Chapter 931
The Lunar Base Project Enters its Countdown
In August, the heatwave in Tangdu was like a soaked cotton blanket enveloping the entire city.
Inside the assembly and testing hall of Galaxy Aerospace R&D Center, the temperature was several degrees higher than outside, not because the air conditioning was broken, but because the people here were burning with passion.
The Hercules-2000 test arrow has completed final assembly. The silver-gray arrow body lies horizontally on the huge support frame, like a sleeping dragon.
The rocket is 62 meters long and 9 meters in diameter. Eight Hercules-9 engines are arranged in a ring at the tail of the rocket, with nozzles neatly arranged like soldiers in formation.
This is the most powerful rocket in human history, with a takeoff thrust of over 8,000 tons, a near-Earth payload capacity of 200 tons, and a lunar transfer payload capacity of 60 tons.
Yang Anchao stood on the observation platform in the final assembly and testing hall, clutching a test report in his hand, his knuckles turning white from the force.
His gaze was fixed on the rocket, as if he were looking at his own child—no, even more anxious than if he were looking at his own child.
He was on a launch mission in Jiuquan when his child was born and missed it.
Later, when his child grew up, he asked him, "Dad, what were you doing back then?"
He said, "We're building rockets."
The child then asked, "Is building rockets more important, or am I more important?"
He thought for a long time and said, "They are all important."
He lied to the child.
In his heart, the rocket is more important than anything else.
"Mr. Yang."
A voice pulled him back to reality.
He turned around and saw Chief Engineer Zhou standing behind him, holding a thick stack of reports in his hand, his glasses covered with a fine layer of fog—the traces left by the alternating hot and cold temperatures when he returned from the test bench.
"The data from the eighth parallel test of the Lux-2000 is out."
Old Zhou's voice was a little hoarse. He had been working overtime for many days in a row, only getting a few hours of rest each day. When he was sleepy, he would take a nap in the office and then continue working when he woke up.
Yang Anchao took the report and turned the pages one by one.
Thrust data, combustion chamber pressure, turbopump speed, nozzle temperature, coupled vibration modes... every curve is so smooth as to be almost perfect.
But Yang Anchao's brows furrowed even more deeply.
"Old Zhou, look here."
He pointed to a line of data in the report and said, "The pressure fluctuation in the combustion chamber of engine No. 3 differed by 0.3 percentage points between the seventh and eighth test runs."
Old Zhou came over and stared at that line of data for a long time.
"0.3 percentage points is within the margin of error."
"Within the margin of error, but not normal."
Yang Anchao's voice was not loud, but it carried a stubbornness as he earnestly said, "The seventh time was ±0.1%, and the eighth time was ±0.4%. The fluctuation range has expanded fourfold. This is not a random error; it is a systematic trend."
Old Zhou fell silent.
After Yang Anchao said that, he realized that something was wrong.
Those who work in aerospace cannot overlook even the smallest anomaly.
Many accidents begin "within the margin of error"—this was true for Challenger, Columbia, and the first launch of the Long March 3B.
"I'll check."
Old Zhou didn't argue, and turned to leave.
But after taking two steps, he stopped, turned back to look at Yang Anchao, and said, "President Yang, there are only twenty-one days left until the launch."
"I know."
"If there really is a problem, is it too late to fix it now?"
Yang Anchao did not answer immediately.
He looked at the rocket lying on the support frame, paused for a moment, and said firmly, "Whether we have time or not, we have to make it. We must do it."
After Lao Zhou left, Yang Anchao stood alone on the observation platform, watching the rocket.
Twenty-one days.
This number felt like a stone weighing on his heart.
Twenty-one days later, the rocket will lift off from the Jiuquan launch site, using the powerful thrust of its eight engines to propel itself out of the atmosphere, followed by second-stage and third-stage ignition, to enter the Earth-Moon transfer orbit.
Then, it will fly for four days, covering a distance of 380,000 kilometers, to reach the moon.
Finally, it will initiate the landing procedure above the lunar surface, using retro-thrust to gently place itself on the lunar surface.
It wasn't a hard landing, it was a soft landing.
It's not about throwing it up, it's about placing it up.
If any link in this process goes wrong, the whole rocket landing on the moon plan will turn into the whole rocket hitting the moon.
The rocket would crash into the moon at a speed of several kilometers per second, turning into a pile of scrap metal worth billions, and he, his team, and Galaxy Technologies would become a laughing stock worldwide.
He recalled the question Academician Chen Mingyuan asked him a few days ago at the defense meeting held by the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense: "Xiao Yang, if you had to describe this plan in one word, what would it be?"
His answer was, "It's worth it."
He still thinks it was worth it.
But just because it's worthwhile doesn't mean we're not afraid.
What he feared was not failure itself, but what would happen after failure.
After a failure, those doubts will resurface.
"Private aerospace companies cannot engage in deep space exploration."
"To shoot an arrow into the moon is a pipe dream."
"Galaxy Aerospace has become arrogant."
He could bear these things personally, but he didn't want Galaxy Aerospace to bear them, he didn't want Wang Donglai to bear them, and he didn't want to disappoint the brothers who had worked with him for so many years.
Their families, their children, their future—all are pinned on this rocket.
Yang Anchao took a deep breath and suppressed those chaotic thoughts.
Don't think about these things. The more you think about them, the more scared you'll become, and the less you can work.
He turned and walked down from the observation platform toward the control room of the final assembly and testing hall.
There are still hundreds of parameters waiting for him to review, thousands of data points waiting for his signature, and tens of thousands of lines of code waiting for his inspection.
Meanwhile, across the ocean, in Houston.
An emergency meeting is being held at NASA's Johnson Space Center.
The conference room wasn't large, but it was packed with people—high-ranking NASA officials, JPL engineers, and National Security Council representatives from the White House.
There was no tea or documents on the long table, only a huge screen displaying public information from China.
"The Lux-2000 test rocket is expected to launch in early September."
The speaker was NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, his voice low and tinged with suppressed anxiety: "Objective: Earth-Moon transfer, soft landing on the lunar surface."
He paused, his gaze sweeping over everyone present.
"This is not an ordinary launch. If successful, the Chinese will have the capability to send an entire base to the moon. Their whole-rocket lunar landing plan is not a concept, but an engineering project that has already entered the implementation stage."
The meeting room was so quiet you could hear the air conditioner humming.
An engineer with graying hair spoke up; he was Michael Watkins, a deep space exploration expert from JPL. “Director, I’ve gathered some information from public sources. The Lux-2000 has a takeoff thrust of 8,500 tons and a lunar transfer capacity of 60 tons. This figure is 50 percent higher than our SLS Block 1. Moreover, they use liquid oxygen-methane engines, which are reusable, and their launch cost is only one-third of ours.”
He pulled up a comparison chart, and rows of data popped up on the screen.
"More importantly, their whole-rocket lunar landing plan turns the rocket itself into a base. One rocket, carrying a 60-ton payload, directly becomes a permanent facility on the lunar surface. We have never had this idea before."
Nelson's face darkened further.
Of course he knew these figures, and it was precisely because he knew them that he was anxious.
Is it possible... they are exaggerating their claims?
Watkins shook his head and immediately denied it, saying, "Director, Wang Donglai doesn't exaggerate. He said he would develop solid-state batteries, and he did. He said he would build a lithography factory, and he did. He said he would develop room-temperature superconductivity, and he did. He said he would go to the moon, and he went there himself. Every word he said came true in the end."
Nelson remained silent.
Silence fell over the meeting room once again.
The National Security Council representative, a blonde woman in her forties, finally spoke.
“Director, the White Palace’s message is clear—we cannot allow the Chinese to gain absolute dominance on the moon. We have our own Artemis program, but it’s progressing too slowly. The first launch of the SLS has been repeatedly postponed, and the lunar landing schedule has been changed again and again. If the Chinese send astronauts to the moon and build a permanent base next year, our leadership in the space field will cease to exist.”
“So?” Nelson asked.
"Therefore, the White Palace hopes NASA can come up with an acceleration plan. Can the Artemis timeline be brought forward? Can we cooperate with commercial space companies and use SpaceX's Starship to accelerate it? Can we... talk to the Chinese about cooperation?"
Nelson's eyebrows furrowed, and he immediately retorted sharply, "Talk about cooperation? Have you forgotten the Wolf Clause?"
The blonde woman didn't reply, she just shrugged.
Nelson leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, as if processing what he had just said.
Talking about cooperation is easier said than done.
Those old men in Congress are more wary of China than anyone else.
The Wolf Clause is stuck there, preventing NASA from even making formal contact with the China National Space Administration, let alone cooperating.
But how can we catch up without cooperation? The gap isn't narrowing, it's widening.
Paris, headquarters of the European Space Agency.
A similarly somber meeting is underway.
Seated around the long table was Joseph Aschbach, the director of the ESA, and several heads of key departments.
On the table was a "Analysis Report on Galaxy Aerospace's Lunar Landing Plan," with a "Confidential" stamp on the cover.
"Is the intelligence reliable?" Ashbach asked.
"reliable."
The speaker was Jean-Pierre, the ESA's intelligence analysis director, a Frenchman in his fifties.
“Our ground observation station tracked GalaxySpace’s rocket engine test. Over the past month, they have conducted at least eight parallel tests. The thrust data, combustion stability data, and control system data all indicate that their technology is nearing maturity.”
He opened the report, pointed to several satellite photos, and explained, "These were taken by our satellite. There are more than a dozen special transport vehicles parked outside Galaxy Aerospace's assembly and testing hall, carrying fuel tanks inside. Our image analysts have determined that the Lux-2000 demonstrator rocket has completed assembly and is undergoing final testing."
Ashbach frowned and asked in confusion, "Why were they so fast?"
Jean-Pierre gave a wry smile and said, “Director, we’ve discussed this internally as well. The conclusion is—they have a Wang Donglai. Wang Donglai used mathematics and AI to compress the most time-consuming trial-and-error process in rocket development to the extreme. The aerodynamic data that our engineers had to spend months in the wind tunnel to verify, he completed in a few minutes with AI. The design parameters that our team had to repeatedly refine to determine, he calculated with a few strokes of a formula.”
Ashbach fell silent.
There was a moment of silence in the conference room before someone asked, "What do we do?"
Ashbach remained silent for a long time before saying, "We're talking about cooperation with the Chinese. Not symbolic cooperation, but real, in-depth cooperation. If we can get involved in their whole-rocket-to-moon landing program, even if it's just providing some equipment, some technology, or some personnel, it will be a huge boost to our future deep space exploration capabilities."
He paused, his voice becoming serious: "The Chinese won't give us opportunities for nothing. But we can show our sincerity—we are willing to cooperate with the Chinese on Mars exploration. Their astronauts can ride on our Mars probes, and our astronauts can ride on their lunar base. This isn't about one begging the other; it's about mutual benefit."
“What if they disagree?” someone asked.
Ashbach looked out the window; the Parisian sky was overcast, and the stars were nowhere to be seen.
But he knew those stars were there.
“If they don’t agree, we can only watch them land on the moon, build a base, and we… continue to hold meetings on Earth.”
Japan, JAXA headquarters.
Hiroshi Amano sat in the director's office, a report in front of him.
This wasn't the first time he'd read this report, but each time he did, his feelings were different.
The Lux-2000 test rocket will be launched in September.
The "Whole Arrow to the Moon" plan has officially begun.
He recalled a few months ago when he was sitting in Wang Donglai's office, being questioned to his face by that young man.
"When will your textbooks accurately depict that period of history? Can we discuss this?"
"Can you truly admit the mistakes you made in history? Is this something we can discuss?"
Every problem was like a knife, cutting into his heart.
He couldn't answer then, and he still can't answer now.
Because those things were not something he could decide, or even something that the Grand Chancellor could decide; they were the collective unconscious accumulated by the entire society and the entire nation over decades.
But at this moment, looking at this report, he suddenly had an impulse—to go to Tangdu again and talk to Wang Donglai again.
Not as a JAXA consultant, not as a Nobel laureate, but as Hiroshi Amano in his personal capacity.
He picked up his phone, hesitated for a long time, and then put it down again.
What could we possibly say if we went?
He still couldn't answer those questions.
Tangdu, Galaxy Aerospace R&D Center.
Yang Anchao squatted under the tail nozzle of the rocket, holding a flashlight in his hand, shining it inch by inch on the inner wall of the nozzle.
The coating of the Xirang soil gleams with a silvery-gray metallic luster under the light, as smooth as a mirror, without bubbles, cracks, or a single flaw.
He took the test for a long time, then stood up and said to the engineer next to him, "Test it again."
The engineer was stunned and couldn't help but say, "Mr. Yang, we've measured it seven times already, and the data is all within the margin of error."
"Test it again." Yang Anchao's voice was not loud, but there was no room for negotiation.
The engineer said nothing more and turned to get the testing equipment.
Old Zhou stood aside, looking at Yang Anchao, his heart filled with mixed feelings.
He had partnered with Yang Anchao for over a decade, from Jiuquan to Galaxy Aerospace, from Long March to Lishi, and he had never seen him so nervous.
It's not because this mission is particularly difficult, but because it carries immense weight.
The entire rocket landing on the moon was no ordinary launch.
It carries so much—the future of Galaxy Aerospace, Wang Donglai's trust, the nation's expectations, and the dreams of generations of aerospace workers.
These heavy responsibilities would make anyone nervous, especially a 62-year-old veteran of the aerospace industry.
"Old Zhou," Yang Anchao suddenly spoke. "Hmm?"
"Tell me, if we fail this time, do we still have a chance?"
Old Zhou was silent for a moment before saying firmly, "President Yang, we will not fail. Academician Wang laid such a good foundation for us and gave us such good conditions, from the first experimental rocket to the manned lunar landing, from the lava tube base to the complete rocket landing on the moon. Every time, some people said it wouldn't work, but every time it did. This time, we will definitely succeed too!"
Yang Anchao didn't speak, he just stared at the rocket for a long time.
Then he turned to Lao Zhou and said, "Let's go to the control room and run the guidance system's algorithm again." (End of Chapter)