You were told to build a tractor, but you're building a rocket? Chapter 222 - 216: Senator1

In the TV station’s production crew footage, Chief Engineer Yun Hongjun of the CZ-10 looked sowhat thin and sallow, with thick bags under his eyes which left no doubt about how frantically he had worked over the past few months.

How long did the basic design for the CZ-10 take? 1 minute, that’s the ti recollected by Academician She.

In the past decades, unresolved and continuously debated issues were finally settled in just 1 minute with the determination of the basic configuration.

When the Dawn project was approved, the CZ-10 team was quickly ford, imdiately started on detailed design work, and drew seven or eight people from the team of the CZ-5. They applied the design experience of the CZ-5 to finish the overall design work of the CZ-10 at the fastest pace.

Then, with the specific dinsions in hand, the Jingu Rocket Manufacturing Base began to produce the rocket body, Institute 6 worked desperately on the YF130, while also improving the vacuum version of the YF77, the YF75D, and so on.

The pressure on the rocket body side was enormous as well. Constructing a rocket with a gravity of 3600 tons and a diater of 5 ters ant there were guaranteed to be problems with strength, and bundling four thousand-ton level boosters required the developnt of a separation chanism from scratch.

Countless difficulties were encountered; leaders from above visited the site four tis, which was enough to indicate the anxious attitude of higher-ups.

In 10 months, less than a year, the space administration created a miracle in the history of spaceflight, manufacturing a giant rocket capable of landing on the Moon in the shortest ti possible.

Regardless of the potential of the CZ-10 configuration or the amount of money invested in it, none could erase the significant contributions of the CZ-10 team; they were destined to beco legendary.

Chief Engineer Yun Hongjun had to follow the maiden flight of the CZ-10 throughout the entire process, as he feared any mishap could befall this rocket that carried the dream of landing on the Moon. He thus decided to accompany the transport ship to Qiongzhou, needing to see the 7 extra-long containers every day to feel at ease.

Facing reporters’ interviews, although he would recite so standard responses, one could still sense the overwhelming power exuding from his slight figure.

In the last image of the news that day, Yun Hongjun looked into the cara and said calmly,

"On behalf of the CZ-10 developnt team, I guarantee that the launch of the CZ-10 will proceed smoothly as scheduled. The Dawn project will carry its initial purpose to safely send our astronauts to the Moon and ensure their safe return!"

...

There are many marine routes from Jingu to Qiongzhou. The Yuanwang rocket transport ship will go non-stop all the way, reaching the port in just 4 short days, then complete unloading, assembly, and inspection in no more than 10 days. The earliest launch could be on August 12, and the latest by August 15.

So had suggested chartering the An-1250 for two flights that could be completed within 48 hours, which would be much faster from the landing at New Yuan Aerospace Launch Site to the Qiongzhou Aerospace Launch Center, but it was vetoed on the grounds of safety.

However, the efficiency of shipping was not slow either, much better than several inland launch sites, and indeed it was stable.

Unlike New Yuan’s only viable water route that needed to navigate through the crowded Yangtze River channel, which was troubleso and not without risks, necessitating the developnt of air transport.

By August 5, the 7 containers had been transported to Position 1 of Qiongzhou Launch Site.

This launching position, which had accommodated the New Yuan-1 series, New Yuan-2, New Yuan-2A, and New Yuan No. 3, finally welcod its own rocket.

To celebrate this, the Qiongzhou Launch Administration held a welcoming ceremony for the convoy transporting the CZ-10, decorating the entire transport route and Director Huang personally escorted it the whole way.

From the arrival of the CZ-10 in Qiongzhou, CCAV would report daily on this giant rocket, and netizens nationwide also extensively discussed it.

Similarly, the CZ-10 also reached extre popularity with foreign dia.

On August 1, CNN’s news headline was just a simple sentence:

"CZ-10 will arrive at Qiongzhou Space Launch Site."

Colombia Broadcasting Corporation was even more straightforward, "China’s National Space Administration is about to win the race to the Moon."

This starkly represented Arica’s current attitude towards CZ-10; no matter how great NACA’s past achievents were, and regardless of the fact that the Artemis program had pooled together contributions from multiple nations, amounting to a total funding of a hundred billion US dollars, they were in reality falling behind.

The SLS rocket was still not assembled, and after that, it would have to undergo body testing and launch platform modifications, among other things. The Kennedy Space Center spent alone 1.6 billion US dollars just to modify the launch platform.

The mont CZ-10 appeared, NACA and Congress were both blown away.

Early in the morning, Claire was dragged to Congress, where a senator didn’t mince words:

How much longer until the inaugural flight of the SLS rocket?

At this mont, Claire too was scratching his head. Last year, when the Dawn project was just announced, he had seen the plans for CZ-10 and did not believe at all that China’s National Space Administration would be able to launch by this August.

He was not aware of the specific progress of CZ-5, which ant that from NACA’s perspective, CZ-10, from its body and engines to its overall structure, was being developed entirely anew. Even at the most frantic pace, it would take about two years, or at least a year and a half.

On the contrary, SLS was a continuation of the Ares series of rockets and adopted mature technology from the Space Shuttle program; it was expected to fly before CZ-10 by any asure.

But now, he knew that his counterparts across the Pacific had created a Moon rocket at a speed far beyond his imagination, which shocked him trendously.

Facing the senator’s aggressive deanor, Claire could only answer his question first:

"There have been so problems with the developnt of the SLS rocket, but we’ve resolved these issues and will still launch as scheduled."

Senator, "You an to say that the SLS rocket will only be able to launch in December, right?"

Claire, steeling himself, said, "Yes, it can launch at the earliest by early December, and we guarantee that the SLS rocket will be launched before the end of 2017."

Senator, "We’ve already allocated a budget of 60 billion US dollars to the Artemis program this year. As far as I know, the entire Dawn program is barely 8 billion US dollars. Please tell us where all these funds have gone and why the SLS rocket is falling behind CZ-10?"

When it ca to funding, Claire’s headache worsened. The state of affairs in Arica was well known; the number and quality of workers were both declining, especially in the high-tech industry, which required overti. The average wages offered were more than five tis those of their counterparts across the sea, and procurent prices were similarly inflated.

The fact that SLS was scheduled to make its maiden flight so soon was the result of frantic staffing and overti. The allocated 60 billion dollars was nearly spent.

But he decided not to take the bait and instead tried to defend:

"China’s National Space Administration can only use the CZ-10 rocket. They need at least four rockets to execute a crewed lunar mission, whereas the Artemis program will only use three SLS rockets. Even with a delay of four months, we are still faster.

Moreover, the rush in the developnt and production of CZ-10 rockets surely compromises their reliability."

To his surprise, the senators burst into laughter upon hearing his words, with one senator standing up and shouting:

"Director Claire, did you completely fail to understand CASA before you assud your current position? Look at the world ranking of rocket launch success rates; do you expect us to pin our hopes on their failure?!

We should impeach you and replace you with soone more clear-headed!"