You promised to build cars, so why did you go into the military industry?

"Oh, right." Lu Xiangwen seemed to have thought of something and handed over a business card. "This is the phone number of the person in charge of building the rocket launch tower on Hainan Island. You can call him if you need anything; the internal price is very cheap."

Looking at the business card in front of him, Li Ran had a feeling about the "domestic economic cycle".

However, building such a highly specialized structure requires the expertise of these professionals.

I was originally considering whether to take two boxes of milk to Director Qi and ask him to help me find a professional construction team.

Now everything's been arranged, and we don't even need milk.

It feels so good to not have to worry about anything.

"Okay." Li Ran happily took the business card. "So, about our project..."

"We'll start moving forward soon." Lu Xiangwen took a document from Zhao Feng. "These are some of the students we're mentoring. They'll be here to report for duty before the weekend. We'll help arrange some staff dormitories for them."

"No problem." After taking the stack of documents, Li Ran called Wang Bing.

Before long, Wang Bing left with the three academicians.

Before leaving get off work in the afternoon, Li Ran went to the legal department and found Zhao Jing, who was organizing documents.

"These next two days, you and Secretary Guo should go to the port administration department to handle the formalities. I'm going to arrange for people to repair the wharf and dredge the waterway."

Seeing that Zhao Jing didn't react, Li Ran waved his hand in front of her:

"Give me a shout. Oh, and don't forget the Port Operation License."

Zhao Jing threw a crumpled piece of paper over:

"I'm going home now! We'll talk about it tomorrow!"

-----------------

September 29, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

As the designated launch time approached, white mist enveloped the Falcon 9 V1.1 rocket standing on the launch tower.

That's caused by water vapor in the air condensing when it comes into contact with the cryogenic propellant during rocket propellant loading.

In the flight control room not far away, Elon M and his team were nervously awaiting the final judgment.

15:59:57.

With the Lift-Off command issued, the Merlin 1D engine, which consists of a central engine and eight surrounding peripheral engines in an octagonal layout (Octaweb structure), ignites sequentially.

Three seconds later, at 4:00 PM, the Falcon 9 V1.1 rocket broke free from the earth's grip and successfully took off.

The first and second stages separated 148 seconds after liftoff.

Everyone's hearts were in their throats.

On the screen in the flight control hall, the grid fins above the newly separated core stage rocket body began to swing rapidly, and the installed cold nitrogen RCS also entered working status.

Soon, the animation showed that the core stage rocket body successfully completed its flip maneuver.

Cheers erupted in the flight control room.

During rocket launch, in order to make full use of the Earth's rotation to obtain a high initial velocity, thereby saving fuel and increasing carrying capacity.

They are typically launched and fly in the direction of the Earth's rotation.

When a rocket takes off from the ground, it takes off vertically. So in order to take advantage of the Earth's rotation, the rocket will perform a maneuver called "programmed turn," adjusting its attitude at a suitable height to gradually change the rocket from a vertical to a horizontal position.

When the first and second stages separate, for the non-recoverable core stage, which loses thrust and falls freely, its attitude is irrelevant.

However, the retrievable core stage rocket body has strict requirements for its attitude.

Since the engine of the core stage rocket shuts down, the rocket body, which was originally lying horizontally, must be straightened as soon as possible after losing thrust. Only in this way can the core stage rocket body be prevented from being subjected to excessive lateral pressure, thereby preventing the rocket body from deforming and disintegrating.

This is why everyone cheered when they saw the core-stage rocket body quickly and smoothly adjust its posture.

This also signifies the official start of the world's first controlled rocket reentry attempt.

Soon, the core stage rocket body, having been adjusted to the appropriate posture, began its first return-to-base ignition.

With all nine Merlin 1D engines ignited simultaneously, the descent speed of the rocket was significantly controlled.

As time went on, the arrow's falling speed began to increase again.

However, with the successful implementation of the second return ignition, the descent speed of the rocket body remained within a controllable range.

Spectators around the launch site could already see the rocket flying from the horizon with the naked eye.

As the arrow appeared, cheers erupted from the crowd.

Suddenly, a commotion broke out.

The anticipated third return firing did not occur. Instead, a burst of apple-green light seemed to flash from the tail of the arrow before it crashed straight to the ground, like a missile.

The flames that shot into the sky were quickly engulfed by rising black smoke, and after a long while, the sound of an explosion reached the ears of the audience.

This scene was faithfully recorded by the cameras on site and quickly spread and gained traction on the Internet.

Although the Cassiope satellite has been successfully placed into its intended orbit, people seem more concerned about the failure of the recovery phase.

Countless aerospace professionals have spoken out, criticizing the "recoverable rocket" technology concept as flawed, a pipe dream, and a pipe dream.

In the following days, environmentalists and animal rights activists put up banners and presented flowers at the entrance of SkyX.

They might stage a sit-in protest or a march.

They condemned Elon M and his rockets for their environmental destruction and the killing of lives.

SpaceX was immediately subjected to widespread criticism.

But Elon M simply posted a message on the internet that read, "The recycling failed, but we got valuable data," before leaving his phone behind and heading to the factory.

As soon as he entered, Elon M eagerly asked:

"El, did you find out why you called me here?"

Elon M seemed to notice Bruce's unusual tension and looked puzzled:

"Hey Bruce, relax. I never thought the rocket recovery would be a success on the first try."

"Elon, if I were Bruce, I don't think I'd even dare to face you." El John shrugged. "Due to his miscalculation, the rocket lacked enough fuel on its third reentry ignition, causing it to fail to decelerate properly and crash."

Another engineer standing to the side complained:

"Due to his elementary mistake, we did not obtain even a single piece of useful data during this most critical stage of the recovery process."

"You can't say that, buddy," El John gestured with his hands. "At least we know the explosive yield of the Falcon 9. Pretty spectacular, isn't it?"

Elon M looked serious.

"Are you sure? It's a fuel calculation error and not a problem with the engine's fuel lines?"

"Confirmed!" El-John nodded, pointing to the data on the computer screen. "Whether it's the black box or the live broadcast footage, we have ample evidence to prove this conclusion."

Elon M. snatched the mouse and carefully examined the data in the black box.

Data shows that the third ignition lasted less than 0.1 seconds before being aborted due to propellant depletion.

The footage clearly shows the nine Merlin 1D rocket engines emitting a burst of apple-green light. Before the landing legs could even deploy, the rocket body crashed straight into the ground, catching fire and exploding.

At this moment, seeing the final explosion scene, Bruce Park seemed to grasp at a straw and retorted:

"If there was no propellant left, how could it still catch fire and explode?"

"First, a very small amount of propellant will remain in the engine piping; second, the fuel tank will be filled with volatile propellant vapors; third, the chemical substance TEA-TAB (triethylaluminum/triethylboron) used to ignite the engine is self-igniting; fourth..."

"Enough." Elon M interrupted El John, looking at Bruce Park:

"You promised me, you said you calculated it seven times, you made me believe your skin color."

"I……"

"I hate the number 7, Bruce. You're fired."