This star is going to the moon

Chapter 476 More! Better! Stronger!

revenge?

Upon hearing someone mention this term, the representatives of the US space delegation, who were holding a debriefing meeting after the 72nd International Astronautical Congress, all thought of a certain phrase.

At this conference, I missed an important space agency. Where is China's space agency?

This was during the first plenary session on the opening day of the 70th International Astronautical Congress in 2019. When the congress asked attendees to submit the question they most wanted answered, more than 1000 attendees voted via their mobile phones to pin this question to the top of the list.

The European Space Agency director, who was later informed, explained that the Chinese and Lao space teams had not obtained federal entry visas.

“I have always looked forward to interacting with all countries around the world, so I regret that they did not come here,” said the head of the European Space Agency.

At the time, many people thought that the Trump administration was playing a childish political trick, because in 2018, China surpassed the United States to become the country with the most space launches.

In 2019, China's space launch momentum was also quite strong, and it will likely remain number one again if nothing unexpected happens.

The world's number one didn't attend, while the next few were jumping around excitedly, much to the disappointment of the organizers.

This should not have happened under normal circumstances; such an international conference should not be subject to visa restrictions.

Previously, the Lao-Chinese delegation successfully participated in the International Astronautical Congress hosted by Germany, Australia, Laos, and Mexico, and the delegations were all very large.

An even more stark contrast comes from Vice President Pence's speech at the convention.

In his opening speech at the conference, he declared that he would promote international space cooperation with the federal government as the main body, and that the partners would be so-called "like-minded and freedom-loving" countries.

Fortunately, the audience didn't tolerate him and immediately pushed a new question to the second spot on the list of questions they most wanted to know the answer to.

So who gets to decide what constitutes a love of freedom?

In fact, the US has been using this childish trick of "blocking visas" for quite some time now. For some time now, the US has frequently taken measures such as refusing visas, delaying visa applications, revoking long-term visas, and interrogating and harassing Chinese scholars, students, business people, and scientific and technological personnel who want to travel to the US.

Obstructing normal cultural exchanges and personnel exchanges between the two countries not only harms the safety and legitimate rights and interests of Chinese and Lao people, but also harms the legitimate rights and interests of Americans themselves, which is why there is widespread discontent within the United States.

Therefore, more than 60 well-known scientific organizations in the United States, such as the Association for the Advancement of Science and the Federation of Scientists, wrote to senior federal officials in charge of science policy, calling for an end to the suppression of foreign researchers.

The letter stated that the scientists decided to express their concerns because their foreign colleagues in the field are facing increasing restrictions in areas such as funding and visas.

Moreover, it's not just in the technology sector, nor is it limited to the Chinese; the US has directly used visas as a tool for political repression.

In theory, all countries can attend meetings at the United Nations, but because the UN headquarters is located in the United States, one must first enter the United States to attend a meeting at the UN headquarters.

Therefore, when the US does not want a certain country to participate in the UN General Assembly, it will not issue an entry visa to the representative of that country.

It also stated that it complies with international law and has not prevented anyone from attending the United Nations General Assembly, but that sometimes, for "security reasons," some people are not suitable to enter the Federation.

However, it is clear to everyone that these visa restrictions imposed by the United States on countries with which it has conflicting interests seriously undermines the rights of these countries to participate in international affairs.

This behavior seriously violates international norms, greatly undermines the authority and seriousness of international law, and is completely devoid of diplomatic courtesy, behaving like a rogue.

Therefore, countries often take the lead in proposing to reassess the location of the United Nations headquarters and relocate it to a new location, such as Geneva and Vienna, where the offices are located, or even to Beijing, the capital of China.

Or simply build an artificial island in international waters and construct the actual United Nations headquarters there.

Of course, these proposals were all blocked by the Americans.

Other countries also know that it won't work, so they're just trying to sabotage the US.

Now the Americans are thinking about what happened in 2019, and then they realize that China's "science fiction rumors" at this International Astronautical Congress, which stole the international trending topics, ruined all their efforts to generate buzz. They were originally aiming to make a big splash and boost the confidence of their allies and citizens, but instead, China stole the show.

As the old Chinese saying goes: "Boost others' morale and diminish your own!"

However, there were also honest people in the meeting room who felt that this was probably not the case.

Compared to the Americans, the Chinese can truly be described as a land of etiquette, sometimes even willing to suffer losses in order to abide by international rules.

Therefore, they felt that the Chinese were incapable of "taking revenge" in this way.

Moreover, they participated in the entire International Astronautical Congress and knew that even without the "mysterious cube on the far side of the moon" incident, the Chinese would still be the ones stealing the spotlight.

After all, the awards ceremony started right at the beginning of the conference, and Lu Yun was among the recipients of the "World Space Award," the highest award in the aerospace field, for both individuals and teams. With this youngest aerospace giant present, it was hard for people's attention not to be drawn to the Chinese and American groups.

Furthermore, at this conference, the number of press conferences held by Chinese attendees was significantly higher, better, and stronger than those held by Americans!

Let's forget about manned lunar landings. Although China has a chance of carrying out a manned lunar landing mission in 2024, the US still feels that "the advantage is in our hands."

But it's hard to say about the others.

The Federation knew that its own X-33 single-stage-to-orbit advanced space shuttle could not compare to China's Muyuan-class space shuttle, so it indeed brought out the full version of the X-33, "Adventure Star".

"AdventureStar" is a large single-stage-to-orbit space shuttle with a wingspan of 45 meters, a takeoff weight of 1200 tons, and the ability to carry 26 tons of cargo into low Earth orbit.

If converted into manned mode, it could carry 60 people into space.

It can also carry these 60 people on rapid intercontinental flights, reducing the time for intercontinental flights from more than ten hours to one or two hours.

As a result, Lord Lu Yun immediately announced the "flying car" class space shuttle.

This flying car is not QQ Speed, nor is it a racing car on a track. It is a "car used for flying" recorded in ancient Chinese books.

Ancient Chinese texts describe a type of flying vehicle with two wings, described as having "wings on both sides and internal wheels, capable of traveling four hundred li a day with the wind," and also as "resembling a horse-drawn carriage but with two wings, the sails and wheels working in tandem, using the wind to take off and glide."

(Image of a flying car)

Anyway, don't worry about what it looked like in ancient times, just know that it's bigger than a "wooden kite".

The "flying car" class space shuttle has a wingspan of 50 meters, a takeoff weight of 1500 tons, and can carry 32 tons of cargo into the base's orbit.

Or it could be to carry 75 people into space.

Of course, intercontinental flights are also possible, reducing the time from more than ten hours to one or two hours.

In comparison, the "Flying Car" class space shuttle is not only a level above the "Adventure Star" single-stage-to-orbit space shuttle.

Moreover, its wingspan, takeoff mass, and carrying capacity are all significantly larger!
This is only on new spacecraft; China has also surpassed the US in satellites for space internet.

Elon Musk's Starlink satellites were launched earlier, and now there are nearly 1700 satellites in orbit.

However, even with later launches, the "Star Dou" satellites, with Lu Yun's involvement, have already reached nearly 2300!

The magnitudes of the two sides have widened considerably.

Because the "Starry Sky" not only has the accelerated "Wanhu" rocket launch, but also the newly added, larger "Long March 10" rocket launch!
The Long March 10 rocket can launch 80 rockets at a time!
(End of this chapter)