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

Chapter 64 Rocket Recovery

By the end of the month, the rocket recovery and landing site was completed, and the deployment of tracking and control stations on the surrounding hilltops was nearing completion.

Li Ran, who came to inspect the site, felt that the bare cement ground was somewhat awkward.

Back at the base, Li Ran casually drew a pattern and handed it to Lin Yu, asking him to arrange for someone to paint the ground.

"This isn't necessary—"

Lin Yu refused the simple sketch in his hand.

"Once the rocket's exhaust flames burn, any drawing will be wasted."

Wang Bing said he didn't care, as long as the pattern didn't affect the rocket's sensors in identifying and locating obstacles.

He turned around and called Xu Qinghe, instructing him to lead a team to quickly retrieve the landing site and oversee the completion of the design.

Seeing that his ideas were valued by his trusted advisors and that they had sent his confidants to carry them out, Li Ran's confidence swelled.

Once the excitement was on, Li Ran couldn't suppress it. He turned around and pulled Su Qing aside, saying that he wanted to share his unique aesthetic sense regarding the UI of live streaming screens.

"Don't make it too technical. How many people in the whole country understand aerospace?"

Our target audience is the general public, so the visuals must be simple!

Make the icons big! Make the images clear! Give the rockets more screen time!

The numbers are too dry, let's change them! An outline of the Earth with a small rocket moving on it.

Precision? Precision isn't needed! It's the feeling that matters!

Li Ran spoke and gestured, and incidentally completed a tactical lean back.

Wang Bing shrugged at Su Qing, then dragged Lin Yu away from the scene.

Noticing that the live streaming UI was becoming increasingly sophisticated and matched his description, Li Ran nodded in satisfaction.

Not yet finished, he then began to criticize the livestream venue and the clothing of the people involved.

On July 10, United Industries officially announced the launch schedule, recovery technology route, and live stream link.

On July 13, the Joint-7 rocket successfully launched three satellites from different universities into orbits at different altitudes.

Unfortunately, United Industries' first rocket recovery experiment failed.

"Oh! Elon! Look at this scene, why does it look so...scummy?"

The familiar UI style and stickers in the live stream made El-John think he had entered his own live stream for a moment, but he quickly realized it and became angry.

But Elon M, contrary to his usual self, smiled and said, "Hahaha—as the guides of civilization, our aesthetics are surprisingly consistent."

"—" El-John froze, jabbing the screen hard with his finger. "This is plagiarism! Blatant plagiarism!"

"How could it be plagiarism? Our recycling technology is exactly the same—" Elon M paused mid-sentence, then asked, "Have we had any new employees fired recently besides Bruce? Where are they now? United Industries?"

"—No, including Bruce, they were all recruited by Blue Origin. Because they violated their non-compete agreements, we received nearly $200 million in compensation for it."

Elon M nodded, slightly relieved.

It seems that there wasn't a traitor among those who were dismissed.

Doesn't that mean the other party also approves of the vertical recycling solution?

I am not alone on this path!

Elon M. is more confident in his future ability to recover rockets.

Soon, the first and second stages of the rocket separated, and the first stage began the recovery process.

After three consecutive mid-air ignitions, the speed of the first-stage rocket as it descended vertically decreased visibly. However, something went wrong upon landing, causing the first-stage rocket to skip the hovering deceleration phase and crash directly.

Amid the explosion of Union One, El-John breathed a sigh of relief: "It was clearly a speed control problem, but thankfully we already had a solution."

Yes, we are still in the lead.

Although the recovery experiment ended in failure, it did not dampen the confidence of Lin Yu and his team.

Li Ran further expressed his and the company's determination by posting on social media that "it's just the price to pay for exploring the future."

"Mr. Li, for the next experiment, I'd like to try the horizontal landing method you mentioned for speed control."

"What are your thoughts on insulation?" Li Ran asked curiously.

"I have a vague idea, but I need to collect data before I can make a decision."

On August 17, the Joint-1 Y4 carrier rocket was successfully launched, sending two satellites into space.

During the first-stage rocket recovery phase, the reinforced rocket body falls horizontally. With the help of the top grid rudder and aerodynamic configuration, the rocket body's descent speed is reduced from 2.4 km/s at separation to 1.3 km/s.

On its third return ignition, the rocket successfully braked in mid-air and began to approach the center of the recovery landing site from an altitude of 2000 meters at a speed of 400 m/s.

Finally, the rocket hovered in the air 30 meters above the center of the landing site.

It then achieved a soft landing at a speed of 2 m/s.

"It worked?" Lin Yu was somewhat surprised and incredulous.

Then, applause and cheers resounded through the sky as Lin Yu was tossed into the air by the crowd.

However, just as Lin Yu's body was in mid-air, something unexpected happened.

The rocket, which was originally standing upright in the center of the landing site, suddenly tilted and exploded.

The cheers abruptly stopped, and the scene fell silent.

The rising flames cast a pale light on everyone's faces, and a sense of loss spread through the crowd.

The rescue team stationed at the landing site immediately rushed to the scene to extinguish the fire and salvage the black box.

The explosion of the rocket was broadcast live in the studio, which wasn't a big deal, since the previous failure had also been broadcast live.

However, the scene of Lin Yu being tossed into the air in celebration was also broadcast live.

This image was captured and titled "Champagne Popping at Halftime," and it went viral on the internet.

To ensure the morale of his employees, Li Ran banned all of them from going online, preventing them from becoming emotionally unbalanced due to external comments. At the same time, he posted a photo of an arrow tilting at the moment of impact on social media, along with the caption "Just one step away."

Three days later, Lin Yu found the cause of the problem: the landing leg overheated during descent, causing the metal to become brittle. He also obtained the temperature curves of key components when the rocket body fell horizontally.

"The descent was still too fast."

Subsequently, Lin Yu led his team to make targeted improvements to the first-stage rocket body in the workshop.

On September 22, the Joint One rocket once again stood upright at the launch pad.

The live stream resumed on September 24.

At 3:47 p.m., the Joint One rocket successfully ignited and lifted off.

At 155 seconds, the explosive bolts detonated, and the first-stage rocket successfully separated from the second stage.

The three ZK-33F engines of the second-stage rocket ignited, taking over from the first stage to continue acceleration, and successfully delivered the three satellites to their designated orbits 300 seconds later.

At 160 seconds, with the first return ignition, the rocket successfully adjusted its attitude, turned and decelerated, lowered its trajectory apex, and began its journey to the rocket recovery landing site.

Approximately 30 seconds later, ignition ended, and the rocket began its inertial flight phase.

With the combined action of the grid fins and RCS, the first-stage rocket body maintains a stable attitude as it glides to the apex of the trajectory (the highest point at approximately 105 km).

After passing the apex of the trajectory, the rocket body descends in altitude, and the aerodynamic drag gradually increases.

In these nearly 200 seconds, the engine precooled, the tank pressure was ready, and the propellant settled to the bottom.

Upon the second return ignition, the rocket's descent speed decreased significantly.

Twenty seconds later, ignition ended, and the grille rudder and RCS began to intervene in attitude control.

The arrow's tip is raised to form a certain angle with the ground, maximizing the use of the arrow's cross-sectional area to increase aerodynamic drag, thereby achieving precise control over the descent speed.

Another 40 seconds passed, and by then, the ground cameras were able to capture the returning first-stage rocket body through their optical lenses.

The third return ignition began, with three ZK-131F rockets and one ZK-33F rocket operating at full power. With the assistance of the grid fins and RCS, the rocket appeared vertically at an altitude of 2000 meters above the landing site.

Numerous tracking and control stations on the surrounding hilltops began to intervene, providing accurate altitude data for the rocket.

The rocket's altitude continued to decrease: 1000 meters, 800 meters, 500 meters, ———, 100 meters.

Three landing legs extended, and the altitude continued to decrease.

At 50 meters, all three ZK-131F engines shut down, leaving only one ZK-33F engine to output thrust.

As the propellant was rapidly consumed, the rocket's speed decreased to 2 m/s, at which point it was only 30 meters above the ground.

The ZK-33F engine's 30-ton sea-level thrust is more than enough to handle the 26-ton first-stage rocket body.

As the throttle valve of the ZK-33F engine gradually closes, the thrust decreases in an orderly manner.

When the thrust and the weight of the rocket body are equal, the first stage rocket body is suspended 1 meter above the ground.

Finally, the three landing legs touched down, secured, and locked in place.

The first-stage rocket came to a steady stop in the center of the landing site.

The first-stage rocket body has been successfully recovered.

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