Super Copy of Great Power Technology

"When a spacecraft enters the atmosphere, once its speed reaches or exceeds 8000m/s, a blackout phenomenon will occur. This phenomenon is also called ionization blackout, and it occurs when a spacecraft enters the atmosphere at ultra-high speed. When the speed of the spacecraft reaches this level, its surface and the surrounding gas molecules are in a viscous and burning state, and the temperature is not easy to dissipate, forming a high-temperature zone with a temperature of several thousand degrees Celsius. This high temperature causes the gas and the ablated heat-resistant materials to be ionized, forming a layer of high-temperature ionized matter around the spacecraft, namely the plasma sheath. The plasma sheath interacts with electromagnetic waves, causing the transmission of electromagnetic waves used for communication to be attenuated or reflected, thereby interrupting radio communications between the ground and the spacecraft. This phenomenon usually occurs in the atmosphere 35 to 80 kilometers above the ground, causing difficulties for real-time communication and re-entry measurements when manned spacecraft or other spacecraft re-enter.

If it is a manned spacecraft, when passing through a black barrier area, a series of measures will be taken to ensure safety, such as deceleration through atmospheric resistance, opening the guide parachute and the main parachute, etc., to reduce speed and escape the black barrier state. Our Suzaku second-stage rocket is not equipped with a parachute, so it can only be decelerated by starting the rocket engine for reverse thrust.

It takes a long time for the Suzaku second-stage rocket to cross the black barrier area, about five minutes. During this time, let's take a look at the navigation and communication satellite that has entered space. As shown in the animation, the satellite is currently operating in an elliptical orbit with a perigee of 3300 kilometers and an apogee of 38000 kilometers. In the next few hours, the satellite's altitude will continue to climb until it reaches an altitude of nearly 35786 kilometers, at which time the satellite's attitude adjustment engine will be activated to adjust its orbit. Eventually, this satellite will operate in a geosynchronous orbit, with the positioning point probably above the equator at about 100 degrees east longitude, where our country is located.

The satellite carried by the Suzaku rocket launch test is a multifunctional satellite completely developed by our Ruida Group. It integrates positioning, navigation, communication, and timing functions. This satellite is the first test satellite of our Tianditong constellation plan. Later this year, we will launch two other test satellites to conduct three-star positioning, networking, and communication tests. Once the test is successful, our Ruida Group will successively launch more than 60 navigation and communication satellites in the next three years to form a global navigation and communication satellite system. With the help of this satellite system, the cars produced by our Ruida Group can be positioned more accurately and driven more intelligently. The mobile phones produced can be equipped with satellite communication functions, so that when you have no mobile phone signal in the wild, you can also use satellite signals to send messages to others, make calls, and even connect to the satellite network to surf the Internet."

As Du Qingqing explained, the live broadcast room played a demonstration animation of the satellite climbing its altitude, maneuvering and changing its orbit, and finally entering the geosynchronous orbit. This was followed by some schematic diagrams and text descriptions of the Tianditong constellation plan, which fully demonstrated the technical strength and huge ambition of Ruida Group in navigation and communication satellites.

Four minutes later, the camera cut back to the falling Suzaku second stage rocket. A cigar-shaped object appeared in the video, with small flames at the tail and bottom edge. The decreasing altitude value in the upper right corner of the video indicated that the object was rapidly descending.

"Dongfeng, optical radar capture is successful, tracking is normal." The loudspeaker of the Dongfeng ground control station transmitted the command information.
"Rui Da Space City, optical radar has captured the target and tracking is normal."

"Second stage rocket, fifth ignition preparation, ignition successful."

The optical radars of the Dongfeng Tracking and Control Station and the Ruida Space City have captured the target one after another, which means that the second-stage rocket is not far from the ground. Although the second-stage rocket is still in the black barrier at this time and cannot communicate with the ground. After sensing that the height of the rocket is less than a certain threshold, the automatic flight control program automatically starts the engine and performs reverse braking. This is reflected in the live broadcast screen, that is, a long flame suddenly spurted out from the tail of the cigar-shaped object, and the rocket's descent speed value decreased rapidly. Under the continuous power of the methane engine, the descent speed of the second-stage rocket quickly dropped to below 7 kilometers per second. The rocket successfully exited the black barrier state and re-established communication with the ground flight control center. The live broadcast screen is also divided into two, the left side is still the image captured by the optical radar, and the right side is the image captured by the camera at the tail of the second-stage rocket. On the right half of the live broadcast screen, you can clearly see some burnt engine nozzles, long engine tail flames, and a deep green prairie in Meng Province.

"With the continuous operation of the rocket engine, the descent speed of the second-stage rocket continued to decrease, and finally successfully escaped from the blackout state. The communication between the second-stage rocket and the ground was re-established, and the ground images captured by the onboard camera were also transmitted back. About 40 seconds after the engine was ignited, it was shut down again. At this time, the descent speed of the second-stage rocket was still around 5 kilometers per second, which was still much faster than the speed of the first-stage rocket during the recovery phase. Therefore, the second-stage rocket engine will ignite twice more to reduce the rocket's descent speed and adjust the rocket's flight attitude.

OK, the second-stage rocket ignited for the sixth time, and the landing speed dropped further, almost reaching the controllable range. In fact, at this point, the flight altitude of the second-stage rocket is not too high. The drone flying over the space city has captured the image of the second-stage rocket, followed by the high-definition camera installed on the ground. From this angle, it can be clearly seen that more than 60% of the surface of the lower half of the entire rocket has been burned black. This is the price the rocket paid for passing through the black barrier area.

The sixth engine ignition seemed to last a short time, only about 20 seconds. After shutting down the engine, the second stage rocket continued to land under the control of the grid rudder.

"The second stage rocket ignites for the seventh time, the support legs open, and we are ready to land."

After the second-stage rocket descended again for more than a minute, it ignited for the last time. At this time, the second-stage rocket was very close to the ground. If someone stood near the rocket recovery site at this time, they could see all the details of the second-stage rocket with the naked eye. In the live broadcast, it can be clearly seen that a blue flame spurted out from the tail of the falling second-stage rocket, and then the descent speed of the second-stage rocket slowed down visibly, even to the point of hovering. At the same time, the hydraulic support system at the tail of the second-stage rocket automatically popped open, and the flight attitude and spatial position of the second-stage rocket were constantly adjusted, aiming directly at the center of the blue cross plus sign on the right side of the rocket recovery site, and landed vertically.

Suddenly, a shrill alarm sounded in the rocket flight control hall, and at the same time, several red indicator lights lit up and flashed continuously on the front control panel.

"Oh no! The rocket flight control system detected that one of the support legs was not opened! Mr. Qiao, what should we do now? Should we start the self-destruction program?" When the alarm sounded, cold sweat immediately broke out on Cao Yifei's forehead. After finding out the cause of the alarm, he immediately reported the situation to Qiao Ruida and asked for instructions on how to deal with it.

The recovery site set for this rocket launch is within the Ruida Space City area. In order to avoid the failure of rocket recovery and the collision of important buildings or humans, self-destruct devices are installed on the first and second stages of the rocket. In the event that the rocket loses control during the recovery process, the self-destruct program can be remotely activated through wireless signals. The self-destruct device will directly detonate the remaining fuel in the rocket and blow up the rocket to ensure the safety of buildings and personnel. Now one of the four support legs of the second-stage rocket is not open, and it is almost a luxury to successfully land and recover it.

Seeing this emergency, Qiao Ruida immediately forced himself to calm down and issued an order: "Increase the engine thrust, keep the second-stage rocket in a hovering state, and try to open the rocket support legs a second time."

"Received, relevant instructions transmitted, engine thrust increased, and the second stage rocket entered hovering state. The support leg failed to open, and the unopened support leg seemed to be completely out of control." Wu Ziqiang, who was sitting in the first row, immediately operated the computer, switched the second stage rocket to manual control mode, and then typed a long series of commands. However, the final result was still not optimistic, and the unopened support leg still did not respond at all.

"The rocket remains in hovering state and report the amount of remaining fuel in the second-stage rocket." Qiao Ruida frowned and gave the order again.

"There are 220 kilograms of liquid methane remaining, and 150 kilograms of liquid oxygen remaining." Wu Ziqiang looked at the digital information on the screen and reported hurriedly. "Then let the second-stage rocket remain in hover for two minutes, and when the fuel is almost exhausted, control the rocket to land. By that time, there will be very little fuel left. Even if the second-stage rocket falls over and explodes after landing, the remaining fuel will explode, and the power will be limited." Qiao Ruida listed several formulas in his mind, put the remaining fuel into the calculation, and finally said.

"Received, command input completed, waiting for execution result."

For the next two minutes, the entire flight control center fell completely silent. Everyone, including Du Qingqing, held their breath, staring at the live monitoring images on the large screen in front of the hall, waiting for the landing result of the second-stage rocket.

After hovering for two minutes, the blue tail flames from the second-stage rocket engine gradually decreased, and the second-stage rocket, which had been in a hovering state, began to slowly lower its altitude, approaching the ground little by little. About twenty seconds later, the second-stage rocket successfully landed on the ground, and the engine was shut down. It seems that the second-stage rocket, relying on the support of the remaining three legs, also successfully stood on the recovery site.

“Huahuahua” “Papapapa” “Hahahaha” “Thank the goddess of luck, I actually managed to stand on three supporting legs!”

Seeing that the second-stage rocket successfully stood on the ground, Qiao Ruida and everyone on the scene all stood up, applauded and cheered. Unexpectedly, at this moment, a gust of wind blew over, and the second-stage rocket that had just stood firm shook a few times and slowly fell over. With a "bang", the moment the rocket fell to the ground, the tail of the rocket exploded, and the rocket engine, support frame, and some electronic components were blown to pieces, and flames and thick smoke came out locally. This is because most of the fuel was consumed during the launch and recovery process. If there is a little more remaining fuel, the explosion power will be several times or even dozens of times greater. At that time, not only will the entire second-stage rocket be blown to pieces, affecting the subsequent fault analysis, it is very likely that the first-stage rocket that successfully landed next to it will also be affected by the explosion. At that time, the loss will be really too heavy.

Inside the flight control center, when the surveillance footage showed the second-stage rocket tipping over and exploding, there were almost continuous exclamations, sighs, and curses. In the live broadcast room, nearly 30 million netizens from home and abroad also witnessed the entire process of the second-stage rocket successfully landing and tipping over and exploding. Everyone was so excited that they left their feelings in the comments and message area.

"Damn it, damn it! The rocket was clearly recovered successfully, but a gust of wind came and blew it down!"

"With this explosion, millions of dollars have gone down the drain."

"It's such a pity that the recovery process of the second-stage rocket was completed by 99%. Only the last 1% was not done well, and all the previous efforts were wasted."

"I'm very curious, why did the supporting leg that didn't open get damaged?"

"This is the cruelty of the aerospace industry. Even if there is a very insignificant defect in the rocket, the final impact is likely to be the destruction of the rocket and the death of people."

"After this explosion, I'm afraid it will be difficult to find the cause of this accident."

"Overall, the launch of the Suzaku rocket was relatively successful. At least the satellite has been sent into orbit, the first-stage rocket was successfully recovered, and the recovery of the second-stage rocket was almost successful. At least 90% of the test mission was completed, so it can be considered a relatively successful rocket launch."

"This launch of the Suzaku rocket achieved at least two world firsts. One is the first time a methane-fueled rocket has successfully sent a satellite into orbit, and the second is the first time a rocket's first stage has been successfully recovered."

"Didn't President Qiao make an analysis earlier? He said that the recovery of the second-stage rocket is extremely difficult, and the chance of success is only 40% to 50%. The failure of the recovery of the second-stage rocket in the end was also expected."

"A journey of a hundred miles begins with a single step. The failure to recover the second-stage rocket does not make it perfect. It seems that President Qiao and Ruida Aerospace still need to work harder."

"If the first-stage rocket is successfully recovered, more than half of the rocket launch cost can be saved. Given the current state of the Suzaku rocket, its competitiveness in undertaking satellite launch business is far greater than that of traditional launch vehicles."

"The Suzaku rocket developed by Ruida Aerospace has achieved such a good result in its first launch. It is quite good." (End of this chapter)