In April, Xincheng Satellite Launch Center once again welcomed the launch mission of its second polar orbit satellite rocket.

Similarly, TV stations are also conducting live broadcasts.

The live broadcast will be obviously different from last time, because this time, it is not a multi-stage rocket launch, but a space shuttle carrying the launch mission.

"This is the first time our new city has used a space shuttle to launch satellites. We will witness a miracle..."

TV reporters were excitedly popularizing science about space launches in front of the TV cameras.

"Our Yangtze space shuttle will carry our polar-orbiting satellites into space to an altitude of 400 kilometers, and then return to the ground..."

"According to Comrade Panda, the chief designer of the space center, the purpose of designing the Yangtze Space Shuttle is to use it to send a large number of payloads into the earth's orbit, so that it can repair satellites in orbit and bring satellites back to the ground for repairs, etc.

.It can land on an airport runway like an airplane and can generally be reused 100 times."

"In the development of human science and technology, the Yangtze River space shuttle is an extremely important milestone..."

"In the history of the tenth anniversary of the founding of the new city, the Yangtze River space shuttle is a gift..."

With the reporter's dictation, the residents of Xincheng finally understood how amazing this Yangtze space shuttle is.

A sense of pride arises spontaneously!

Since the polar bear launched the first artificial satellite into space in 1957, the world's aerospace science has made great progress, and there are currently countless artificial satellites operating non-stop in the sky.

However, they can only destroy themselves and cannot be repaired, nor can they be returned to Earth for reuse.

The Yangtze space shuttle was designed precisely to solve this problem.

It can fly like a rocket, run in space orbit like a satellite, land on time and on the ground like a glider, and then can be used again.

The 27-meter-long cabin can carry 56 tons of cargo.

At the launch command center, Zeng Qingfeng was under great pressure. Compared with the last time, this launch was obviously more stressful.

The space shuttle was slowly developed over the past two years under the leadership of Zhou Jimin.

Originally, after everything was ready, a test flight mission should be carried out first, and then a synchronous launch with a polar-orbiting satellite would be carried out.

As a result, Zhou Jimin directly said, just go together to avoid waste.

The space shuttle is piloted by veteran astronauts Yang Jianjun, Lin Zhiwu and Feng Yuan. They are all proven astronauts.

We are fully prepared for this launch mission.

This time, two other leaders came, sitting next to Zhou Jimin.

"Comrade Panda, your last proposal to expand the number of graduates has been approved at the meeting. Now we are just waiting for the document to be issued..."

"Thank you leaders for trusting me!"

After Zhou Jimin heard this, he was immediately overjoyed.

Two months have passed since February, and we finally got the exact news.

According to this situation, the next several schools such as Xincheng University will usher in great development, and the source of students will continue to flow.

"I also have good news to report to all the leaders!"

The two leaders and Zeng Qingfeng were immediately attracted by Zhou Jimin's words.

"It's about the heavy transport helicopter and the engine. We have basically determined the plan. We don't need fuel, but rely entirely on batteries as energy..."

Hiss!

Is it really done?

Forget about electric cars, but electric helicopters, if this thing really succeeds, it will be really amazing.

In fact, electric airplanes are just that.

There are already drones here in Xincheng, and the energy source of the drones is batteries.

Of course, drones have a huge flaw, which is their short range!

Especially large drones have shorter ranges.

Such shortcomings are inexcusable no matter what.

The two leaders were surprised:

"So when can we see the plane come out of the laboratory?"

When Zhou Jimin heard this, he smiled casually and said:

"Then we have to wait a little longer. Judging from the current progress, there is hope that we can see helicopters before the end of this year."

"That's not bad, Comrade Panda, thank you for your hard work!"

If a heavy transport helicopter can really be developed and mass-produced, it can really fill the shortcomings of troops in short-distance transportation and armed air strikes.

We didn’t continue chatting because the space shuttle had already started launching.

The first space shuttle in original time and space was the Bald Eagle, which flew in 1977 and was successfully launched for the first time in 1981.

But now in this time and space, the name of the space shuttle, that is, the first launch of a low-Earth orbit vehicle, has been taken away by Oasis New City.

The Yangtze Space Shuttle has a total of five main engines. In addition to the three engines located at the tail of the orbiter fuselage and arranged in a triangle, there are two engines on both sides of the wings.

The engines on both sides can be used as the main engines during takeoff and landing before entering space. After entering space, the engines on both sides can be automatically retracted.

This is due to Zhou Jimin's design and material invention on the engine, using the most advanced cutting-edge technology, which allowed him to overcome this technical difficulty.

His own stealth supersonic aircraft also has such a design, and after one or two years of flying, the technology is fully mature.

Of course, the fuel used by the space shuttle is not the fixed fuel manufactured by Zeng Qingfeng and his aerospace team, nor the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen added, but the fuel compressed by Zhou Jimin himself in space.

Zeng Qingfeng and others are also improving this compressed fuel technology, but currently it can only reach 40%, which is not very mature.

The original plan was that Zhou Jimin hoped that the space shuttle would glide and take off directly from the runway, then take the polar orbiting satellite into low-Earth orbit, and then launch the polar orbiting satellite.

However, Zeng Qingfeng and the others think this is not safe.

Therefore, the space shuttle had to be launched from the launch tower, and three rocket boosters were installed on the space shuttle.

Two fixed fuel boosters, and a space shuttle fuel tank.

Zhou Jimin didn't argue too much with them, maybe they would understand later.

It’s your first launch, so be more stable.

Not long after, the rocket ignited, carrying the Yangtze Space Shuttle straight into the sky.

At the Space Launch Command Center, everyone was staring at the display screen.

In other places in the new city, everyone was also staring at the TV to watch the live broadcast, which made everyone excited.

The new city in the northwest is actually not the best location for space launches.

But the altitude here is pretty good, which is barely an advantage.

The best location for satellite launch is actually the land near the equator, but there is no such place here in the mainland.

Therefore, launching from Xincheng will only cause more trouble for scientific researchers to calculate the satellite flight time and fuel consumption.

Tens of minutes later, the Yangtze Space Shuttle entered low-Earth orbit. The three main engines on the tailstock of the fuselage were successfully ignited and began to enter the orbit of the space station.

A few hours later, the space shuttle finally reached the scheduled orbit and began to launch polar orbit satellites.

The polar-orbiting satellite is located in the cargo bay of the space shuttle.

As we all know, the cargo bay occupies most of the space shuttle fuselage and provides cargo space for the space shuttle payload.

The Yangtze Space Shuttle has a total cabin of 27 meters long, of which the 22-meter long cargo hold occupies the majority.

The cargo hold can carry fifty-six tons of cargo, and this time it is a fifty-two-ton polar-orbiting satellite.

In a low-Earth orbit of more than 400 kilometers, the polar-orbiting satellite was launched from the space shuttle. Three seconds later, it was successfully ignited and then flew toward a farther polar orbit.

The entire launch command center cheered after seeing this.

Because until this moment, the polar-orbiting satellite was not successfully launched.

Xincheng Space Center has never made any mistakes from its establishment to the present.

Even the current space shuttle launches and polar orbit satellite launches are the same.

It can be said that Xincheng Space Center has achieved a feat that neither the bald eagle nor the polar bear has achieved.

The two leaders who came from Wenjin Street in the capital were also satisfied now.

I am completely convinced by Xincheng.

Similar to the last time Lao Lin came to visit the new city, the two leaders also visited many places, especially the natural environment and sanitary environment of the new city, which surprised the two leaders the most.

After all, the two leaders already knew a lot about scientific and technological achievements before coming here.

On the contrary, the super high forest coverage rate and clean and tidy streets in the new city made the eyes of the two leaders who have been to many places shine.

The layout of the city is already perfect.

Coupled with these unimaginable forest coverage, this desert city is really surprising.

It’s hard to imagine that this is a beautiful city built from scratch within ten years.
To be continued...