Chapter 1699: Glory, People Looking to the Future

The next morning, 6:50 am.

A ray of golden winter morning light breaks into the rocket vertical assembly and testing plant.

As the blue gate, which is more than 80 meters high, opened, the Long March C Yao- carrier rocket was shrouded in a layer of golden gauze, which looked particularly spectacular.

On the steel support of the mobile launch platform, the eight bright red slogans "Leaving the cradle and heading towards deep space" are particularly eye-catching and powerful.

Outside the factory, the track under the platform extends like a ladder to the tower in the distance.

At this time, the rocket is shining brightly, and with the umbilical tower, the transfer is about to begin.

The umbilical tower is an important facility on the mobile launch platform.

From the assembly of the rocket to before launch, all the pipes on the umbilical tower will be connected to the rocket, providing the rocket with uninterrupted gas, electricity, liquid and signal supply, so that the rocket is always "online", greatly shortening the rocket's testing time in the launch area.

At 8: a.m. sharp, Wang Yunkai, the person in charge of the mobile launch platform, stood in the control room and scanned all the monitoring screens and status indicators to confirm that everything was ready.

Then, he put the radio to his lips: "Attention everyone! All positions, please reconfirm your status! In five minutes, we will begin the transfer!"

"understand!"

"The tower crane team is in position!"

"Track inspection complete!"

"Platform attitude lock released!"

…A series of clear replies came through the intercom system.

At 8:05, Wang Yunkai took a deep breath and decisively ordered: "Attention everyone, start the transfer! Platform, start!"

"Ugh——!"

The mobile launch platform issued a low and long whistle, announcing the official start of the transfer.

Below the platform, dozens of giant steel wheels taller than humans began to rotate at the same time, carrying a weight of nearly 100 tons (excluding fuel at this time), and pressing steadily on dedicated heavy-duty tracks.

Accompanied by a low roar and the regular sound of metal friction, the entire assembly began to move smoothly along the "Wentian Road" towards the launch tower at an extremely slow speed.

The trail is only about two kilometers long, but it takes nearly three hours to complete.

At around 11 a.m., the mobile launch platform finally arrived at the foot of the Wenchang 101 launch tower.

With a few final short blasts of the whistle, the platform precisely engaged with the docking mechanism at the tower base.

"Docking successful! Locked!".

Immediately afterwards, the launch tower's huge rotating platform and several layers of openable working platforms slowly rotated and closed, like a mother's gentle and powerful arms, firmly holding the rocket and the XS-1 space nuclear reactor detector on its top in its arms.

The rocket officially entered the final preparation stage before launch.

At the other end of the launch site, in the fuel filling area, storage tanks with a capacity of hundreds of cubic meters look like giant capsules.

Hurrying blue figures appeared from time to time in the tank room. The conversations to confirm the status of the tanks mixed with the sounds of valves working made the originally quiet storage area a little noisy.

"Liquid oxygen tank A pressure is stable!"

"Pre-cooling of the liquid hydrogen main line is complete!"

"The kerosene tank temperature is normal!"

As early as a day ago, the liquid oxygen, kerosene and liquid hydrogen that were about to be injected into the rocket had begun the complex pre-cooling process.

At this moment, they have completely reached an ultra-low temperature liquid state close to boiling point and are in the best filling state.

At 14: PM, the voice of He Ping, commander of the refueling system, finally rang out:

"Report from the back-end control room: All units of the kerosene filling system are confirmed to be in good condition. Personnel are in place and the pipelines are ready..."

"Command Center received the approval and agreed to start the refueling."

"understand!"

He Ping's eyes were fixed on the main screen of the console, and he issued instructions in an orderly manner:

"Kerosene system attention, start initial velocity filling!"

The order was given, and the huge valve slowly opened under hydraulic drive.

Driven by the pump, aviation kerosene began to flow into the second stage of the rocket core at a lower speed.

In the control room, key parameters such as flow, pressure, and temperature fluctuate in real time, and everything is stable.

"The initial velocity injection is stable, start increasing the flow rate!" He Ping gave decisive orders based on the data changes.

The filling flow rate gradually began to increase, but all monitoring curves continued to run smoothly within the preset safety envelope.

As time passed, the tank's level indicator steadily dropped.

"Report, the theoretical kerosene filling volume has reached 95%!"

"Switch to slow-down filling, precise control!"

A few minutes later: "Target filling volume reached! Close the main filling valve! Start the pipeline drainage procedure!"

At around 4 p.m., the kerosene refueling mission, which lasted nearly two hours, was finally completed. A slight applause rang out in the control room, but the expressions on everyone's faces were not completely relaxed.

Because the more severe and risky low-temperature fuel refueling is still to come.

He Ping rubbed his sore eyes. "Everyone, maintain your posture and rest for an hour. The liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen refueling teams are ready. We will proceed with the second and third phases of refueling as planned later..."

……

Just as the Long March 5C was undergoing final preparations at the Wenchang launch site.

Nearly two thousand kilometers away, deep in the Qinling Mountains.

An important moment also arrived in the Baolongyu rocket engine test area of ​​the Sixth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology.

A huge convoy, led by Li Renping, chief engineer of the Sixth Academy, drove into the heavily guarded gate of the test area.

Ma Yushan, director of the experimental area, had already been waiting in the large square in front of the control building.

Seeing Li Renping get off the minibus, he immediately stepped forward and reported in a loud voice, "Reporting to General Manager Li, all inspection and calibration work on test bench No. 920-3 has been completed 15 days ahead of schedule. The system status has met the standards and fully meets the conditions for the long-range hot test of the YF-177 engine. Testing can begin at any time!"

The pride in his tone was hard to conceal——

Although the construction plan underwent many changes, they still overcame all difficulties and completed the task half a month ahead of the revised delivery time.

Li Renping smiled with satisfaction and nodded: "Old Ma, well done!"

Then he turned around and ordered the technical team following behind him:

"The convoy is parked as planned and the unloading and transfer process has begun!"

Once the order was given, the on-site personnel immediately took action.

A dedicated flatbed trailer with a heavy-duty crane quickly pulled up to the rear of a custom-built van truck at the rear of the convoy. An engineer in work clothes directed the crane's deployment and positioning.

The rear door of the truck opened, revealing the YF-177 rocket engine firmly bound by multiple layers of fixing brackets in the cargo box.

The complex and sophisticated injectors, combustion chambers and huge nozzles reveal a strong sense of power even in the dimly lit compartment.

Li Renping's eyes swept across the busy scene and then fell on Ma Yushan beside him.

He keenly noticed a hint of hesitation on the other person's face, as if he wanted to say something.

"Old Ma, what's wrong?" Li Renping asked directly, "What's the problem?"

Ma Yushan took a deep breath as if he had made up his mind, then lowered his voice and said:

"Mr. Li, I carefully reviewed the test outline and process documents for this mission yesterday, but I noticed... compared to any previous new engine development process, this component-level test project... seems to be significantly simplified."

"Especially for high-risk extreme tests like combustion stability verification and turbopump overspeed and overtemperature, the number of rounds and boundary conditions have been significantly reduced. Isn't this... too risky? After all, this is the heart of the Long March 9, and even the slightest mistake..."

Although the Qinling Mountains were cold in winter, he still broke out in a sweat when he said this.

Obviously, there is still some psychological pressure in questioning your immediate superior so directly.

After hearing this, Li Renping did not show any surprise or dissatisfaction on his face, but instead looked as if he had expected it.

He raised his hand to signal Ma Yushan to wait, then turned around and called his assistant:

"Xiao Chen, take out the document from my briefcase."

The assistant immediately took out a brown paper document bag from the black briefcase he was carrying.

"This isn't me, Old Li, being too eager for quick success. I consulted with my superiors and received approval," Li Renping replied half-jokingly as he handed the file to Ma Yushan. "You'll understand after reading this."

Ma Yushan took the file bag, quickly opened it, pulled out the red-headed document inside, and then quickly scanned the title and content.

As Li Renping said, the simplified testing process was specially approved by the superiors.

And at the end of the document, there are several very important signatures.

Among them, the name of Luan Wenjie, director of the Industrial and Construction Committee, can only be ranked second to last.

"Fuck..." Surprised, Ma Yushan even cursed, "This is really a special approval..."

"In fact, the YF-177 and YF-90 engines adopted completely new theories and methods from the very beginning of their design."

Li Renping explained it in more detail, but still did not mention the general solution of the NS equation.

On the one hand, Ma Yushan is not on the list of Class A informed persons at this time.

On the other hand, the explanation is indeed not very clear.

"In short, the confidence level of its digital prototype, simulation accuracy, and degree of design optimization have all reached levels previously unimaginable... Simply put, the theoretical reliability and performance prediction accuracy of engines designed based on this methodology far surpass any previous engine designs that relied on extensive trial-and-error testing and conservative margins."

"In addition, we will re-evaluate and possibly even revise the engine test acceptance standards for the entire aerospace system based on the test results and maiden flight performance..."

Ma Yushan stared at the three thin pages of paper in front of him in amazement, his heart filled with shock beyond words.

He looked up and saw that the crane had steadily lifted the YF-177 engine from the truck and placed it on a special transport bracket at the back.

The lifting work was just completed.

Seeing this, Li Renping patted Ma Yushan on the shoulder and said, "Over in Wenchang, the Long March 1C is about to be launched, and the XS-4 space reactor will soon be positioned on the L orbit."

"As for whether the other functional modules can be put in place on time, it all depends on whether we can make any mistakes..."