Super Copy of Great Power Technology

Next, the same procedure was followed to complete the hoisting operation of the second stage of the rocket and a communication satellite. Compared with the first stage of the rocket, the installation process of the second stage and the satellite is much more complicated. The first and second stage rockets, and the second stage rocket and the communication satellite need to be connected and fastened together through special connectors. Moreover, due to the need for rocket recovery, the connecting parts cannot use traditional explosive screws, but an electrically controlled fastening component with a more complex structure and more troublesome installation. In addition to these rigid connecting parts, there are also some circuits, communication cables, sensor signal lines, methane, and liquid oxygen filling pipelines that need to be connected. The whole process is complicated and requires strict requirements, and the entire process is high-altitude work. It is the first time for everyone to do this kind of work, and their proficiency is poor, so the speed is really hard to increase.

With the joint efforts of hundreds of employees, the assembly of the Suzaku-50 carrier rocket and satellite was finally completed before dark. Du Qingqing stood at the foot of the rocket launch tower, adjusted the camera's viewing angle and focal length, and took in the entire Suzaku rocket, which was meters tall, and couldn't help but sigh, "This Suzaku rocket is really tall. Are all things in the aerospace field so tall?"

"This is just the beginning. The Suzaku rocket is relatively short among medium-sized launch vehicles. Above it are heavy-duty rockets and super-heavy-duty rockets. In the aerospace field, there are many launch vehicles with a height of more than 100 meters. The Suzaku rocket is nothing compared to those behemoths." Qiao Ruida looked up at the Suzaku rocket and said indifferently.

"Then will our Ruida Aerospace develop taller and larger launch vehicles in the future?"

"We should have heavy-lift launch vehicles and super-heavy-lift launch vehicles, but what I want to develop more is the aerospace plane. However, the aerospace technology I have now is not enough to support the development of the aerospace plane. Let's talk about it in a few years."

Another half an hour later, the employees had finished the finishing work. Qiao Ruida picked up the intercom and said, "Let's stop here for today. We will be at work on time tomorrow morning to conduct the overall test of the rocket and refuel it."

"Great, time to call it a day!"

"Let's go, let's go to the cafeteria to eat!"

"It's unbelievable that such a huge launch vehicle was produced by a bunch of newcomers like us."

"It's mainly because our CEO Qiao and Engineer Kan are so amazing. With only a research and development team of three or four people, they were able to come up with such a mature launch vehicle design in a short period of time."

"In a few days, our Suzaku-1 will be successfully launched. Does that mean that Ruida Aerospace will become the number one private aerospace company in China?"

"A successful launch is nothing, but a successful recovery is truly amazing. If our Suzaku rocket's first and second stages are successfully recovered, we will be first in China and second in the world."

……

Employees came down from the rocket launch tower one after another, chatting with each other and walking towards the cafeteria. Qiao Ruida helped his girlfriend pack up the tripod, camera, and drone, and left the rocket launch tower together in the afterglow of the sunset.

After dinner, when I walked out of the cafeteria, night had already fallen. Ruida Aerospace City was newly built, and the infrastructure was not fully equipped. The street lamp poles had just been buried and had not yet been powered on. There were only a few completed buildings and a few construction sites in the entire aerospace city that were illuminated by lights, and the rest of the city was dark. However, the distance from the cafeteria to the dormitory building was not far, and there were lights as a guide, so there was no problem of finding the way. Looking up at the night sky, the sky was clear and the sky was full of stars. The Milky Way that ran through the entire night sky was clearly layered, casting a faint silver glow, like a magical and brilliant road, foreshadowing a fantastic journey in the unknown universe. In the quiet night, the Milky Way was immersed in silence, but the mystery and charm it exuded exuded infinite magic, attracting people to explore and discover more unknown mysteries.

"The night sky is so beautiful today. It would be great if I could take a spaceship and go into space to have a look!" Qiao Ruida stopped, looked up at the stars, and sighed from the bottom of his heart!
"Yes, the starry sky on the grassland is so beautiful. We couldn't see such a beautiful starry sky when we were in Beijing. Let me try to see if I can use my camera to capture such a beautiful starry sky." Du Qingqing also stopped, took out her SLR camera, pointed at the stars in the night sky, and pressed the shutter.

"The starry sky is not easy to photograph. The light is too dim, so you have to increase the aperture and extend the exposure time. It is best to use a tripod for shooting. No matter how steady your hands are, it is difficult to take good pictures." Qiao Ruida does not know photography, but is quite interested in the starry sky and the universe. He has seen many photos of the starry sky and has some understanding of how to take photos of the starry sky.

Du Qingqing pressed the shutter and tried to take a few photos. Sure enough, the results were not ideal. Either it was pitch black or the starlight was just lines. "Forget it. I'm too tired after a busy day. I won't bother. After the rocket launch is completed, we'll find a night with good weather, go to the grassland to camp, and take photos of the starry sky."

"Well, that's a good suggestion. After the rocket launch is completed, we do have a few days of free time and can have fun on the grassland."

Nothing happened that night. The next morning, after Qiao Ruida and a group of employees met up, they split into two groups. Half of them stayed at the rocket launch tower, and the other half went to the rocket flight control center to cooperate with each other to conduct rocket-satellite joint debugging and testing.

"Connect the power of the rocket and satellite, start the system self-test, and check whether the sensor signal is complete." Qiao Ruida sat in the front seat and issued instructions into the microphone.

"The power supply is on and the system self-test is in progress."

"The system self-check has been completed and three assembly errors and five missing sensor signals have been found."

As the staff reported, the large screen in front of the rocket flight control center lit up and a system self-check report appeared on the screen. On the right side of the screen was a diagram of the overall structure of the rocket, with small red dots marking the parts with problems.

"Not bad. After long-distance transportation and hoisting, this carrier rocket only had eight problems. Next, let's find out the problematic parts and solve them one by one. The first mistake is that the rigid connection between the first and second stages was assembled incorrectly. The fastening was not in place, and there was a large gap. Send two people up to the launch tower to check it out."

Throughout the morning, everyone was checking the launch vehicle and satellite, looking for solutions to various problems. Most of these problems were caused by the long-distance transportation of the rocket and the violent vibration, and a small number of problems were caused by improper assembly of the rocket. Fortunately, no components were damaged, and they were just some minor problems such as loose wires and inadequate fastening, which were not too troublesome to solve. In the afternoon, the rocket and satellite were tested for the second time, and this time the situation was very good, and no problems were found.

"Mr. Qiao, the second test is completed with a pass rate of 100%. Do we need to refuel now?" Wu Ziqiang, who was in the rocket launch tower, sent a request to Qiao Ruida through the intercom.

Qiao Ruida did not answer immediately, but turned to Cao Yifei next to him and asked, "Mr. Cao, has our company's application to the National Space Administration for the use of the space tracking and control network been approved?"

The aerospace tracking and control network refers to a comprehensive electronic system that completes the tasks of tracking and measuring the orbit of launch vehicles and spacecraft, receiving and processing telemetry signals, and sending remote control signals. Ruida Aerospace was newly built and had no time to build its own aerospace tracking and control network, so it could only borrow the national one.

"It has been approved, but it only includes ground tracking and control stations, not several long-range tracking and control ships. In addition, a tracking and control network usage fee must be paid. It is not too expensive, only 100,000 yuan." Cao Yifei gave a detailed report on the application.

"It's only 100,000 yuan, which is really not expensive. If we, Ruida Aerospace, build a space tracking and control network by ourselves, it will cost at least tens of billions. However, without the offshore tracking and control points, the tracking and control of the rocket's operating status cannot be done continuously throughout the process. There will be some troubles, but not big problems. Have you received the weather forecast for the past few days? There won't be bad weather such as thunderstorms and strong winds tomorrow, right?" Qiao Ruida continued to ask.

"No, the latest weather forecast shows that it will be sunny in our space city in the next few days, and the maximum wind speed will not exceed level 5, which will not affect our rocket launch."

"That's good. Let's refuel now and try to launch the rocket tomorrow. The satellite launched this time is a geosynchronous orbit satellite with a relatively long launch window. As long as the weather meets the requirements, we can ignite and launch at any time." Qiao Ruida turned on the microphone and gave the order to refuel.

It took more than an hour to add liquid oxygen and liquid methane fuel. In the surveillance video transmitted from the scene, white smoke can be seen rising from the upper middle part of the rocket body. Seeing this, Du Qingqing, who has been in charge of the video shooting task, asked in confusion: "Rui Da, look at the surveillance screen, the carrier rocket is emitting white smoke, is the fuel just added leaking?"

"No, it's normal for a liquid carrier rocket to emit white smoke after it's filled with fuel, and it's not a fuel leak. Our Suzaku rocket uses liquid oxygen and liquid methane as propellants. The storage temperature of these two liquids is very low, about minus 180 degrees Celsius. Although there is a heat insulation layer to block it, such ultra-low temperature still causes the water vapor in the air near the rocket shell to condense into tiny water droplets when it gets cold, producing white smoke. In fact, this is similar to the white smoke that comes out of popsicles when we hold them in the summer. In addition, the propellant tank is not completely sealed, but needs to be refilled while leaking air and relieving pressure. When liquid oxygen and liquid methane evaporate, the surrounding air will also quickly cool down, and the water vapor will condense into water droplets and turn into white smoke."

After the fuel was refueled and multiple tests were conducted to confirm that there was no leakage, Qiao Ruida let everyone go home early.

That evening, Qiao Ruida and Du Qingqing sorted out the video footage shot over the past two days and edited a ten-minute promotional video, which was posted on Weibo, Bilibili, Toutiao and other platforms. At the same time, it was announced that at 10 a.m. tomorrow, the first launch and recovery process of the Suzaku rocket would be broadcast live in the live broadcast room of the Ruida Group's official website.

Once the video and information were released, they caused a huge stir in the industry. This was the first time that a domestic private aerospace company launched a rocket, and it was also the first time that a domestic aerospace company tried to recover a rocket. Its influence was enormous. Whether the Suzaku rocket could be successfully launched, whether it could be successfully recovered, and whether the satellite on board could successfully enter orbit, many suspense will be revealed in tomorrow's live broadcast. At the same time, many netizens who follow Qiao Ruida's Weibo or are interested in the aerospace field were also attracted by the promotional video, leaving messages, liking, and forwarding it, and even sending related topics to hot searches.

"Private companies are very efficient. Some time ago, the Suzaku rocket was still conducting a first-stage flight test, and only two or three months later, it started its first commercial launch."

"Our richest man Qiao has a unique vision for investment. Ruida Group has successively entered the online shopping, mobile phone, chip, automobile and aerospace industries, each of which is a high-tech and high-threshold industry."

"Didn't President Qiao say in the video that this was the first launch of the Suzaku rocket, and the satellite on board was the navigation and communications satellite of the Ruida Group itself, so it can't be considered a commercial launch."

"I checked the performance parameters of the Suzaku rocket. It seems to be inferior to SpaceX's Falcon 9 in terms of carrying capacity. The cost of construction and launch has not been announced. However, the Suzaku rocket uses very common methane as fuel, which greatly reduces costs. Coupled with the ultra-low domestic raw material prices and labor wages, I think the cost of a single launch of the Suzaku rocket should not be high."

"It's not easy for a private aerospace company to finally emerge in China. I wish everything goes well with tomorrow's rocket launch."

"Tomorrow, China's private space industry will launch its first rocket. This is a major event that will go down in the history of space exploration. Everyone, please remember to watch the live broadcast on time."

"Building and launching rockets are not difficult, but recovering rockets is the real challenge. So far, no aerospace company in the world has mastered mature rocket recovery technology, and the only ones trying are SpaceX in the United States and our country's Ruida Aerospace. If the Suzaku rocket launched by Ruida Aerospace tomorrow can complete the recovery of the first or second stage, it will be the first company in the world to master rocket recovery technology, and its future is promising."

"It should be very difficult to complete the recovery of the first and second stages of a rocket for the first time launch. Can Ruida Aerospace really do it?"

"Not very big, but very, very big. The difficulty of recovering a rocket is about the same as if you randomly fired a bullet and it hit the bull's eye a hundred kilometers away."

"In tomorrow's live broadcast, if the Suzaku rocket can be successfully launched and the satellite can be sent into the predetermined orbit, it will have created a precedent for private aerospace. It is normal for the rocket to fail in recovery, but success is a pleasant surprise, a major event that will be recorded in the history of world aerospace and is worth writing about." (End of this chapter)