Chapter 941
The Eve of Rocket Launch
In September, the evening wind in Jiuquan carries sand and gravel from the Gobi Desert, which rustles against the silver-gray exterior walls of the Yinhe Space Launch Center.
The sun had already sunk below the horizon, its last rays painting the sky a dark orange, like rust washed clean. The Hercules-2000 test rocket on the launch tower had been fueled, its silver-gray body gleaming coldly in the twilight.
Standing 62 meters tall and 9 meters in diameter, with eight engines arranged in a ring at the rear—this rocket, the most powerful in human history, is now as quiet as a sleeping behemoth, awaiting its awakening tomorrow.
A black Hongqi car drove into the gate of the launch center. There was no convoy, no entourage, just one car and one person.
The sentry at the gate saw the license plate, stood at attention, saluted, and watched the red flag slowly drive by.
They knew who had come.
When Wang Donglai got out of the car, Yang Anchao was already waiting at the entrance of the final assembly and testing hall.
He was wearing a faded blue overall, with the Galaxy Aerospace logo embroidered on his left chest. His hair was a little messy, and his eyes were bloodshot from working overtime continuously.
Upon seeing Wang Donglai, he quickly went to greet him and extended his hand.
"Mr. Wang, you've arrived."
Wang Donglai grasped his hand. The hand was rough, with thick calluses on the palm and fingertips—traces left from decades of dealing with wrenches, screws, and metal parts—but it was full of strength.
"Mr. Yang, thank you for your hard work."
Yang Anchao smiled but didn't say anything like "it's not hard work".
Because he really worked hard, and the whole team worked hard too.
Whether this hard work is worth it or not, we'll only know when the rocket ignites tomorrow.
The two walked side by side into the final assembly and testing hall.
The hall was brightly lit, and the Hercules-2000 verification rocket—the Pioneer 1—lay horizontally on the huge support frame, like a sleeping dragon.
The surface of the arrow is coated with a silver-gray heat-resistant coating, which gleams with a metallic luster under the light.
The rocket body is printed with the five large characters "Pioneer One" and next to it is the star track logo of Galaxy Aerospace.
The workers are conducting final checks. Some are crouching under the engine nozzle, using flashlights to examine the soil coating inch by inch on the inner wall of the nozzle; others are lying on the surface of the rocket body, scanning every weld seam with an ultrasonic flaw detector; still others are sitting in front of the control panel, checking each line of the dense data stream on the screen.
Wang Donglai did not disturb them.
He walked slowly along the corridor next to the support frame, his gaze sweeping over the arrow.
He recognizes every component—the storage tank, the interstage section, the instrument compartment, the engine frame, the nozzle—and each component embodies years of hard work from the team.
He walked to the bottom of the engine nozzle, squatted down, and gently touched the soil coating on the inner wall of the nozzle with his hand.
The coating is as smooth as a mirror, and it gleams with a silvery-gray sheen under the light.
His fingers glided slowly across the coated surface, as if caressing a precious work of art.
"The data from the ninth test showed that the coating worked for 600 seconds at a high temperature of 3,000 degrees Celsius without any peeling, cracking or performance degradation."
Yang Anchao's voice rang out from behind: "Old Zhou and his team worked for two months, adjusting the formula twenty-seven times, to improve the coating's adhesion to this level. He said it was the best he could do. If it's not enough, he's willing to keep working on it."
Wang Donglai stood up, dusted off his hands, and said, "That's enough. The Xirang coating is one of the parts of this rocket that gives me the most peace of mind."
He turned around, looked at Yang Anchao, and said, "What about the coupled vibration modal analysis of the parallel control system? I remember that during the eighth test run, the pressure fluctuation in the combustion chamber of engine number three increased fourfold."
Yang Anchao took a report out of his pocket and handed it over.
"The problem is solved. The cause wasn't in the engine itself, but in the resonant frequency of the fuel delivery pipeline. Lao Zhou and his team redesigned the pipeline support, moving the resonant frequency from 80 Hz to 150 Hz, thus avoiding the sensitive range of coupled vibration. Data from the ninth test run showed that the pressure fluctuations of all three engines were controlled within ±0.1 percent."
Wang Donglai opened the report, but didn't look at it closely. He just glanced at the key data, then closed it and handed it back to Yang Anchao.
"What about the guidance system? Have you resolved the issue of the solenoid valve response delay that you mentioned on the phone last time?"
"It's resolved too."
Yang Anchao's voice carried a hint of emotion as he said, "You came by that night and redesigned the control logic using AI. After we deployed the new model, we ran tens of thousands of simulations, and the landing point deviation was reduced from ±15 meters to ±3 meters."
Wang Donglai nodded, said nothing more, and a look of satisfaction appeared on his face.
The two continued walking forward until they reached the head of the rocket.
The fairing was not yet closed, but the payload inside could be seen. It was the core of the lunar landing mission, containing key equipment needed for the lunar base terraforming: four "Yugong" intelligent robots, solar photovoltaic panels, communication antennas, radiators, and a complete life support system.
Although this was an unmanned verification mission, all the equipment was configured according to manned standards.
Three months from now, the lunar landing mission will send three astronauts to the moon, where they will stay for thirty days in this modified base.
Wang Donglai stood beside the fairing, looking at the gleaming silver equipment inside, and remained silent for a long time.
Yang Anchao stood behind him without saying a word.
He knew what Wang Donglai was thinking. This man never just looked at the rocket in front of him; he always saw the next step, and the next step after that, until the day when humanity left the solar system.
"Engineer Yang, how's the inspection going?" Wang Donglai suddenly asked.
"All systems have completed three rounds of comprehensive checks. The power system, guidance system, telemetry system, telemetry and control system, and life support system are all normal. Tomorrow morning at 6:00 AM, we will conduct the final pre-fueling check. Fueling will begin at 7:00 AM, and ignition will be at 9:00 AM."
Yang Anchao's voice was steady, but Wang Donglai could hear the tension hidden beneath that calmness.
It's not a lack of trust in my team, but a deep respect for the aerospace industry itself.
In the aerospace field, no one dares to say they are 100% certain. No matter how well prepared they are, there are always some unforeseen factors that may affect the outcome.
"What about the weather?"
"Tomorrow morning will be sunny with wind speeds of 6 to 9 meters per second, which is within the safe range. Upper-level wind speeds will be 18 meters per second, also within the safe range. The meteorological team says the next 48 hours are the launch window."
Wang Donglai nodded.
He walked to the support frame, reached out, and gently patted the silver-gray body of the Pioneer One rocket.
The metal surface was cold, carrying the chill of a night in the Gobi Desert.
"By this time tomorrow, it will be on its way to the moon." Yang Anchao looked at Wang Donglai's back and suddenly felt an urge—not to report on work, not to discuss technology, but to speak his mind.
He has known Wang Donglai for several years. From the very first day that Galaxy Aerospace was founded, this young man has led them all the way to where they are today.
He had seen Wang Donglai's focus when tackling technical challenges, his composure when facing doubts, and the way he stood on the lunar surface waving the national flag after the successful moon landing.
"Mr. Wang."
Yang Anchao said, "The examination is almost complete. Would you like to go for a walk outside?"
Wang Donglai turned around, looked at Yang Anchao, a hint of surprise in his eyes, but it quickly turned into understanding. He nodded and said, "Okay."
The two walked out of the final assembly and testing hall and slowly walked along the cement road of the launch center.
It had fully arrived; the sky over the Gobi Desert was as clean as if it had been washed with water, the Milky Way stretched across the sky, and countless stars looked as if someone had casually scattered a handful of diamonds.
In the distance, the Pioneer 1 on the launch tower was illuminated by searchlights, looking like a silver-white sword piercing the sky.
Yang Anchao took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, pulled one out, and lit it.
The orange-red flames flickered in the night, and the smoke was dispersed by the evening breeze, quickly disappearing into the darkness.
"Mr. Wang, I sometimes think about a question."
His voice was lower than usual, as if he were talking to himself: "What are we working so hard for? The Hercules engine went from 1,000 tons to 1,500 tons, the whole rocket landing on the moon went from concept to engineering, and the lunar base went from science fiction to reality. Every step was difficult, and every step was met with disapproval, but we made it through step by step."
He took a drag of his cigarette, then exhaled, as if releasing a pent-up frustration.
"But sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and think, even if we build a lunar base, even if we send people there to live for a month, a year, or ten years, then what? The solar system is only so big, and the moon is just the first stop. Going forward, there's Mars, the asteroid belt, Jupiter's moons—each step is ten or a hundred times more difficult than the last. How far can we go in our lifetime? How far can the next generation go?"
Wang Donglai did not answer immediately.
He looked up at the Milky Way overhead, where countless stars crowded together, like a luminous river stretching across the night sky.
After a while, he spoke, his voice not loud, but every word was clear.
"Engineer Yang, do you know why I'm involved in aerospace?"
Yang Anchao thought for a moment and said, "Because you have the ability? Because you think someone should do this?"
"Yes, but not entirely."
Wang Donglai turned his gaze from the Milky Way to the rocket illuminated by a searchlight in the distance.
“When I was a child in Wangjia Village, I often sat on a stool in the yard on summer nights to look at the stars. Back then, the old people in the village would point to the Milky Way and tell the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. As I listened, I would wonder—are there really people on those stars?”
He paused, then continued, "Later, after I went to school and read books, I learned that those stars were all stars like the Sun, tens, hundreds, or even tens of thousands of light-years away from us. With current human technology, we can't even get to the nearest star."
Yang Anchao didn't speak, but just listened quietly.
"Later, I discovered that I had a talent for studying, and I achieved a good score in the college entrance examination, which confirmed my belief."
"After entering university, I had more time to think, which led me to found Galaxy Technology and solve several mathematical problems."
"As I meet more and more people and experience more and more things, I want more and more."
"According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, I am currently in the value-seeking stage."
"We've been stuck on this planet for hundreds of thousands of years, from the time we left Africa to the time we landed on the moon. If we stop and say, 'It's too far, we're not going any further,' then we'll really be stuck here forever."
He turned to look at Yang Anchao: "Engineer Yang, do you know that all life on Earth will eventually face the same fate? The sun won't burn forever. In billions of years, it will expand into a red giant and engulf the Earth. Before that, if humanity hasn't left the solar system, we will become a speck of dust in the universe along with this planet. Hundreds of thousands of years of civilization, all the art, science, philosophy, all the love and hate, all the struggles and dreams, will all be reduced to nothing."
His voice softened, but every word was like a nail driven into Yang Anchao's heart.
"I don't want humanity to end like this. Not because I think humans are so great, but because I think it's such a pity. We've gone through so much to evolve from apes into humans, so much to learn how to use fire, make tools, write, build machines, and fly into the sky, so much to reach the moon. It would be such a waste if we just stopped here."
Yang Anchao fell silent.
The cigarette in his hand had burned to the end, and the ash fell to the ground and was scattered by the wind.
He recalled his years in Jiuquan, the shelved plans, and the projects that failed due to insufficient funding.
He thought that this was how his life would be: working within the system until retirement, writing a few papers, mentoring a few students, and growing old quietly.
But Wang Donglai gave him another option: not just to build rockets, but to build a road.
A path that led humanity out of its cradle.
Yang Anchao's voice was a little hoarse: "President Wang, I understand what you're saying. But sometimes I worry, I worry that you're moving too fast. The Hercules engine went from nothing to something in just a few years. The Xuanwu battery went from concept to mass production in just a few years. The lithography factory went from blueprints to production in just a few years. Room temperature superconductivity went from theory to prototypes in just a few years. The whole rocket landing on the moon went from conception to verification rocket in just a few years. Each of these things takes others decades to accomplish, and you've done them all in just a few years."
He paused, a hint of worry in his voice: "Mr. Wang, I'm not questioning your abilities, I'm worried that you're moving so fast, leaving everyone behind. If one day you encounter a problem that even you can't solve, who will help you?"
Wang Donglai did not answer immediately.
He walked to a large rock by the roadside, sat down, and patted the spot next to him.
Yang Anchao walked over and sat down next to him.
The two sat side by side, looking at the Pioneer 1 illuminated by searchlights in the distance.
The night wind blew by, carrying the unique sandy smell of the Gobi Desert, dry and rough.
"Mr. Yang, you're right, I do walk very fast."
Wang Donglai's voice was calm, without pride or humility; he was simply stating a fact.
"I will do my part and contribute my light. Since I have the ability, I will not let it go to waste."
"I don't have to be involved in the project, but I will definitely be a part of its success. I've always said this. Without the foundation laid by the previous generation, how could we have achieved our success? We can also be the foundation for the next generation."
"Moreover, technological development is never rational, and the future is still unknown!"
Yang Anchao could hear the confidence in Wang Donglai's tone, but he didn't think it was exaggerated; on the contrary, he felt it was an unwavering conviction. (End of Chapter)