Super Copy of Great Power Technology

"Looking at the current situation, the technology of this Ruida Aerospace is pretty good. At least they have really mastered the manufacturing technology of carrier rockets. This rocket is flying, but as for whether it can land safely on the ground, I don't know."

The radar soldier said so for a reason. There is a mountain between the radar station and the airspace where the Ruida Space City is located. As long as the altitude of the rocket launched from the Ruida Space City drops below 500 meters, the high-power radar here will not be able to scan it. This was also the first rocket launch and recovery test yesterday. The reason why the radar station did not detect it was that it was flying too low and had not entered the radar's observable range.

Originally, the matter would have ended here. At most, a note would be made in the radar station's duty log: "On a certain day of a certain year, at a certain time and minute, the radar detected an unidentified flying object in the airspace of SZWQ. Upon inspection, it was found to be a carrier rocket launched by Ruida Aerospace."

Just at this moment, a communication request came in. The soldier looked down at the internal communication number and said, "Squad leader, this is a communication request from the War Eagle Squadron. Do you want to answer it?"

"The Warhawk Squadron is also an old friend of ours. Many air situations are handled by them. Connect the communication and ask them what they want."

With the squad leader's permission, the soldier quickly connected the communication. A strong voice rang out from the loudspeaker, "Comrades from XX radar station, we are from the first flight squadron of the War Eagle Brigade, and we are performing border patrol missions. Our airborne radar has detected an unknown flying object in the SZWQ area, suspected to be a missile. Has your radar station discovered this target?"

"Hello, comrades from the Warhawk Squadron. Our radar detected this target a minute ago. After checking, it turned out that the target was a launch vehicle launched by a private aerospace company called Ruida Aerospace for a recovery test."

"What? Our country already has a space company that makes reusable launch vehicles. This is something new. Let's go and fly over to take a look."

If a car travels over 100 kilometers, it will take at least an hour, but for a fighter plane with a cruising speed of over 100 kilometers per hour, it is just a matter of stepping on the accelerator. You say, the accelerator of the plane is a push rod, you don't need to step on it, well, let's put it another way, 2000 kilometers, for a fighter plane with a cruising speed of over kilometers per hour, it is just a matter of pushing the rod.

So, the Ruida Space City, which was conducting a rocket recovery test, welcomed two uninvited guests. Two twin-engine heavy fighters, each carrying two combat missiles, roared in and circled the first-stage rocket that was in a hovering state twice.

"Hey, look at monitoring screen No. 2. What are those two black dots? Why do they look like fighter jets?" A researcher responsible for monitoring the surrounding airspace was the first to discover the existence of the two fighter jets and alerted everyone.

The fighter jets were flying so fast that when everyone heard the warning and went to check the surveillance, the fighter jets had already flown over the aerospace city. When the aircraft engines were working, the roar they made even drowned out the sound of the rockets.

"It really is a fighter jet. Judging from its appearance, it is most likely the SU-27 purchased from Russia. We were just launching a first-stage rocket for testing. How did it attract a fighter jet?"

"Could it be that we conducted a rocket launch test without reporting it, and that's why these two gentlemen were here?"

"How is that possible? The filing documents were sent to the space agency two days ago, and I drafted the document."

"That's strange. Space activities have been reported and are legal and compliant. Why would fighter jets fly over here? This is not a border, so we don't need fighter jets to patrol."

"Forget it, ignore them, let's continue to complete the subsequent tests, open the air rudder, and gradually shut down the No. 5 engine."

Ruida Space City is under construction. The control center where Qiao Ruida and his team are located is just a temporary building for the purpose of completing the launch and recovery test of the first-stage rocket. The equipment installed inside is very limited, and there is no radio station for communicating with aircraft or other aircraft. Therefore, Qiao Ruida and his team cannot contact the pilots of the two fighters to communicate. They can only pretend that they do not exist and continue to complete the subsequent test tasks.

The second rocket recovery test flew much higher than the first one, reaching 1500 meters. At the same time, several more parts were installed on the rocket, namely the grid rudder, a device that uses air to adjust the rocket's flight attitude and initially control the rocket's flight direction when the rocket is in free fall.

With the latest instructions, four things resembling fly swatters extended from the middle and upper part of the first-stage rocket. These were the grid rudders. The next moment, the only engine in working condition, the No. 5 engine, gradually reduced its output and finally shut down completely. Without power, the rocket could no longer maintain its hovering state and began to free fall under the action of gravity. When the rocket's descent speed increased to a critical value, the grid rudders began to play a role. Under the control of the flight control program, they continuously adjusted their angles, channeled the passing air, and controlled the rocket's landing attitude and direction.

The sudden fall of the rocket really scared the construction workers who were watching from a distance.

"Oh no! Why did the rocket suddenly stall and fall? Did something happen?"

"Maybe we didn't add enough oil, so it all burned up, and that's why we fell down."

"Not at all. Ruida Aerospace's technology is so advanced, and hundreds of people participated in this test. How could they make such a low-level mistake?"

"That means something went wrong and caused the engine to shut down. I paid special attention to it. The rocket that was flight tested today was still the one launched yesterday. Maybe a component was damaged during the reuse process." "I don't think so. You probably haven't seen the recovery of the Falcon 9 rocket by the U.S. SpaceX company. There was also a stage where the engine was shut down and the rocket landed by gravity. If you observe carefully, you will find that the rocket is still under control. The rocket body is always vertically upward, and the direction of its fall is always towards the rocket recovery platform, and it is not affected by the wind."

"It's true. This is a controlled landing, not an accident. Look, when the rocket is about to approach the ground, the engine ignites again."

"Ignition, adjustment of rocket attitude, rocket position, landing, still the familiar formula, still the familiar taste, Ruida Aerospace's recovery was successful again this time!"

Amid exclamations and praises, the first-stage rocket successfully ignited for the second time at a height of about 100 meters from the ground, and the rocket body's falling speed rapidly decreased. Then the flight control program continuously fine-tuned the rocket's flight attitude and landing direction. Two seconds later, the rocket successfully landed at the cross star position in the middle of the rocket recovery site, with the landing point almost accurate.

"At 0.1:1500:: pm, the No. rocket landed successfully, with a landing point deviation of meters. The first-stage rocket recovery test at an altitude of meters was a complete success."

Following the commander's final announcement, there was a round of warm applause and cheers in the temporary control center and underground bunker. In the opinion of R&D personnel such as Qiao Ruida, although the rocket successfully landed on the ground in the last test, the engine had a problem of premature shutdown, which could not be considered a success. However, this second rocket recovery test was a complete success from beginning to end without any mistakes.

It is said that emotions are contagious, and the same is true for applause. A group of researchers and engineers from Ruida Aerospace were the first to applaud, and the construction workers who were watching the test soon followed suit. The applause was more than twice as loud as before, and then the applause continued to spread to other construction sites. The warm applause almost covered the entire Ruida Aerospace Base. Even the pilots of the two fighter planes flying over Ruida Aerospace City had the urge to put down the joystick and applaud together.

The applause lasted for several minutes before gradually dying down. After watching the excitement, the two planes flapped their wings and flew away. The construction workers returned to the original construction site and continued construction. After the successful recovery of the rocket, Qiao Ruida, Candice and others celebrated for a few minutes, then quickly calmed down and devoted themselves to the follow-up work. Check the status of the rocket, clean and replace individual parts, analyze and verify the flight data, and propose possible optimization directions. In short, there are still a lot of things waiting for everyone to complete.

In the following week, Qiao Ruida led the team to complete eight rocket recovery tests. The two first-stage rockets brought this time have carried out multiple launch flights and recovery tests, all of which were successful. The flight altitudes of these eight rocket tests were different. The lowest was the first one, which was just over 400 meters. The highest one, the rocket even flew to subspace more than 50 kilometers above the ground. At this altitude, the rocket recovery test was also successful, which shows that Ruida Aerospace has indeed mastered mature rocket recovery technology.

During this period, fighter jets visited Ruida Space City three times, sometimes in pairs and sometimes in groups of three. The time points of their appearance were all during the rocket recovery test. No one would believe that it was a coincidence. It seems that the pilots of these fighter jets are also curious and like to watch the excitement.

After the last rocket recovery test, everyone packed the two first-stage rockets and loaded them onto the trucks, and cleaned up the rocket recovery site thoroughly. The next morning, after a quick breakfast, the employees of Ruida Aerospace couldn't wait to get on the cars, formed a convoy, and set off on the road home. Although there is no worry about food and drink in Ruida Aerospace City, there is no Internet and no mobile phone signal. This is very uncomfortable for modern young people who are used to staying "online" all the time. Every extra day is a torment.

After the team returned to Beijing, Qiao Ruida gave all the colleagues a seven-day paid vacation so that they could relax. Du Qingqing selected some wonderful shots from the hours of video footage she shot, edited them into a fifteen-minute video, and posted it on the official website and official Weibo of Ruida Aerospace for promotion. Ruida Aerospace has just been established for more than two months. The official website and official Weibo have been online for a short time, but there are very few netizens following them. In order to increase the publicity effect, Qiao Ruida reposted the video with his own Weibo account. You should know that Qiao Ruida's Weibo account has more than 13 million followers, and most of them are active fans. In , he was definitely the number one person on Weibo. After Qiao Ruida reposted the promotional video, it immediately became popular, with countless comments, likes, and reposts. Ruida Aerospace, rocket recovery, and other words have successively rushed to the Weibo hot search list, and they are extremely popular.

"RuiDa Aerospace has only been established for two months, and it has already mastered rocket recovery technology. This is too fast!"

"Is this video shot live? It's not computer-generated, is it?"

"After my frame-by-frame analysis, this video does have a few editing and splicing points, but the video material is undoubtedly real."

"In the last few minutes of the video, the rocket's flight altitude exceeded 50 kilometers, which is very close to the position where the first and second stages separate during a normal rocket launch. The first stage of the rocket can be successfully recovered after falling from this altitude, proving that Ruida Aerospace's rocket recovery technology is very reliable and practical."

"You may not know this, but Musk has already open-sourced a large number of launch vehicle drawings and patents, including the Raptor engine. Rayda Aerospace is just a shameful plagiarist. If you don't believe me, compare the rocket in the video with the Falcon 9 recovery video. The recovery plans are exactly the same."

"The above poster is simply brainless. Musk did say in a private setting that he would open source the Raptor engine patent, but he has always been talking big and has not put it into action. The rocket that Ruida Aerospace completed the launch and recovery test this time is completely self-developed technology. Maybe the recovery method was referenced from the Falcon 9, but the technical details are completely different and it is undoubtedly original."

"From this video, we can see that Ruida Aerospace's technical strength is still very good. The liquid oxygen-methane engine alone is the first of its kind in the industry and has never been used before. The rocket recovery technology is also the first of its kind in China and has a very high technological content."

"I've always said that Ruida-affiliated companies are all black-tech companies, and the newly established Ruida Aerospace is no exception. Rocket recovery technology is just an appetizer, and there will definitely be more big moves in the future."

"The first video released by Ruida Aerospace two months after its establishment was a blockbuster news about its mastery of the first-stage launch vehicle recovery technology. The next video may be to celebrate the successful launch of the Suzaku rocket."

"I'm glad that China has mastered the technology of launching rockets and can finally compete with SpaceX in commercial space launches." (End of this chapter)