronous orbit relay satellites, it is unlikely to be located above the vast ocean.

"I remember... China should have a tracking and control station in the Pacific Ocean?"

After a period of silence, someone suddenly asked.

The signals from synchronous orbit satellites are not easy to capture on the ground. Therefore, even for the United States, which has the TDRS relay satellite system, ground-to-space communications still need to revolve around ground tracking and control stations.

However, someone soon explained:

"Thanks to our... uh... efforts, they will soon withdraw from that tracking and control station. Now there is only one offshore measurement ship."

China's Pacific Tracking and Control Station was built in 1996, and in the following years it supported the completion of a number of space launch missions, including the first four Shenzhou spacecraft and BeiDou-.

However, due to its sensitive location, the US has always been worried that this tracking and control station would become a tool to monitor its missile tests.

Therefore, in the current year of 2003, the situation here is turbulent.

Although the outcome has not yet been determined, it is already difficult for the tracking and control station to function normally.

Seeing that the topic was getting more and more off topic, O'Keefe quickly coughed twice.

After all, it is not fair to do something behind the scenes on someone else's territory:

"Although these images are claimed to be live, there is a high probability that there is a delay of more than ten minutes... The actual location where it happened should be directly above the territory of China, so there is nothing strange about it."

This explanation is reasonable.

After a pause, O'Keeffe continued:

"But... even if that's the case, nearly 20 minutes of continuous communication does not conform to the distribution pattern of their tracking and control stations at all... This means that they must have some actions in the construction of aerospace infrastructure that we are not aware of..."

Space infrastructure...

After hearing this word, the atmosphere at the scene suddenly became tense.

Everyone immediately understood why O'Keeffe was so serious.

In fact, for NASA, or for the United States, launching just one Shenzhou V spacecraft would at most be a face-saving move.

It won't pose any real threat.

Although it is said to be "the third country to independently achieve manned space flight."

But the value of this third place is still a bit obvious compared to the first and second places.

It is mainly reflected in basic abilities.

China currently has neither rockets with sufficient carrying capacity nor a satellite network sufficient to support a complete space operations system.

Even experience in large-scale space projects is lacking.

It is still impossible for most countries to choose to cooperate with them on a large scale.

And all along, there has been nothing wrong with this idea.

Both the International Space Station and the cooperation between China and Europe on satellite positioning systems were ultimately ruined without a doubt.

In the field of aerospace, China can still only play on its own.

And it is precisely because of this "no threat" premise that Americans are willing to show some magnanimity for the sake of face.

But now, everyone at NASA suddenly realized that they were not in control of the overall situation as they had imagined...

If we allow the other party to build the aerospace infrastructure.

Even if it's just a less functional version.

It also gives others another choice.

As for the consequences of doing so...

Colleagues in the aviation manufacturing industry have already demonstrated it to them once.

Perhaps China alone cannot pose a huge threat in the short term.

But the other party can rely on the huge market and some magical technology that they got from nowhere to help other opponents at the same table...

In short, the problem is huge.

……

It must be admitted that Malville acted quite quickly.

Of course, in China at that time, there were only a few launch missions a year, and some of them were purely commercial launches of foreign payloads, so it was not difficult to count them.

So, before the interview segment on television was even finished, a summary sheet was placed in front of O'Keefe.

But faced with this form, everyone was at a loss for a moment.

Among the not-so-long list, there are only a handful of geosynchronous orbit satellites that meet the requirements.

The vast majority of them have very clear functions and obviously do not meet the requirements.

The only satellite left that could barely undertake the relay communication mission is ChinaSat 2000, which was launched in 22.

In fact, it would be more accurately called "FH-1".

However, NASA was confused about what this abbreviation meant for a while.

On the surface, ChinaSat-22 should be a civilian satellite responsible for radio and television signal transmission and basic communications services.

But people in the industry generally agree that this satellite is definitely for military use.

Malville also saw everyone's thoughts, but obviously held an opposing opinion:

"Based on the signal characteristics detected in the past, ChinaSat-22 does not have the ability to relay communications to spacecraft. It is just an ordinary communications satellite..."

"But... who knows if there are any new features that have never been used before?"

Hannah frowned immediately:

"Besides, there are no other suspicious persons, right?"

The former obviously wanted to say something more, but the second half of her sentence was so reasonable and well-founded that it was impossible to refute it.

However, others expressed different opinions:

"More than two months ago, they also carried out a MEO orbit launch with four satellites in one rocket. Judging from the time window, it seems even more suspicious..."

What this person was talking about was naturally the Qingluan satellite cluster.

In the publicly available model list, they are called HTS-1 to HTS-4.

However, these four satellites do not have any characteristics of relay satellites.

Therefore, even Malville thought this guess was a bit far-fetched:

"The feasibility of using medium and low orbit satellites for relay communications has been proven to be unfeasible by Iridium..."

Even Hannah, who had just disagreed with him, joined in:

"Moreover, the rocket that launched them has a carrying capacity of less than two tons...which means that these four satellites weigh less than 500 kilograms..."

For a moment, everyone's opinions diverged.

Fortunately, O'Keefe is still in control of the overall situation:

"Never mind which satellite they used..."

Following his statement, the conference room suddenly became quiet.

"Since it is a high-throughput space-to-earth communication...the ground station can't escape."

O'Keefe didn't look up, but just looked at the table and analyzed:

"Based on the communication window just now, the tracking and control station located in the westernmost part of their territory should be the most critical link... and it just so happens that this place is very close to Central Asia."

"So I will apply to them to conduct a reconnaissance flight over this area before their spacecraft returns!"