Chapter 264 Pegasus
On November 11, Shivan Samarkand, director of the Indian Space Agency, arrived in Moscow with his country's foreign affairs team.
Yuri Borisov, director of the Russian Space Agency (RKA), personally went to the airport to greet him, and his smile made his face full of wrinkles.
After the Union TMA-17M accident, Yuri relied on his cheating behavior in China to win subsequent lunar cooperation and retained his position as director.
The current situation of Lucia is better than the original world line. In addition to the economic recovery that began in 2014, the space competition between the other two countries is also an important factor.
In the eyes of most people, although Lucia, which inherited the legacy of the Federation, still has advanced aerospace technology, it does not have enough funds to participate in the competition, so it is excluded from the contestants.
But Lucia has turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Both China and Europe and the United States are intentionally or unintentionally trying to win over Lucia. After all, if Lucia joins any party, it will be a huge advantage.
When two powers compete, fish and shrimps benefit. Lucia's economy has not been blocked under the olive branches of both sides, but has been frequently shown goodwill, and the economic development trend is quite good.
Other second-rate space countries that want to follow the trend, such as island countries and India, are actively seeking help from Russia.
With the economy being optimistic, Europe has also focused on space rather than Russia. Pucheng is in a good mood and has gradually had some ideas about exploring the moon independently.
But he also knows that even if the economy continues to improve, Russia will not be able to organize the moon landing independently, so it must cooperate, and the partner must be good at fooling the funds, so there is a slight possibility.
Yuri was called over for a long talk before the Indian Space Agency delegation set off, and he knew very well how much money he had to get from India.
According to RKA's internal calculations, if the Yenisei/Don heavy rocket is to be used to complete the moon landing plan, at least 4 rockets will need to be launched to the first manned moon landing, costing about US$1.5 billion, or about RMB 10 billion.
This number is very small, and it is too economical compared to the other two companies, because Russia's domestic salary level is not high, the labor cost is small, and the technical reserves are still rich, so it doesn't cost much.
But converted into rubles, it is close to 100 billion rubles, and it is difficult for Lucia to withdraw this money.
Yuri also knows that this is just a number for the higher-ups to see. The future has entered the era of recyclable rockets, and RKA must also develop recyclable rockets. However, recyclable rockets have extremely high requirements for electronic technology, which is a big trouble for Lucia.
If Lucia's aerospace technology is to keep up with the world's development, then the total investment in the next five years should be more than 20 billion US dollars, of which the lunar program will require more than 10 billion US dollars, which is almost a doubling of the annual aerospace funding.
Yuri Borisov, who was worried about the future of Lucia's aerospace, was interrupted by the opening of the door. He immediately stepped forward and offered his most sincere greetings to his Indian friends.
…
"Xu Jiayin: Evergrande will invest 50 billion yuan in Stellar Aerospace."
In August, Blue Sword Aerospace's Qinglong II marked that China's civil aerospace was on the right track and had medium-sized launch capabilities. Other companies followed suit.
Because the Aerospace Development Commission pulled these private enterprises in when they were established in advance and signed an anti-vicious competition treaty, there is no longer the situation of duplicate construction everywhere in the original world line.
In the previous world line, the domestic private aerospace companies that were hastily established under the stimulation of specaX kept copying Falcon 9. Various rockets were basically different versions of Falcon 9, which was simply unbearable to look at.
Now it is much better. Instead of rushing in like headless flies when they see a little opportunity, they have begun to specialize in division of labor.
Some are focused on launch vehicles, some are preparing to develop aerospace planes, some are preparing to take the wrong path to develop near-space airships, and some are focused on space technology, all of which are looking for their own advantageous projects.
Of course, there are also those who are not short of money, such as Evergrande. Not long after Evergrande Aerospace was established, the board of directors felt that it was not space enough, so it changed to Star Aerospace, and it was generous enough to directly take 50 billion to build a large base, including rockets, satellites and spacecraft.
Chairman Xu Jiayin even made a bold statement: "Let's do real estate in space!"
The plan announced by Star Aerospace is to build a space hotel in space before 2018 and a permanent asset space villa before 2030.
In addition, Star Aerospace has reached a cooperation with Blue Sword. The former is preparing to study a 15-ton small space shuttle and build a near-earth tourism flight with Qinglong II, becoming the second powerful space tourism company in China.
Star Aerospace's first space shuttle is named "Tianma No. 1", which can carry 8 people. The estimated price per seat is 59.9 million yuan, and the training cost is calculated separately. It is more expensive than the firmness and much cheaper than the unity.
Tianma No. 1 is expected to make its first flight in October 2018 and start formal commercial operation in December.
In order to realize the dream of the Tianma No. 1 space shuttle, Star Aerospace has spent money to recruit people at home and abroad to form a team, acquire small and medium-sized companies, and... purchase parts.
At the C-level base, Lu Huisheng, the leader of the main design team of Star Aerospace, looked at the advanced and clean factory with envy, and sighed at the technological progress of the motherland.
I don’t know if it was inspired by Xinyuan, but Star Aerospace spent a huge sum of money to recruit Lu Huisheng, an active aerospace technology engineer at NACA.
Lu Huisheng is a second-generation Chinese. His grandfather took his father to escape to Amei. He received Amei education since he was a child. However, because of his strong family ties to his homeland, he is good at Chinese and still has feelings for his motherland.
His position was originally higher than Guo Shen, but because of the loyalty investigation in the past two years, he was constantly sidelined and was finally poached by Star Aerospace.
When he got the design task of Tianma No. 1, he was also very excited and wanted to do a big career, but he was also very pragmatic and chose a shortcut.
Lu Huisheng: "Manager Hu, why don't you sell the first generation of thermal insulation tiles? I thought you didn't want to share advanced technology."
Hu Bo: "For domestic enterprises, Xinyuan also has a supportive attitude. How can we let you spend money in vain?"
Star Aerospace acquired a small aircraft factory in China with jet manufacturing qualifications, so the design and manufacturing of the body of Tianma No. 1 is not a big problem. The main difficulty lies in the thermal insulation tiles and some internal equipment.
Others can be purchased everywhere, and only Xinyuan can supply thermal insulation tiles for the time being.
The thermal insulation tiles used by H1 at the beginning had a lifespan of three flights, but when Star Aerospace came to them, Xinyuan said that it could sell a new model with a lifespan of five flights at a relatively favorable price. The customized quotation for Tianma No. 1 was about 120 million yuan, and the cost of a single flight was 24 million yuan, which was very cheap in Lu Huisheng's opinion.
Although it is more expensive than the Aramco space shuttle in terms of area alone, the reusability divided by five is very cost-effective, which made him sigh at the rapid technological progress and open-mindedness of the country.
Of course, Hu Bo knew that this was Xinyuan's way of stimulating the development of the domestic aerospace industry, and for Xinyuan, which has mastered the overall thermal insulation tile technology, the cost of the first generation of thermal insulation tiles is not high, and the profit from selling is also considerable, but Xinyuan wants to make more money.
Hu Bo: "Your Tianma No. 1 configuration seems to be more traditional, and the space utilization rate is not too high. Do you want to buy our solution? The kind that teaches you step by step."
"Is this... okay?"
"Of course, as long as you pay a little money and sign some confidentiality agreements, Tianma No. 1 should be different from H1 to compete in a different position, right?"