Dreaming about space

Chapter 43 Manned Spaceflight
Anyway, it was idle time. Seeing that Liang Tian was not sleepy, Fang Yuan pestered the chief designer again to listen to him finish telling the story of the astronauts.

In the memories of the older generation, most of the first international commercial space missions carried out by our country's launch site were in 1990 when [Asia [-]] was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

This is indeed the first foreign satellite officially launched by our country, but it is not the first time it has carried out an international commercial mission.

If we push forward further, there are two more international missions, both of which used the "Long March [-]C".

The launch site is not Xichang, but the earlier Jiuquan.

The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center launched France's Matra Micro and Germany's Intospace microgravity test devices on August 1987, 8 and at the same time one year later.

Both of these are experimental devices and cannot be considered official satellite launches.

This does not affect the resume of Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, which is also engraved with the label of carrying out an international mission for the first time.

The success of these two microgravity test devices led to the subsequent [Asia-[-]] mission.

Everything is complementary to each other.

After the 2.15 accident, China International Commercial Aerospace urgently needed to use success to get out of the double dilemma - no international commercial insurance company was willing to accept the policy, and no foreign company was willing to commission the launch.

Two crucial successes in 1997 came one after another at this time.

8月20日的【马布海1号】和10月17日的【亚太2R】。

Ji Zhidong did not serve as the ground commander of these two tasks.

After preaching around the world and helping [Mabuhai No. 1] secure international commercial insurance, Ji Zhidong's body was no longer strong enough to support him in returning to his original position and continuing to shine.

Ji Zhidong did not leave aerospace because of this, but went to the Aerospace Research Institute.

The world's aerospace technology is changing with each passing day. Just turning a launch failure into a successful launch is not enough for China to maintain a place in international commercial aerospace.

When Ji Zhidong came to the Aerospace Research Institute, graduate student Liang Tian was almost at the stage of writing his graduation thesis.

Liang Tian's research direction is to kill multiple stars with one stone.

September 1997, 9 was the first test of this technology in our country.

The improved [Long March [-]C] successfully launched two Motorola Iridium satellite simulation satellites into predetermined orbits.

98 days later, [Chang [-]C] successfully launched two real iridium satellites into the predetermined orbit.

Motorola's Iridium satellite contract has a total of 6 satellites, which were launched three times, and each time was very accurate.

The successful commercialization of the one-rocket multi-satellite technology marks that China's international commercial aerospace industry has begun to escape from its darkest moment and enter a stage of healthy development.

How benign is it?

In the following three years, every launch of our country’s rockets was successful and every one was accurate.

Multiple stars with one arrow is the general direction of the development of aerospace technology, but it is not what Liang Tian really cares about.

Since he was 20 years old, he has had the dream of dying on the road to immigrating to Mars.

What can carry this dream is not how many satellites a rocket can carry, but whether it can safely send humans into space and then safely bring them back to the earth.

Liang Tian wants to participate in the [921 Project] project.

92 is the year and 1 is the month.

[Project 921] is our country’s manned space project.

This plan was approved in principle in June 1991.

It was formally adopted at the meeting in January 1992.

Because at the meeting in January 92, everyone present seriously expressed their stance and signed.

The manned space project was officially named [Project 921].

Liang Tian wants to participate in this project.

He told Ji Zhidong this idea.Ji Zhidong told Liang Tian a manned space program that few people knew about: "Our country's manned space program has actually been in existence since the year you were born."

"1970?" Liang Tian couldn't believe it. "When I was born, we dared to think about manned spaceflight? At that time, besides launching a [Dongfanghong-[-]], what else did we do?"

Ji Zhidong: "It is because of the success of [Dongfanghong-714] that we will have a more ambitious [Project [-]]."

"In April 1971, our country had already put manned spaceflight on the agenda?" Liang Tian still found it a bit unbelievable.

There was indeed no such information in the information he could find at that time.

Ji Zhidong told Liang Tian there was no need to make a fuss.

At that time, our country's economy had not yet begun to take off, and the world was only paying attention to the competition between the two superpowers at that time in manned spaceflight.

These two countries both completed different forms of manned spaceflight in the 1960s.

After the great success of Dongfanghong-[-], Chinese astronauts came up with this idea, which is not too ambitious.

Our country's spacecraft that later actually carried out manned space missions was code-named "Shenzhou".

The manned spacecraft program in the 1970s also had its own spacecraft codename - [Dawn].

This idea is not too ambitious, but when we really pushed forward, we discovered that building manned spacecraft and building rockets to launch satellites are not the same thing.

At that time, our country only had a single launch vehicle called the Long March [-], which was far from the thrust required for a manned spacecraft.

The system of the spaceship is even more complicated than imagined.

These problems are not completely impossible to overcome.

As long as there is unlimited R&D funding investment.

With the level of economic development of our country at that time, it was impossible to be satisfied.

The Dawn spacecraft plan of [Project 714] was quickly shelved in the filing cabinet.

This shelving lasted for 20 years.

Just like the first love complex that many people have.

Shuguang is the white moonlight in the minds of Chinese astronauts who are committed to manned spaceflight.

Every day that the project is shelved, astronauts hope to see it restarted.

Ji Zhidong is one of these astronauts.

As soon as the [921 Project] project was established, Ji Zhidong wanted to devote himself to it wholeheartedly.

Ji Zhidong’s biggest dream in life is to be the ground commander for China’s first manned space flight.

He persisted until 1997, when China's aerospace industry came out of its darkest moment, but he failed to persist until November 1999, 11, when the Shenzhou-20 test spacecraft was launched.

At this time, it is still just a test, and there are still four years until our country will actually send astronauts into space [Shenzhou [-]].

Even if it was an experiment, Ji Zhidong did not persist until that day.

If there had not been the 2.15 accident, if there had not been a sudden death, Ji Zhidong would have left the front line only after the [Shenzhou [-]].

In this way, Ji Zhidong will have no regrets in his career.

Liang Tian has always felt sorry for Brother Dong.

Ji Zhidong himself quickly adjusted.

After he arrived at the Aerospace Research Institute, his focus was not just on manned spaceflight.

There is also our country’s second national strategy in the aerospace field after [two bombs and one satellite].

　Prize-winning Q&A: What is my country’s second national aerospace strategy after [two bombs and one satellite]?
　　The first one to answer correctly will receive a mysterious gift~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)