I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?.

Chapter 154 Dream Chaser

All parties have reacted to the first manned launch mission of Steadfast and the world's first space tourism & space station tourism undertaken by a commercial company.

Foreign wealthy people who booked the "Oriental International" space hotel through Belmond Company worked harder to train at astronaut training centers in Europe and HD.

After the establishment of "Oriental International", the majority was Xinyuan Corporation and Alenia Aerospace Company, while the smaller portion was given to the Belmond Group, and some were distributed, but they were allocated to unexpected buyers.

NACA.

That's right, it's NACA. NACA has subscribed for 3% of the shares and is already a considerable shareholder.

Of course, they did not leave directly, but through a subordinate company, but this was undoubtedly promoted by NACA.

It's amazing, but several major shareholders don't object, which is not a bad thing to a certain extent.

There are currently 39 rich people who have paid deposits, because after the first flight of "Steadfast", the commercial manned plan made some adjustments.

The number of places to go to the space station remains unchanged for the time being. Now only one XS-62 tourist cabin is put into use. A maximum of 5 people will be charged according to the price of Unity. The quotation for a group of 5 people on Steadfast and Unity is US$1300 million per person.

On the contrary, the most expensive thing is the cost of space training, which alone is 800 million US dollars.

If some rich people choose to take a 24-hour space tour instead of going to the space station, they can use the Steadfast to share a flight. With 9 people except the commander, the average seat cost can be reduced to US$640 million.

It only costs US$24 for 1440 hours, which is a bit crowded for 10 people, but it is still enough and no one will complain about it.

When the space hotel manufactured by Alenia Aerospace is launched in the future, the nine seats of the Steadfast can be filled, so that the unit price can be lowered.

The external operation policy of Oriental International Hotel has been widely praised by the rich. There is no increase in the overall launch cost for additional seats. If tourists can attract more people to join a group, the unit price can be reduced.

Even the training fees can be given a small discount, just like Pinduoduo in space.

This is also very attractive to the rich, because for many people they still have the idea of ​​​​going to space for the second or third time. Cheaper is of course a good thing, and any small discount can cost millions of dollars.

The same is true in China. It was only after Lin Ju started operating space tourism that he discovered that there were so many rich people besides the two horses and one king. 9 more people chose the 7-day space station tour, and 12 people chose the 24-hour space tour.

Of course, the one that is actually most ready to move is the ISS.

In March of this year, shortly after Unity replaced the Tiangong crew, ISS carried out its first manned launch mission of the year, which was Lucia's Soyuz spacecraft.

On March 3, TMA-19M successfully sent three astronauts to the International Space Station.

What about TMA-18M?In order to dispel the doubts of the ISS member states, an empty cannon was fired and no one fired it, and hundreds of kilograms of cargo were stuffed into it to send some supplies to the International Space Station.

In fact, all countries also know that the Alliance spacecraft is still reliable after all, but the lion will always open its mouth to make trouble, and it will not be able to fly unless it bleeds.

No one said that Xinyuan Company would be allowed to undertake the launch mission. In fact, after the tripartite moon landing plan was released, NACA tightly tied all member countries with the Artemis plan, and political correctness blocked their mouths.

The Artemis project is an international cooperation project. 12 astronauts from various countries are training. Do you still want to go up?

Only two big players, Yao Guo and Italy, have reached a preliminary cooperation intention with the space agency for lunar exploration. They are more confident but unable to challenge the table.

But after the successful manned launch of Resolute, they became active again.The Steadfast is good, what’s so good about it?There are many people.

The publicly disclosed launch price of Steadfast remains unchanged at US$5000 million. The astronauts to be sent up by the ISS do not require additional training. The average cost per person for a launch of nine people is only about US$9 million.

How many launch missions were undertaken by Xinyuan in September last year per capita? 9 million US dollars, which is another two-thirds drop.

By comparison, the price of a Soyuz spacecraft this year is $5800 million per person.

Therefore, Italian Space Agency Director Badis directly appealed to the outside world through the media:

Let’s postpone the manned mission in July this year. If we add the last two missions, we can get 7 people up and send 9 people down. Even if other expenses are included, it will only cost 9 million US dollars. It is fast and cheap. Why bother to squeeze in the Alliance spacecraft? "Old and broken".

After this appeal was conveyed, the public naturally couldn't understand all the twists and turns, and only saw what the media disclosed after careful calculation: "The cost of using a space shuttle to launch astronauts is only one-tenth of that of a spacecraft."

Protesters who have been protesting in the streets of Europe for a long time have united and marched everywhere holding signs.

This time, the meaning they expressed to the outside world has also changed: We do not require the ISS to stop engaging in aerospace, but why not save it if there are hundreds of millions of dollars left?Why not save it as social welfare?
The people now feel that the protest organization is justified. This is a tenfold difference. No matter how much the opposition is, we cannot let the money be wasted, right?

European member states of ISS, especially small countries, also think it is good. The cost of an astronaut can be reduced to more than 500 million, and countries with poor finances such as Spain can also spend some money to send a few astronauts every year.

NACA...isn't bothered by this.

Stimulated by huge public opinion, Montal did not compromise as the public thought. Instead, NACA responded to the news from another aspect.

Director Clare announced that the "Dream Chaser" small space shuttle program developed by the Sierra Nevada Corporation will serve as the successor for Congress to restart the space shuttle "NSTS (New Space Transportation System)", and the plan has been slightly modified.

The manned version of the Dream Chaser space shuttle will undergo minor changes. The maximum take-off weight will be reduced from 20 tons to 15 tons, but the number of crew members will increase from 7 to 9, which is the same as the Steadfast.

The manned version of the Dream Chaser space shuttle will be launched by the reusable Falcon 9. The launch cost of the latter is US$3900 million, and the single maintenance cost of the Dream Chaser will not exceed US$3000 million.

Sierra Nevada Corporation has received US$20 billion for this project, and the progress has been greatly accelerated. It is expected to complete the first unmanned test flight in October this year, and a manned flight before January.

The minimum cost per crew member is US$550 million, which is cheaper than the Steadfast!
Then, a CNN "source" revealed that the astronauts for the next three launch missions to the International Space Station will be able to gather 9 people in a short time, and then board the Dream Chaser. The time will be the same as that of the Steadfast.

The indignant European public stopped making trouble, and the ISS European member states were also blocked by the Dream Chasers, unable to say anything else.

However, aerospace practitioners all see obvious problems with the NSTS plan disclosed by NACA.

The modified version of the manned Dream Chaser has undergone many changes. It is not a big problem to have sufficient funds to support the unmanned test flight in October, but does it really dare to carry out a manned flight for the second time?

Also, the disclosed launch price does not mention the construction cost of Dream Chaser at all, nor does it include measurement and control and personnel costs, which cannot be ignored.

Based on NACA's past experience, Alenia Aerospace believes that the Dream Chaser program will eventually cost about US$30 billion. To recoup the cost of a single ticket, it cannot be less than US$2200 million per ticket. It will take about 10 launches to recoup the cost. R&D costs are reduced to about 1500 million.

So if it’s chasing a $550 million single-seat ticket price, then the Dream Chaser is indeed chasing a distant dream.

(End of this chapter)