Chapter 762: Eye-Grabbing!
The launch plan was unaltered!
The Moon Palace would enter the lunar orbit at the end of the month!
After the China Aeros.p.a.ce Science and Industry Corporation sent out the Weibo post, intense discussion swept across the internet.
The Moon Palace is fine!
The design flaws are all rumors!
People who previously ridiculed on Twitter that China was overly ambitious didn’t have anything to say now.
It turned out that the whole thing was just a rumor.
There was no problem with the core module at all, and there was no change to the launch plan.
There were also people that ridiculed the Moon Palace cooling system on various talk shows, and they were now in an awkward spot.
Those talk show hosts had plans to continue talking about this story, but now it seemed like they had to change their script.
The New York Times was probably in the most awkward spot.
Even though there was little ethics in the media world, this incident still did considerable amounts of damage to the integrity of The New York Times.
After all, they were the first to release the story.
They even put this fake story on headlines.
The New York Times building.
Duke was just ridiculed by his boss. He walked back to his office, shattered.
Camille was sitting restlessly on the sofa as she looked around anxiously.
After some silence, Camille looked at Duke and spoke cautiously.
“We shouldn’t be so pessimistic… This smells a bit fishy, maybe they are just bluffing.”
The Weibo post from the China Aeros.p.a.ce Science and Industry Corporation wasn’t necessarily true. It might have been the Chinese authorities behind the scene, trying to alter the public opinion. They might have instructed various research inst.i.tutes to issue the same statement.
After all, similar things had happened before.
Camille had been a foreign reporter for more than a year, and she was well aware of China’s tactics…
Duke looked at Camille and spoke impatiently.
“It’s near the end of the month, what’s the point of bluffing?”
Camille didn’t know what to say.
He’s right, it’s nearly the end of the month.
Even if they are bluffing, there isn’t enough time for them to fix the problem.
Seeing how Camille didn’t have anything to say, Duke looked outside his window.
“… All we can do now is hope for the BFR rocket to successfully land the life support system. This will divert people’s attention and make them forget about this matter.”
Camille asked tentatively, “I think the story on the Moon Palace can be improved, what if—”
Before Camille could finish, Duke waved his hand and interrupted her.
“Forget about any new stories… We should focus on America for now.”
Camille gulped and nodded nervously.
“Okay.”
She didn’t dare to mention her new office or her a.s.sistant…
Seeing how distraught Duke was, she wisely chose to keep quiet.
She silently prayed in her heart.
G.o.d, please tell me the Chinese are bluffing…
If the Moon Palace launched successfully, it would be a disaster for The New York Times.
Not only would the readers be dissatisfied, but they would become a laughing stock in the media industry.
After all, they were the ones that placed a fake rumor as their headlines…
She took out her phone and checked her email.
She had been waiting for her informant from China to reply, but no emails were received.
It seemed like her informant was in trouble.
She felt like something bad was going to happen…
…
The intense public discussion didn’t stop immediately. But as the incident was denied by various departments, the topic was no longer trending.
Time quickly pa.s.sed by, and it was soon the end of the month.
Both Star Sky Technology and China Aeros.p.a.ce Science and Industry Corporation didn’t break their promises.
Major media outlets such as Everyone Daily published photos of the Moon Palace being loaded into the aircraft.
After the photos were released, excited netizens swept the comments section.
[Jesus, who said that the Moon Palace isn’t going to fly?]
[Media outlets have no integrity, these keyboard warriors made me think the moon s.p.a.ce station is a bust.]
[Professor Lu is nutty!]
[I bet someone in the future will say that even though the Moon Palace is in s.p.a.ce, it’s still not an accomplishment.]
[Our journey is the sea of stars!]
[…]
The entire country was looking forward to this launch.
It was finally launch day.
Several media broadcast trucks drove to the launch site.
Those that didn’t obtain a media authorization drove to the outskirts of Jin Ling City, outside the security checkpoints. They planned on watching from a distance by using special pieces of camera equipment.
Just like this, with everyone watching, Skyglow s.p.a.cecraft slowly departed from the runway, flying toward the blue sky, disappearing from people’s eyes.
Lu Zhou was standing in the command tower as he looked at Skyglow disappear from his view. He turned to Hou Guang and asked, “How long until the Earth-Moon transfer orbit system is online?”
Hou Guang paused for a second and spoke seriously.
“The technology is feasible… But even if we use a similar propulsion system as Skyglow, we would have to wait until next year.”
“Next year…” Lu Zhou looked at the busy ground crew on the runway and asked, “What about Starlight?”
Hou Guang: “We were going to test it at the end of the month, but because of the Moon Palace launch plan, it was postponed by a week.”
Lu Zhou: “So the next test flight is in a week?”
Hou Guang nodded and said, “Correct.”
Lu Zhou nodded and smirked.
If the Starlight test was successful, then the ion thruster propulsion system would rise to a whole new level.
Lu Zhou was relieved to see his own technology come to life.
His efforts were proven to be worthwhile.