Chapter 748: BFR Rocket Launch!

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Florida, America.

A 32-floor high super-rocket sat on the launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The American flag, NASA logo, and s.p.a.ce-X logo were printed on the side of the rocket, as well as the three large letters “BFR”. Also, several Wall Street investment banks also had their logos printed on the rocket.

It took nearly a month for the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to a.s.sembly the entire rocket. It then took another week to finish the final launch preparations.

Now that the rocket was equipped with the life support system, all of the preparations were in place. It was finally time to begin the launch. Countless pairs of hopeful eyes were focused on this rocket. They had been waiting for this moment.

The ignition countdown began.

After the ten-second countdown, billowing smoke was seen from the launch platform.

The 42 Raptor engines consumed liquid oxygen and methane at an incredible rate. They provided an astonis.h.i.+ng take-off thrust of 128 trillion Newtons across the entire s.p.a.cecraft. It propelled the 100-meter-tall rocket slowly off the launch platform and toward the blue sky.

The engine roared like a giant monster.

This monster was called chemical propulsion.

It contained the world’s most advanced liquid oxygen methane propulsion technology. This monster once again displayed its strength to the world…

Musk looked at the rocket through a telescope. He smirked and gave the telescope to his a.s.sistant. He looked at Director Carson, who was staring into the distance, and said, “I told you, there’s nothing to worry about. We have the best aeros.p.a.ce research and development team in the world, and it is the most experienced team as well. We just have to wait for the team’s good news from 60 million kilometers away.”

“I hope it’s good news.” Carson put down the telescope and asked, “What about the BFS s.p.a.cecraft? Is it ready?”

If the life support system could be successfully deployed on Mars, then the three lucky volunteers would board the s.h.i.+p in June and begin the greatest expedition in human history.

The BFS s.p.a.cecraft played an important role in the Ares program, which was to send astronauts to Mars safely.

Musk: “We’re not going to use the BFS s.p.a.cecraft.”

Director Carson looked at Musk and said, “But in your PowerPoint, you said…”

Musk waved his hand and said, “That thing has a 100-person capacity. We’ll use it for the last stage of the Ares program. We only need to send three astronauts. We’ll use a smaller, more reliable transportation method. Guess what it’s called?”

Carson: “… What?”

“Heart of Gold!”

Carson paused for a second. He then responded, “Like in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?”

If he recalled correctly, the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p in the novel was called the Heart of Gold. However, the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p in the novel didn’t use chemical propulsion. Instead, it used some kind of “Infinite Improbability Drive”, which claimed to be able to reach any corner of the universe instantly.

Musk smiled.

“That’s right. Douglas Adams’ sci-fi masterpiece. It will be the first manned s.p.a.cecraft to land on Mars!”

Director Carson smiled and shook his head.

“… I think a more appropriate name will go down in history better.”

Musk said, “History is written by people. When we succeed, the name won’t matter.”

While the two were talking, deafening cheers were heard nearby.

Standing there were people invited by NASA; people such as company representatives and reporters. Everyone’s face was full of nothing but excitement.

The BFR rocket carrying the life support system was heading toward Mars, which was more than 60 million kilometers away. If everything were to go according to plan, it should land on the surface of Mars in a month.

The reporters stood at their designated shooting location. They were excited to have finished taking photos of the rocket taking off. They held their cameras and left the launch site.

They couldn’t wait to get back to their computers and start editing tomorrow’s headline.

Tomorrow…

The entire world would be astounded by America’s achievement…

…

The news of the successful BFR launch reached headlines across the world.

According to NASA’s report, the “Heart of Gold” s.p.a.cecraft carrying the life support system had successfully reached the escape velocity, leaving the Earth-Moon system.

The United States had once again demonstrated to the world its ambitions and strengths in the aeros.p.a.ce field. Major newspapers, TV, and talk shows had also run relevant reports.

Because s.p.a.ce-X was one of the main protagonists in the Ares program, its stock price began to rise.

According to a financial trader who worked on Wall Street, not only did this launch plan bring in billions of dollars of revenue for s.p.a.ce-X, but it also brought tens of billions of market value growth for the US stock market.

The lithium-sulfur battery market and electric vehicle market was already expanding, and it wouldn’t take long for Elon Musk to be one of the world’s top 10 richest people.

Because of the successful BFR rocket launch, the Chinese community began to debate on the lunar orbit s.p.a.ce station.

A lot of people claimed that this billion-dollar project was destined to fail and that even if the project was successful, it was all for a show. They even claimed that the s.p.a.ce station itself was useless.

Lu Zhou didn’t pay attention to what people were saying. After he returned from Beijing, he kept himself very busy.

The most difficult part of constructing a s.p.a.ce station in lunar orbit was sending the components to s.p.a.ce.

So far, it seemed like Star Sky Technology was the only one that could handle these kinds of payloads.

Therefore, it was not an exaggeration to say that the success of this project was entirely dependent on Lu Zhou himself.

A lunar orbit engineering meeting was happening inside a conference room at the Jinling Inst.i.tute for Advanced Study.

“… If we want to complete the construction of the lunar s.p.a.ce station, we have to deliver at least 500 tons of materials to lunar orbit,” Lu Zhou said while looking at the projector screen. He tapped his pen on the table and said, “And this is just the first phase of the project. There’s at least another 2,000 tons of payload waiting for us. We have to increase our delivery capacity.”

Because the lunar orbit s.p.a.ce station was a highly valued project of the Communist Party of China, it was easy for Lu Zhou to receive funding. Plenty of banks were happy to give out loans.

Even though the project hadn’t even begun, Lu Zhou already received a 50 billion yuan loan from a major bank. Part of the money would be used for the construction of the new Skyglow aeros.p.a.ceplane. The rest of the money would be used for research and development of s.p.a.ce transportation vehicles.

Lu Zhou paused for a second and said, “I think we can create a special s.p.a.cecraft, designed to specifically travel between the Earth-Moon transfer orbit and the geosynchronous...o...b..t.”

Quiet chatters were heard in the conference room.

The idea of building a s.p.a.cecraft specifically designed to travel between the geosynchronous...o...b..t and the Earth-Moon transfer orbit was so novel that many experts had no idea that this was possible.

Hou Guang’s eyebrows furrowed, and he contemplated for a second before asking, “So what you’re saying is… Use Skyglow to complete the ground to the geosynchronous...o...b..t, and then use the other s.p.a.cecraft to go from the geosynchronous...o...b..t to the Earth-Moon orbit?”

Lu Zhou nodded and said, “Correct.”

Hou Guang said, “In theory, this is possible. However, transferring cargo like that might be risky.”

Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Aeros.p.a.ce itself is risky. Every flight is an adventure. If we do this, not only will our moon delivery capacity increase substantially, but we can even outsource the surface to geosynchronous launch to other aeros.p.a.ce companies. This will cut our costs.”

After hearing Lu Zhou’s thoughts, Hou Guang went silent. After a while, he finally spoke.

“I’ll do some research. I’ll give you a detailed report by tomorrow night.”

Lu Zhou nodded his head solemnly.

“Ok, thank you.”

This kind of decision couldn’t be made during meetings. He was just brainstorming. The experts in charge had to do the real work.

Hou Guang didn’t try to reject Lu Zhou’s idea. He even expressed that it was theoretically possible. He thought that the pros and cons were debatable, but at least, they were enough to make Lu Zhou feel intrigued.

The meeting lasted until noon.

After the meeting ended, Lu Zhou went to the Jinling Inst.i.tute for Advanced Study cafeteria. He was looking for a seat to enjoy his barbecue meat and rice when he suddenly received a phone call.

When he saw that Director Li was the one calling, he answered the call, “h.e.l.lo, what’s up?”

Director Li replied in a serious tone, “The Americans launched their BFR rocket!”