Live Stream 1980: Netizens Teach Me How to Make a Rocket by Hand

The live stream room was quiet for a long time.

It was as if everyone was stunned by those two words.

Then, as if they had finally recovered, the comments started to appear one by one.

[With just one sentence from Master Qian, "I've mastered the craft," my defenses crumbled instantly.]

This is not an ordinary graduation; this is a graduation defense for the industrial sector of a major power.

While others visited relatives during the Spring Festival, Lin Shen (a nickname) was cramming equations. Five years later, he actually solved them.

From a dilapidated workshop to Project 851, from being suspected to being entrusted with a mission, the journey has been incredibly arduous.

[Qian Lao wasn't sending him off; he was entrusting him with an even greater path.]

[I used to only want to see Red Star beat up foreigners, but now I understand that Lin Shen was able to enjoy himself because someone was protecting him from the brunt of the violence.]

Lin Xi took a deep breath and stood up.

The tears in her eyes hadn't faded yet, and her lips moved, but she didn't know what to say to express her gratitude.

Seeing Lin Xi's appearance, Old Qian suddenly laughed.

The serious academic atmosphere vanished instantly, and the old man's tone became like that of an ordinary, kind elder.

"Alright, alright."

"You're the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, how come you're still like a child at home?"

Old Qian raised his hand and patted Lin Xi on the shoulder.

The force was light, yet it carried a calming power.

"Not offering tutoring during the Spring Festival doesn't mean we'll cut off all contact between us."

Mr. Qian turned his head and looked out the window at the night scene blurred by the wind and snow.

"When undertaking large-scale projects, like the 851 project which mobilizes the entire nation's resources, there are many times when there is no way forward and we are at our wits' end."

"If you encounter difficulties or get stuck in those intractable problems, you don't have to wait until the Spring Festival."

The old man turned around, his gaze gentle:

"The door to this house is always open for you."

"You can still come in and see me anytime."

Lin Xi nodded heavily, suppressing the sob in her throat, and replied loudly:

"I understand, teacher!"

Old Qian stopped smiling, straightened his collar, patted Lin Xi's shoulder twice, and finally gave her a word of advice.

"Go."

"Let's strengthen the foundation of our country."

At this point, the old man paused, as if still worried, and added another instruction:

"Now that you have taken on the responsibilities of deputy leader of the 851 Project General Team and deputy chief designer of the Red Star II rocket, you must not just float on the surface and give orders."

"Overall, it's not about sitting in the office drawing a few circles and signing a few words."

"You have to figure out how all the subsystems coordinate, how the interfaces match, and where the hard nuts to crack are at the bottom layer yourself, step by step."

"Otherwise, you won't be able to steer this ship."

Lin Xi stood up even straighter.

He knew the weight of Qian Lao's words.

Project 851 was not a production line of the Red Star Group, nor was it a technological upgrade of a certain workshop.

That's a nationwide coordinated effort.

It was a tough battle fought by countless units, experts, and workers working together.

The title of deputy team leader sounds prestigious, but in reality, it means bringing all the loose ends together in the most chaotic, difficult, and error-prone areas.

This isn't a promotion, this is going to war.

Lin Xi nodded and said:

"Okay, teacher, I understand."

Then, Lin Xi didn't say anything more.

He took half a step back, straightened his body, and put his legs together.

Then, he bowed deeply to the old man in front of him.

After getting up, he grabbed the coat draped over the back of the chair, turned around, and pushed open the wooden door to the study.

The door hinges made a slight creaking sound.

In early spring of 1985, the wind and snow suddenly swept over us.

The cold wind blew straight in through my collar, carrying the dryness and chill unique to Northwest China.

Lin Xi stood in the corridor, turned around and gently closed the door.

He put on gloves and buttoned up his coat one button at a time.

The heart inside my chest beat steadily and powerfully.

Lin Xi raised her head, glanced at the sky filled with flying snow, and strode into the snowstorm.

......

Shanghai in March was experiencing a sudden cold snap.

The cold wind along the Huangpu River, carrying dampness, blew straight into people's collars.

Lin Xi wrapped his coat tighter and followed Factory Director Liu of Factory 914 into the extra-large aerospace module production workshop.

The factory building is over forty meters high.

The steel truss structure was covered with the tracks of the gantry crane, and several industrial lights overhead cast pale beams of light, illuminating the entire space like a steel canyon.

The air was filled with the acrid smell of burnt welding flux, mixed with the fishy odor of cutting fluid.

A 50-ton bridge crane is slowly lifting a curved titanium alloy plate, with the steel wire rope taut.

Four welders wearing asbestos aprons stood below, staring up at the board, none of them uttering a sound.

The live stream chat was filled with comments.

Holy crap, this factory building is taller than my shopping mall!

[I can smell it; I can almost smell the rust through the screen.]

This is what a heavy industrial factory looks like in the 80s; the screen is filled with the romance of heavy metal.

This became the foundation for the skeleton of our later spacecraft!

Factory Director Liu was in his early fifties, not very tall, and his hands were covered with white patches from old burns.

He pointed to a construction area cordoned off with caution ropes, his voice low:

"Deputy Team Leader Lin, what you're looking for is over there."

Inside the safety rope, dozens of workers were busy around two giant steel structures.

One set is a cylindrical vacuum chamber frame, about five meters in diameter. The outer wall is not yet sealed, revealing dense reinforcing ribs and flange interfaces.

The other system consists of a high-voltage electron gun mounted on a dedicated base.

The gun is three meters long, with a row of thick high-voltage cables attached to its rear.

The vacuum chamber is responsible for removing the air.

The electron gun is responsible for welding the titanium alloy through.

If the weld isn't penetrated, the compartment won't withstand the load.

The weld cracked, and all the previous processing was wasted.

These two things are the core of titanium alloy vacuum electron beam welding.

It was also a national treasure that Lin Xi obtained in Moscow through "sincere technical service".

This craft directly determines the fate of the main load-bearing structure of future spacecraft and rockets.

Lin Xi stopped, looked up at the industrial behemoth that was being conceived, and asked:

"Director Liu, how's the integration testing of the vacuum chamber and electron gun going?"

Upon hearing this, Director Liu, who had been in high spirits just moments before, visibly slumped his shoulders.

He sighed.

"I can confidently say that the main frame of the equipment will be completed in another three months."

After saying that, he walked to the waste bin next to him, rummaged through it, and pulled out a piece of silver-gray titanium alloy plate that had been torn apart, and handed it to Lin Xi.

"But the process parameters are the bottleneck."