Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 314 White Dragon Space Shuttle
In order to expand its influence and increase its commercial value, Nanmen Aerospace has conducted live video broadcasts or released videos in a timely manner on multiple community platforms around the world.

This allowed a large number of netizens around the world to see South Gate Aerospace’s first commercial manned space flight for the first time.

However, even though many people have read Nanmen Aerospace's official publicity, the coverage of the population is still very low. Those who pay attention to Nanmen Aerospace are aerospace industry insiders and aerospace enthusiasts, as well as technology enthusiasts who are more interested in science and technology.

However, in addition to these people, there is actually a considerable group of people who also pay attention to Nanmen Aerospace, namely reporters from major news media.

After all, Nanmen Aerospace frequently launches, and not all launch activities are newsworthy. At the same time, not all news media reporters go to Qiongzhou Island to keep an eye on and pay attention to Nanmen Aerospace’s launch activities!

They launch dozens of commercial flights a year, which is too much to keep up with...and these are just official launch missions, there are also all kinds of messy test launches.

Someone has counted the launch data of Nanmen Aerospace in 14, including commercial launches and test launches, a total of launches, an average of one rocket launched every days.

Nanmen Aerospace alone can surpass the total launch volume of all other aerospace agencies or companies in the world.

Among so many launch activities, conventional commercial launches have almost no news value. People launch dozens of commercial rockets a year, and with so many reports, people are too lazy to pay attention.

Even if a small test rocket exploded, it would not be newsworthy. Nanmen Aerospace's test rockets have exploded so many times that people are no longer surprised.

Nowadays, only the launch failure of large commercial rockets is newsworthy...but since the failure of the first sea recovery of the Type 5B rocket, all subsequent Type 5B rockets have been successfully recovered, including at sea.

Therefore, the news media can no longer find breaking news, and people are not paying much attention to it.

But this time, Nanmen Aerospace once again came up with enough sensational news: the first commercial manned space flight!
This is a rare big news, so many industry insiders, technology enthusiasts and news media paid attention to it before the launch mission.

Even many foreign news media reporters are praying that the launch will fail and the astronauts will die, so that they can get a wave of super big news that will shock the world and fill up their traffic.

Of course, if the launch is successful, although it is not that sensational, it is still news with considerable reporting value.

Therefore, after seeing the successful launch of Nanmen Aerospace's Black Dragon spacecraft, many reporters from news media quietly deleted the news releases about the failed launch that they had prepared in advance, and then took out the news releases about the successful launch that were also prepared in advance.

After simple modifications, add pictures or video clips and send it out.

And there are not just one or two journalists who do this, but a large number of journalists around the world who do this.

After all, this is the first commercial manned space flight, which itself has great historical significance and also has certain commercial value. You know, Xu Shenxue has said many times that he wants to build a commercial space station.

Commercial manned flight is the prerequisite for building a commercial space station. If you can't even send people up there, then what's the point of building a commercial space station?

In addition, Nanmen Aerospace is an industry under Xu Shenxue, and many people know that Xu Shenxue attaches great importance to aerospace, and can even be said to have a preference for it. Xu Shenxue will be present at almost every major launch and test.

This is the first commercial manned flight, and Xu Shenxue’s name is also mentioned!
A news headline combining these two together can instantly attract the attention of a large number of netizens, who will then click in to take a look.

As a result, many self-media or online media platforms that were the first to report on the incident instantly reaped the benefits of the first wave of traffic.

Soon after, a large number of other Internet information platforms, even social media, and even offline TV stations and newspapers quickly followed suit and reported on the incident in detail and intensively.

Some media platforms also analyzed in detail the huge impact that Nanmen Aerospace's commercial manned flight had on the aerospace industry.

Then we will discuss whether commercial manned space travel is mature and whether aerospace companies can find business opportunities and achieve profitability.

For example, for many years, many wealthy people have been looking forward to space travel.

There is also the commercial space station that Xu Shenxue has often mentioned in the past two years.

A large foreign media outlet even wrote an analytical article specifically for this purpose.

They said: "In the past, commercial space travel was considered unrealistic and not worth the cost, and space activities should be classified as space research supported by government grants."

“But with the emergence of South Gate Aerospace and Space Exploration Company, people know that commercial spaceflight can become a reality!”

"But today's commercial space industry still relies on the traditional way of making profits, which is to earn launch fees by launching various satellites. However, the profit margin of this method is extremely limited because the market is extremely limited!"

"Nanmen Aerospace, the world's leading company, has occupied most of the global commercial satellite launch market by relying on reusable rocket technology and lower launch costs. However, according to reliable sources, Nanmen Aerospace's operating conditions are still worrying. Although its revenue is not small, its profit is not high."

"At the same time, in order to maintain market competitiveness, their R&D budget is very huge. I believe that readers who have seen their failed experiments and rocket explosion videos can imagine this!"

"Space Exploration, which is also technologically advanced in the industry and has completed the first Falcon 9 first-stage rocket recovery test, is in a more worrying operating situation. Their launch costs are much higher than South Gate Aerospace, and they have almost no competitiveness in the conventional commercial launch market!"

"If they hadn't received a large number of NASA-supported launch orders, their company would have gone bankrupt long ago."

"Even so, Musk's space exploration company is still in deep trouble, with extremely tight funds and on the verge of bankruptcy at any time!"

"The business conditions of the industry's No. 1 Nanmen Aerospace and the industry's No. 2, the only two commercial aerospace companies in the world with reusable rocket technology, are not optimistic!"

“So, how can we promote the development of commercial spaceflight and bring more revenue and profits to commercial spaceflight companies?”

"South Gate Aerospace has shown us their plans, including cooperating with satellite operators to build and operate low-orbit satellite internet and promote commercial space stations."

"It is reported that Nanmen Aerospace has already held more than 60% of the shares of the commercial satellite company 'Zhiyun Satellite Co., Ltd.' and provides cheap rocket launch services for Zhiyun Satellite."

"The core business of Zhiyun Satellite is what the world's richest man, Xu Shenxue, has mentioned many times: providing low-orbit satellite Internet services to the world."

"Whether the low-orbit satellite internet service plan can be successful is still debatable, because we have not seen even a single low-orbit satellite internet satellite launched into space, and we cannot guess whether Zhiyun Satellite has solved a series of key technical problems such as satellite internet network connection delays."

"But the commercial space station plan mentioned by Xu Shenxue has already shown certain commercial prospects!"

"Many wealthy people have expressed that if Xu Shenxue's commercial space station is built and space hotel tourism is allowed, they are very interested in going back to experience it."

"And this is not the most important thing. After all, only a few wealthy people are interested in space tourism!"

"Most importantly, according to some of our surveys, many companies and research and development institutions are very interested in renting the space laboratory in Nanmen Aerospace's commercial space station or entrusting scientific research services!"

"There are a lot of scientific research activities in the world that need to be carried out in a low-gravity environment or even in space, such as agriculture, medicine, etc."

"Before this, only limited scientific research activities could be carried out using the International Space Station, but the scientific research services on the International Space Station are out of reach for most companies."

"No official would rent out an expensive space station that is part of an international cooperation project to a private company for scientific research!"

"Now, Nanmen Aerospace is trying to launch a commercial space station plan, providing space laboratories for rent or commissioned testing services to major companies."

“This has also attracted the attention of a large number of companies.”

"Of course, although there is a certain commercial prospect for commercial space stations, due to the high cost of space stations, whether the plan of South Gate Aerospace can be successful is still a huge unknown."

"According to the plan announced by Nanmen Aerospace, they will launch three space laboratories one after another and form a space station."

"European Space Agency officials said that such a space station would cost at least 50 billion US dollars... It is definitely not something that a private commercial company like South Gate Aerospace can afford!"

Well...if they knew the true launch cost of South Gate Aerospace and the cost of the space capsule, they would not say that.

After all, not all space agencies are NASA!

Not all aerospace agencies are Nanmen Aerospace!
When it comes to cost control, no aerospace organization or enterprise can compare with Nanmen Aerospace!
This is a space company that dares to directly replace rocket parts that originally cost tens of thousands of dollars with civilian industrial parts worth hundreds or even tens of dollars!

A large number of mass-produced industrial parts can be found in Nanmen Aerospace's rockets and spacecraft... Nanmen Aerospace's research and development principle is: use mass-produced products whenever possible, and don't tell me that these are special aerospace parts and that they must be customized.

Go look around in the market and double search. I don’t believe that you can’t find similar parts in the industrial field.

If it really doesn't work, then go for customization. Even if it is customization, it will require national bidding, and the cheapest one can be found while meeting the performance standards.

They even produce the engines used in rockets, namely the Suzaku engines, in their own factory using assembly lines... They have turned the rocket engines, which are considered high-end in the eyes of ordinary people, into large-scale mass-produced industrial products.

The actual rocket launch cost of Nanmen Aerospace, and even the future space station cost, is lower than ordinary people imagine!
And there is also the National Space Laboratory to dilute the costs.

Building two space stations is always cheaper than building one, and the cost can be spread out a lot.

The outside world also speculates that the construction budget is 50 billion US dollars. This is purely NASA's assuming that everyone is as greedy and unscrupulous as they are.

In fact, the total funds Xu Shenxue prepared for the plan were only 3 billion US dollars...only a fraction of the outside world's estimates.

Otherwise, how could Nanmen Aerospace dare to build a commercial space station? It’s just relying on its low costs!

By the way, Galaxy Life has already signed a $500 million contract to lease a space laboratory in advance, and Galaxy Life's research and development team is preparing to move some experiments to space... This move has won the support of a large number of super-rich people, who have contributed money.

Although Galaxy Security, a subsidiary of Galaxy Life, has somewhat deteriorated and turned into Xu Shenxue's thugs... but Galaxy Life still adheres to the simple expectation at the beginning of its establishment: to develop anti-aging technology!
Many experiments need to be carried out in a space environment to obtain experimental data.

Other pharmaceutical companies are also interested.

However, ordinary news media outside will not know these things.

Therefore, many speculations from the outside world are unreliable, but this does not prevent these media from exaggerating and reporting on the situation.

"In addition, NASA sources also revealed that South Gate Aerospace's commercial space station plan is nothing more than a farce. Even if the entire South Gate Aerospace is sold, it will not raise enough funds to build a commercial space station."

“Even if Nanmen Aerospace can build a space station, even a small one, it will suffer huge losses due to the huge operating costs!”

"The commercial space station project is purely a personal adventure of Xu Shenxue. It has no commercial value at all!"

"Of course, despite this, I still hope that there will be more wealthy people like Xu Shenxue in human society who can invest their money in the aerospace field!"

"Because, humanity's path to the stars is built through adventures like this!"

Others sang a different tune, advocating the importance of space competition, saying that commercial spaceflight will inevitably succeed, and that Xu Shenxue will occupy the top of the human race in the future and monopolize humanity's path to the stars.

"Xu Shenxue has already embarked on the road to the starry sky and is even close to forming a monopoly. Now it's our turn... For the future of mankind, we will not look back!"

"Let's build a bigger space station this time, then go to the moon and Mars, and get out of the solar system!"

"So, gentlemen in Congress, please allocate funds quickly. Give me another 50 billion dollars for the future of mankind. My wallet is thirsty and I can't wait any longer..."

Of course, this kind of argument that was obviously asking for money was ridiculed and ignored by many people. The in-depth analysis and reports of major foreign media... in the end they all turned into one argument: What Xu Shenxue did was great in itself.

After all, no one would spend countless amounts of money just to push humanity a small step towards the interstellar age.

This is a typical act of selfless dedication to all mankind...

Many people believe that Xu Shenxue, who dedicated himself to opening up new paths for mankind, is a brave man and deserves respect!

But more people think: It is great, but if you say that this thing can make money, then there must be something wrong with your brain!

However, this argument does not include Musk, who is also involved in commercial spaceflight. He retweeted the news that South Gate Space's first commercial manned spaceflight was successfully launched, calling it the second step for mankind to reach the stars! Landing on the moon was the first step, and now is the second step.

Musk then tweeted again, saying that his space exploration company is already forming a corresponding commercial space station project team, including the research and development of heavy rockets and corresponding technology research and development for manned flight. Please stay tuned!
"In future interstellar travel and interstellar resource development, Xu Shenxue will not be alone, because I am here!"

“We welcome people with lofty ideals to join us and create the interstellar era for mankind!”

He was just short of saying, "You can't invest in Xu Shenxue anyway, he's someone else's child. If you still want a ticket to the interstellar world, invest in me quickly, I'm your only choice!"

There was a lot of discussion about Nanmen Aerospace's first commercial manned space flight, which led to a great discussion on space tourism, commercial space stations, and the future of entering the interstellar era. Some people even seriously discussed the feasibility of going to space to mine resources.

However, inside Nanmen Aerospace, after the initial successful launch, they did not relax, but continued to work hard under high pressure.

After all, there are still three astronauts flying in the sky.

Just flying up is not considered a success. Various tests must be completed successfully, including extravehicular tests.

Finally, we have to bring the astronauts home safely.

The latter is more important!

So Xu Shenxue did not leave, but continued to stay at Nanmen Aerospace, often paying attention to the situation of the Black Dragon spacecraft and astronauts in space.

At the same time, Nanmen Aerospace will release information about the Black Dragon spacecraft and the astronauts on board to the outside world at regular intervals.

This is mainly for commercial publicity, to show off skills and win more commercial launch orders. At the same time, it paves the way for future commercial space station plans and attracts potential orders.

Whether it is a space laboratory order or a space tourism order, it is fine.

As long as it can make money, Nanmen Aerospace will do anything!
Even in the released video, Nanmen Aerospace also attached advertisements for selling goods... Many people don’t know this, but in fact, Nanmen Aerospace also sells advertisements part-time, and its advertising revenue is not small.

In this advertisement, astronauts used Zhiyun phones and laptops to work in space and make video calls with their families!

In one of the videos, which was only three minutes and thirty seconds long, Zhiyun's white cloud logo appeared for at least one minute, and the astronauts mentioned the word "Zhiyun" thirteen times.

Even a fool can see that this is an advertisement for selling goods!

The marketing department of Zhiyun Group has always been very fond of promoting in such high-tech and pretentious occasions. Naturally, they would not miss this first commercial manned space flight, a major event that has attracted global attention.

For this purpose, they spent $8 million on advertising and created an advertising package.

Just to allow astronauts to advertise their own mobile phones and laptops in space!
Moreover, when the rocket was launched before, the logo of Zhiyun Group was printed on the rocket, and there were also Zhiyun advertisements on the billboards at the launch site.

During the mission, astronauts need to use Zhiyun phones to contact their families, etc.

Nanmen Aerospace has long opened up its advertising business... As long as you pay, you can print your company name, logo or advertising slogan on Nanmen Aerospace's rockets. It used to be quite popular. News about Nanmen Aerospace's rocket recovery was very popular, and many large companies would use it to advertise.

The rocket launch site also has a huge advertising display space. The advertisements on this display space can be spread around the world along with the rocket launch scene.

But now... Nanmen Aerospace's rocket launches are too frequent, and few people even pay attention to the news. The advertising effect is too low, so no big company is willing to spend a lot of money on advertising.

Nowadays, in conventional launches, you can spend a few hundred thousand dollars to put a company name and logo on the launch site, and even a promotional slogan.

Of course, in such an important first commercial manned space launch, the price of advertising space in this special situation is very high.

Basically, it starts at millions of dollars.

Not only Zhiyun advertised, many other companies also took this opportunity to advertise... Many large companies are not short of this little money, and it is also a good idea to spend a few million US dollars to get global attention and enhance their brand image.

The huge billboard at the launch site at that time brought together advertisements from more than 20 companies...all of them well-known large companies.

Now that astronauts are in space, they have attracted the attention of a large number of people around the world, and the videos they release will be widely circulated.

Therefore, in addition to Zhiyun’s advertising clips, other corporate advertisements have appeared one after another, selling mobile phones, cars, sporting goods, alcohol, electrical appliances, and some companies do not sell anything but simply promote their own brand value. In short, there is everything...

This operation shocked many netizens!
I know that Nanmen Aerospace is a commercial aerospace company that wants to make money in everything it does and has been accepting external advertising for a long time. But in the past, you only printed advertisements on rockets and put up a super large billboard at the rocket launch site.

After all, you need to make a living, I understand!

But... you are actually advertising your company or product on a spacecraft in space during such a major event that has attracted global attention... This is a bit embarrassing.

For this, the advertising business department of Nanmen Aerospace will have to roll their eyes at you!
It is because this event attracts global attention and many people are paying attention to it that advertisements are easy to sell and the prices are high!

For such special occasions, any advertising order starts at one million US dollars, and the advertising packages of some big customers can reach three or four million US dollars.

This wave of advertising will generate at least 50 million US dollars in advertising revenue for Nanmen Aerospace. If you don’t want it, then just refuse it!

How much money do you have in your pocket? Why are you so arrogant?

Although there are a lot of advertisements in many promotional videos, it still cannot stop netizens from all over the world from paying attention to the commercial flights of Nanmen Aerospace.

After all, this is a very rare thing, and it's the first time in the world. If you don't watch the video of Nanmen Aerospace, there is nothing else to watch!

Therefore, Nanmen Aerospace brought a high-level operation to the global aerospace industry: it earned 50 million in revenue just by selling advertisements.

Although the cost of this flight is high, with this wave of advertising revenue, the loss will not be too great.

After all, Nanmen Aerospace's rockets are reusable, and the Black Dragon spacecraft is designed to be reused. It is not disposable, but it needs to undergo rigorous inspection and maintenance.

As a commercial aerospace company that got its start by relying on rocket recycling technology, Nanmen Aerospace would like to be able to recycle even the second-stage rockets, but current technology does not allow it to do so.

As for the others, there is no need to mention them. The first-stage rocket must be recycled and reused, the previous Qinglong cargo spacecraft can also be recycled and reused, and the current Black Dragon manned spacecraft can also be recycled and reused.

Not only that, in fact, Nanmen Aerospace is also exploring the lower-cost 'low-cost space shuttle' project!
Xu Shenxue stayed in Nanmen Aerospace for a few days this time. Deng Feiyue, the chief technology officer of Nanmen Aerospace, took the opportunity to introduce this project to Xu Shenxue.

"Our existing Qinglong cargo spacecraft and Heilong manned spacecraft still follow the traditional return capsule spacecraft model for the sake of project progress. The advantages are mature technology, good reliability, and fast project progress, which allows us to produce products in the shortest time and then use them for the cargo and personnel transportation needs of the space station in the near future."

"But we think that this traditional return capsule spacecraft is still too expensive to use, and it is also troublesome to recover. This time, in order to control the risks, we used the more mature land recovery model in China, which is quite troublesome!"

"Also, our current recovery model does not cover the recovery of the second-stage rocket, but the cost of the second-stage rocket is not low. It would be even better if the second-stage rocket could also be recovered!"

"Based on further reducing the cost of recoverable spacecraft and recovering the second-stage rocket, our idea is to combine the spacecraft and the second-stage rocket to make a reusable and recoverable space shuttle that has both the second-stage rocket and the spacecraft functions!"

"This is our low-cost space shuttle solution, the 'White Dragon Space Shuttle.'"

"Decades ago, the Americans were unsuccessful in their efforts to develop the space shuttle. That was because they were born in the wrong era. They developed the space shuttle when the technology was not perfect. The space shuttle they eventually developed had a high failure rate, a variety of serious problems, and many accidents!"

"But now, the times have changed. The substantial progress in various technologies is enough to support us in developing a space shuttle, and a low-cost one at that!"

"According to our calculations, after using this low-cost space shuttle, the launch cost of our entire No. 5 rocket will be reduced by at least 20%. This will be a significant improvement!"

Deng Feiyue pointed to a reduced 3D model on the table and said, "This is a reduced model that we printed with a 3D printer based on the preliminary design plan."

"It will be directly carried on our No. 5 rocket, replacing the rocket system's second-stage rocket and spacecraft!"

"When the rocket reaches a certain height, the first-stage rocket will separate from it and start the recovery procedure. The White Dragon Space Shuttle will start its engine and use the fuel inside to continue to accelerate its ascent. After reaching the predetermined height, it will automatically dock with the space station and transport cargo or personnel to the space station!"

"Of course, the White Dragon Space Shuttle can also be used to launch and release satellites!"

"After completing the transport mission, the White Dragon space shuttle will take off for the return trip, use the remaining fuel to change its course and return to Earth, and finally land at our dedicated airport."

"Although the White Dragon space shuttle is relatively large, when it lands, most of the fuel inside has been consumed, so the empty weight is very light, and it can land just like an ordinary plane!"

"According to our plan, our No. 5 rocket and the future No. 6 rocket can carry this White Dragon space shuttle."

"We can adjust the climbing height of the first-stage rocket according to different mission payloads. The carrying capacity of the first-stage rocket in the recovery mode will be smaller. If the core first-stage rocket of the future No. 6 Heavy Fireline is not recovered, then the carrying capacity of our White Dragon Space Shuttle will be quite large, up to 60 tons!"

“How high it can fly and how much cargo it can carry does not depend on how much fuel it carries, but on whether the first-stage rocket can be recovered!”

"At least, the interior space of our White Dragon Space Shuttle is large enough to accommodate 60 tons of cargo. Of course, it cannot be used for cargo of such large size as the space station. It can only be used to transport ordinary small and medium-sized satellites as well as supplies and personnel!"

Xu Shenxue looked at the 3D model and then watched the demonstration video on the screen and thought it was interesting.

Unlike the starships in the original time and space, the starship cannot land like an ordinary space shuttle because of its heavy weight. It either relies on splashing down on the water or relying on vertical recovery by a recovery tower.

The White Dragon space shuttle is smaller in size, has a smaller carrying capacity, and is lighter in weight. The existing materials are sufficient for an aircraft of this level to use the landing method of a conventional space shuttle.

It actually follows the path of traditional space shuttles, but it is also different from traditional space shuttles.

Because of the traditional space shuttle, the low-cost idea is feasible. The only problem is that the technology at that time was not capable of doing it, which ultimately made it extremely expensive and disappeared in disgrace!

However, now that various technologies such as electronic control and materials have become more mature, it is entirely possible to build a lower-cost reusable space shuttle.

This will bring huge cost advantages: the second-stage rocket that was previously impossible to recover can also be recovered, and the cost of reusing the spacecraft will be greatly reduced.

After taking a closer look, Xu Shenxue said, "This is a good idea. Keep working on it. I look forward to seeing the White Dragon Space Shuttle appear soon!"

Deng Feiyue said: "We are currently developing the project and we expect the first flight to be carried out in three years!"

Xu Shenxue said: "Okay, I'll come back and see you in three years!"

After Xu Shenxue stayed in Nanmen Aerospace for three days, the Black Dragon spacecraft also began to enter the return procedure.

Unlike traditional spacecraft that require human control, the Black Dragon spacecraft is highly intelligent. The return procedure is completely automatically controlled by the system with extremely high precision.

In the field of intelligence, especially in the field of intelligent control, if Zhiyun Group dares to say it is second to none, no one dares to say it is number one. Nanmen Aerospace's series of intelligent control technologies are all technically supported by Zhiyun Group.

So under the control of the system, the Black Dragon spacecraft began to make various adjustments extremely accurately and then returned to Earth.

In the evening of the same day, the Black Dragon spacecraft successfully landed at the Inner Mongolia landing field with very high landing accuracy. Then, using a series of advanced electronic equipment provided by Zhiyun Group, the search and rescue team discovered the Black Dragon spacecraft at the first time. As soon as the spacecraft landed, a large number of helicopters flew over and finally arrived to pick up the astronauts and take them home.

That night, the Black Dragon spacecraft successfully returned, and the news of the three astronauts' safe return once again spread around the world!

It once again shocked the world!

If the space agencies of major countries can do this, everyone will just watch.

But the fact that a private commercial aerospace company could do it made countless people drop their jaws!
You, Xu Shenxue, are you cheating?
This is unreasonable!
(End of this chapter)