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

......

Two hours later, Lin Xi saw the actual object.

The base's logistics department brought in more than a dozen trucks, their cargo beds piled high with specially made military-grade thermal and waterproof tarpaulins.

Each piece is several tens of square meters in size, with thick insulating cotton inside.

A large number of workers climbed back up the towering pylon.

Like bandaging, they used thick nylon ropes to wrap these heavy canvas pieces one by one around the outside of the rocket's critical sections.

From the engine section and fuel tanks, all the way to the top instrument compartment and fairing.

This job is extremely tedious and dangerous.

Canvas is heavy to begin with, and after absorbing moisture from the air, it feels even heavier, like it's weighed down with lead.

Workers worked together to drag the tower along the narrow walkway.

Not only must the rocket body be tightly wrapped, but it must also avoid the dense array of test cables and fuel filling pipelines on the outside.

The canvas covering protected it from the wind and rain, but the problem of internal condensation remained unresolved.

Lei Jianguo directed the truck to drive to the base of the tower.

Several heavy, high-powered industrial hot air blowers, each taller than a person, were pushed down.

Dozens of workers carried bright yellow canvas ventilation pipes, half a meter in diameter, and climbed up the tower's steps, one by one.

The pipe was securely tied to the railing, one end connected to the hot air blower below, and the other end inserted directly into the rocket fairing and instrument compartment through a pre-reserved gap.

"power ups!"

Lei Jianguo gave the order.

Several hot air blowers simultaneously emitted a deafening roar, and the generator set spewed out black smoke.

The hot air is transported upwards through the long canvas tube.

The originally shriveled, bright yellow tube instantly swelled up, resembling a large artery.

Warm air continuously blows into the rocket's internal compartments, thoroughly drying any moisture that may condense inside and maintaining the stable temperature required by the electronic components.

This is the most rustic, heartbreaking, yet most effective method used by the older generation of aerospace workers.

There are no cleanrooms, no constant temperature towers.

They relied on people hanging canvas high in the air and large machines blowing warm air day and night to protect this tens of tons of precision equipment in the mountain valley.

......

On the third night after the hoisting, a torrential downpour began.

Cold rain mixed with mountain winds pounded violently on the iron frames of the Southwest Launch Site.

Several giant searchlights around the launch tower shone blinding beams of light, piercing through the dense rain and illuminating the launch pad brightly.

Lin Xi, wearing a raincoat, stood under the canopy of the dispatch room in the distance.

Cold rainwater streamed down the brim of his helmet.

His gaze pierced through the heavy rain.

Hundreds of meters away, inside that steel tower, the massive rocket was completely wrapped in green canvas, like a giant baby swaddled in swaddling clothes.

Four thick, bright yellow ventilation pipes, like umbilical cords, run from the ground all the way to the sky.

The hot air blower hummed low in the rainy night. No matter how low the outside temperature dropped, the canvas pipes remained taut, supplying the life-sustaining heat inside.

Every two hours, Lei Jianguo would lead several workers, dressed in raincoats, up and down the tower.

Check each layer of the canvas for loose fasteners and for leaks in the tubing.

They were like a swarm of ants, guarding a steel behemoth millions of times larger than themselves in the pitch-black rainy night.

The live stream was unusually quiet; after a long while, only a few comments appeared.

I cried. This isn't building rockets; this is risking their lives to raise children.

[The umbilical cord...it really looks like an umbilical cord. It's the entire industrial system using the most rudimentary method to supply blood to this rocket.]

Lin Xi wiped the rain off her face.

His hands were steady, and his gaze was incredibly firm.

This is the last time China's aerospace industry has suffered such injustice before the establishment of the three vertical factories.

......

June.

There are less than five days left until the maiden flight of the Red Star 2 rocket.

Southwest Launch Site Command and Control Center.

Several ceiling fans whirred overhead, but they couldn't dispel the stuffiness and tension filling the room.

Several rows of long tables were set up with CRT monitors, their red and green indicator lights flashing alternately.

The joint test of the rocket and spacecraft is underway, which is the most important full-system test before the rocket goes into space.

"Telemetry signal received, Channel A is stable."

The operator kept a close eye on the screen.

As soon as he finished speaking, the originally smooth green waveform on the screen suddenly jittered violently, producing a dense array of jagged edges.

"Report!"

"Channel B signal abnormal!"

The operator sat up abruptly, his voice tense.

"High-frequency short-circuit interference has occurred, causing a sharp increase in packet loss rate!"

Chung Wei-min rushed to the control panel, braced his hands on the table, and stared intently at the screen.

Lu Guoliang frowned and picked up the dispatch communicator:

"Track and control station number two, can you confirm whether the problem is ground-source interference or an issue with the rocket's equipment?"

"Confirmed to be feedback from the arrow!"

An anxious reply came through the communicator.

"Sudden impedance change in the antenna feed section suggests a possible short circuit in the metal contact!"

The air in the hall seemed to freeze.

Less than five days before launch, the rocket had already been filled with some test gases and inert fuel.

If the engine were to be launched with this strange short-circuit hazard, the violent vibrations would cause the short circuit to completely break out.

The rocket will become an uncontrollable blind man at an altitude of tens of thousands of meters, or even self-destruct.

"check."

Lu Guoliang uttered only one word, but his tone left no room for negotiation.

Chung Wei-min immediately retrieved the structural drawings, his finger quickly tracing the pipes:

"It is located on the outer side of the instrument compartment at the very top, at the root of the telemetry antenna."

Lin Xi stood to the side, looking at the gloomy sky outside the window.

The wind picked up again in the Anning Valley, and the howling wind outside couldn't even block out the thick glass of the command center.

The poplar trees in the distance were bent almost into a bow by the wind.

Without an enclosed vertical assembly plant, the rocket stood on an open-air launch tower.

At an altitude of fifty or sixty meters, the wind force is two or three levels stronger than at ground level.

The sound of the final assembly site could be heard over the communication channel.

"Master Lei, the antenna is on the outer casing."

"We need to send someone to climb to the top of the tower to investigate."

The voice on the other end of the walkie-talkie was broken and intermittent due to the wind.

Lei Jianguo's hoarse voice rang out:

"I know!"

"The wind is too strong, and the elevator cable is prone to shaking and getting stuck. We can only use the maintenance elevator on the outside."

The hall was so quiet that you could hear the hum of the instruments running.

The straight ladder with its openwork exterior is only wide enough for one person to pass through, making it extremely dangerous to climb in this weather.

"I'll go."

A deep male voice came through the walkie-talkie.

Lin Xi recognized the voice as that of Liu, the foreman of the second assembly team, a quiet but extremely reliable old technician.

"Wear a safety rope and wear two layers of anti-static insulating gloves."

Lei Jianguo didn't waste any words and went straight to the point.