Chapter 1250 Houston, We Are in Big Trouble

Chapter 1250 Houston, We Are in Big Trouble

However, compared to the spectators from various countries who were either celebrating or feeling disappointed in front of their TVs, the atmosphere inside the CIC of the USS Charlotte was not as optimistic as one might imagine.

The interception was undoubtedly successful.

The MK142 kinetic warhead accurately hit the UARS satellite on its adjusted orbit, completing an unprecedented anti-satellite, or anti-missile mission.

The target is not in the orbit of an ordinary satellite, but is in a rapid descent similar to the terminal end of a ballistic missile.

Obviously, this is a clear deterrent signal for China, or any country that hopes to threaten the United States with 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 is difficult to compare with the number of ballistic missiles.

But it is enough to make opponents more cautious before taking military risks.

But the trouble is.

Missed.

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

To make it easier for viewers to understand, after a collision occurs, the schematic diagram used in the TV broadcast will directly show that the two signals disappear at the same time.

But it doesn't mean that everything is gone after the two things collide.

Excluding debris that was so small that the measurement and control system could not see it, the radar also captured about 30-40 valid signals.

This is of course normal.

After a brief moment 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 the loss of first cosmic velocity.

However, when everyone was in a festive mood, Major General Hawke noticed a particularly obvious signal.

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

But as time goes by, it is not difficult to see that this signal has actually entered a new orbit.

Slightly lower than the 490km where the collision occurred.

But because it did not lose much speed, it could still maintain its operating altitude, at least for a short period of time.

It was equivalent to a sudden and irregular change of track.

This is very scary.

Feeling a little scared, Hawke quickly contacted the Air Force Space Command.

"This is the USS Shiloh, I'm the fleet commander, Rear Admiral Paul Hawke, and I'd like to speak directly to General Lance Lord immediately!"

He almost snatched the intercom from the operator.

A steady voice came from the other side of the radio:

"I'm Lance Lord."

Hawke's voice trembled a little:

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

Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by the other party:

"I know."

Hawke was stunned when he heard this:

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

The United States has never been afraid of condemnation, but producing hundreds or thousands of insignificant little pieces of debris is one thing, and creating a thing that looks a quarter the size of a satellite and is randomly changing its orbit is another.

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

If something really goes wrong, you won't be able to completely pass on the blame.

However, Lord seemed quite calm:

"We have roughly guessed the reason... In order to reduce the size and weight of the warhead to the maximum, the LEAP seeker uses a monochromatic long-wave infrared seeker, which has limited target recognition capabilities. The missile guidance system was designed with a fault-tolerant compensation mechanism that prioritizes hit rate, ensuring that the warhead will be controlled to aim at the part with the strongest infrared signal."

"Of course, the orbit of this launch was very precise. When the seeker captured the target, the infrared signal appeared almost in the middle of the field of view. The four attitude control engines used for lateral movement were almost not used. It's just that when a satellite that has already failed to function adjusts its orbit significantly, the point where the infrared signal is strongest is not in the center as normal, but relatively close to the tail..."

"Moreover, the warhead, which originally had a guidance accuracy of about 0.15 meters, performed exceptionally well this time, hitting the edge of the satellite squarely, tearing a huge solar panel off the main structure. That's the signal you saw."

Perhaps influenced by the other party's calmness, Hawke's mentality also calmed down a little:

"Well, now that the cause has been analyzed, I think the problem should not be serious... In any case, the interception itself was at least completely successful."

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

After a pause, he asked again:

"Can you determine the new orbital data of this fragment? I can't see it here..."

Lord was very patient:

"The Charlotte is connected to the C2BMC system. If you can't see it, it means it has already flown out of the detection range of our anti-missile reconnaissance system... But don't worry, I'm contacting NASA to see if their monitoring station has any news. If not, we can wait until the next cycle. We can figure it out anyway..."

"..."

……

at the same time.

International Space Station, Zvezda Service Module.

Marcus Pontes woke up from his sleep, confirmed the time on the computer, pushed open the hard sleeping cabin door next to him, 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 was just helping his NASA colleagues on the Destiny laboratory module.

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

Although after entering the 21st century, the variety of space food is no longer as monotonous and boring as in the early years, for convenience reasons, astronauts who stay in space stations for a long time sometimes still take the initiative to choose the simplest kind of vital signs maintenance meals.

Don't worry about how it tastes, you won't starve to death.

But for Pontes who had just arrived, even this kind of food was fresh enough.

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

Vinogradov patted Pontes on the shoulder.

Due to weightlessness, this action 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. That way life will be much more interesting..."

After saying that, he opened the service hatch and prepared to enter the Unity node module through the adjacent Dawn functional cargo bay to have a routine meeting with his colleagues from NASA across the street.

Pontes was still struggling to adjust his posture, and he felt numb when he heard these words:

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

He heard that Russian astronauts have always been very aggressive and had even performed the tough and arduous task of manually docking with non-cooperative target spacecraft.

"Is alcohol the secret?"

While eating toothpaste, Pontes was letting himself wander in his mind, thinking about how he could accurately dock a spacecraft that was spinning at high speed and out of control if he were operating it.

But just thinking about it makes me feel uneasy.

Neither the space station nor the spacecraft is a standard cylinder. The modules and solar panels scattered around are like tree branches. If the operation is not careful, the ship will be destroyed and people will die.

For no reason, he shuddered.

A spinning solar panel seemed to appear before my eyes.

"No...I'm hallucinating."

Pontes tapped his head gently, as if to throw away all the random thoughts he had just had.

But the solar panels in front of me are still there.

???

"Am I sick?"

He had a bad feeling.

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

Just as Pontes was struggling over whether to report his "illness" truthfully to the ground, he heard a sharp roar in Russian coming from the direction of the Aurora, which had not yet closed its door:

"cyka6лrдь, what was that just now?"

Vinogradov's voice was almost distorted.

This was followed by a burst of English:

"It looked like a solar panel flew over us?"

It was not until this moment that he realized that what he had just seen was not an illusion.

Instead, there really was a solar panel that came from nowhere and was flying through an orbit not much higher than the International Space Station.

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

Then another English voice:

"Houston, this is the International Space Station."

"I think we're in big trouble..."