Back to the Republic of China to be a editor

Page 770

In the past, two or three rockets might be put together and launched one at a time a week, but if there is an explosion, the whole line will be shut down, and the second rocket will be launched after four or five months.

On the launch pad in the distance, the Vostok rocket was ignited, lifted off, the booster fell off, and flew out of sight... Around the earth, the aerospace monitoring and control station in the northern part of the Soviet Union captured the spacecraft and re-entered the atmosphere over Kazakhstan.When the spaceship's re-entry cabin was 7000 meters above the ground, the simulated dummy popped up and landed wobbly just like the last time.

……

"On February 2, the Soviet Union conducted a launch test of an unmanned test ship for a manned spaceship. The test was a complete success. The Soviet Union will continue to carry out the test of the spaceship. After it is fully mature, it will launch the manned spaceship with a carrier rocket , sending No.22 astronauts into low-Earth orbit for the first space flight in human history."

This one-sentence report on Soviet radio set off waves in the United States.

"The Mercury program has invested 1.7 million US dollars, and this year has a budget of 6000 million US dollars. I don't know how much the Soviet Union has invested in their manned spaceflight program, but we have spent enough money."

New NASA administrator James Webb knocked on the table for emphasis:

"We have to send a man into space before the Soviet Union! That's what Eisenhower asked for, and it's also what President Kennedy asked for."

James Webb took over NASA. NASA's space program can be described as numerous, and each plan is huge, but it is not time to produce results.

The U.S. manned spaceflight project corresponding to the Orient Project is called the Mercury Project, which was officially launched in 1958—shortly after the United States launched the artificial satellite.

To be honest, the Mercury plan was better formulated than the Eastern plan.Unlike the rough and fast manned spacecraft of the Soviet Union, the manned spacecraft of the Mercury Project has complete facilities.

It has an escape tower. If the rocket crashes at the beginning of the launch, the escape system can be activated within 1 second, taking the spacecraft and astronauts away from the launch vehicle, and then landing with a parachute.

The spacecraft of the Mercury Project can be operated by astronauts, while the pilots of the Soviet Orient Project are tied to their seats to watch the scenery. All operations of the spacecraft are completed by ground radio commands or controlled automatically.

To be on the safe side, Mercury plans to make a small scale model first, then a full-scale manned spacecraft, and complete the project in two stages.

Because there are too many things to try, the Mercury Project has launched a total of 1959 launch vehicles from August 8 to the present.According to the plan, seven more rockets will be launched later, and then astronauts will be sent into space in the first half of 14.

This seems a little too late.

……

James Webb emphasized the need to send people into space before the Soviet Union, and the NASA Mercury program officials present here suddenly became gloomy.

"We've just completed a full set of tests on the scaled-down ship model."

"Atlas has only launched the Mercury spacecraft twice. In the most recent launch, the cabin of the spacecraft was still in a vacuum state, and it was impossible to carry people."

James Webb: "Maxim, how long do you think the Soviet Union will officially send a man into space?"

"The Soviet Union has twice announced the success of the launch of the unmanned test spacecraft. We estimate that they can send astronauts up after another test flight of the unmanned spacecraft." Maxim, the chief designer of the Mercury spacecraft, said, "According to the recent launch frequency of the Soviet Union, after February 2, they will launch another unmanned spacecraft on March 22, and then launch a manned spacecraft on April 3."

James Webb: "You have a plan to send people up in mid-to-early April."

Maxim: ...

Program Director Richard: ...

"If some of the requirements are lowered, then maybe we can do it."

Von Braun said, "Although we cannot send spacecraft into low-Earth orbit, we can send people into space and return safely. Is that so, William?"

Von Braun roll call, JPL -- William Pickering, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, had to speak.

"Yes, JPL has prepared a plan that can send astronauts into suborbital space for short-term space flights. Although they only stay in space for less than 15 minutes and the flight distance is 320 miles, they do fly out of the atmosphere. "

Von Braun: "JPL's suborbital vehicle is not launched on the 'Atlas' launch vehicle, but on the 'Redstone'-3 rocket. The Atlas rocket is not yet mature, but the Redstone-3 is very mature design."

James Webb: "Redstone-3? The medium-range ballistic missile?"

Pickering: "Yes. But it's good enough to put a 1.5-ton payload on a suborbital flight of 120 to 140 miles. The spacecraft is built by Chrysler and has been tested uncrewed before."

James Webb: "What? A spaceship that weighs more than a ton? Is this a spaceship, or is it an iron spacesuit?"

Pickering: "When it re-enters the atmosphere, it's not even 1.5 tons, it's 1100 kilograms. Because the spacecraft stays in space for 15 minutes, many of the equipment that keeps the astronauts alive can be omitted... Director, what we want to do in the To send people into space in early April, we can only use it, there is no other way.”

……

Beijing.

"The Atlas LV-3B rocket in the United States, I thought it would be greatly modified on the basis of the prototype, and the weight would be increased dramatically, but it has not been modified much. It is quite risky to use this to launch a manned spacecraft. "

Based on the size estimation in the American TV screen and the information collected from various channels, Qian Xuesen roughly determined the take-off weight of the Atlas LV-3B.

Because there are no major changes, the maximum take-off weight of the Atlas LV-3B is actually not as good as that of the Long March-3.

Now the weight ranking of the top launch vehicles in various countries has become the first in the Vostok, the second in the Long March-3, and the third in the Atlas LV-3B.In 1957, the weight of China's launch vehicle was ranked second in the world. Later, when Atlas appeared, the United States took the second place.Now the Long March-3 has surpassed Atlas, and China has returned to the No.2 position.

What's going on here... Probably when the United States was designing the "Atlas" intercontinental missile, their hydrogen bomb had already undergone the first round of miniaturization.

Tang Hua: "The last time someone from NASA said on TV, the Atlaska Mercury program, the manned launch was in 1962, but this will obviously lag behind Korolev's time node. If the United States wants to preempt , and may risk hitting someone with a smaller rocket, smaller than an Atlas."

Qian Xuesen: "Smaller than Atlas?!"

Of course, it is smaller than Atlas. After the successful launch, the Soviets commented that it was "a flea's leap". That's how it came about. ·

……

The Atlas LV-3B rocket carrying the unmanned spacecraft of the Mercury Project was launched on the second day after the Vostok rocket was launched, and China is still celebrating the Spring Festival.

Regarding the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union, Tang Hua expressed... Feel free.The United States launched 20 large and small launch vehicles in two years to break through manned spaceflight technology. Tang Hua still admires this crazy energy.

China's spaceflight is still progressing according to the plan. Since one of the navigation satellites and the weather satellite has already made money, the other is about to make money, so there is no problem with the funding for space launches. It just needs to wait for technological accumulation and breakthroughs.

"Aerospace and the national defense industry have a direct and close relationship, but aerospace work also has a significant role in promoting the country's industrial development and national economy. In 1960, driven by the demand for aerospace, domestic chemical, steel, non-ferrous, and other basic industries, The machinery manufacturing industry in many categories has significantly improved its technology; the navigation satellite system obtained foreign exchange income of 1960 million US dollars and 1420 million rubles in 560; starting from this year, the meteorological satellite system can also provide accurate and timely weather information for the whole country .”

At the third plenary session of the Second National People's Congress in 1961, the Prime Minister gave a government work report to the deputies of the National People's Congress.

"Excuse me, we sold the satellite navigation system to foreign countries, will they put it in their weapons and use it against us and the Soviet Union?" a representative asked.

Tang Hua: "The sextant satellite navigation system is divided into a high-precision military version and a general-precision civilian version. We sell the civilian version. The difference between them is that if a military ship is equipped with a military version of navigation equipment, it can even avoid reefs and cross fjords using only satellite navigation, the civilian version cannot, it may run aground."

"The missiles we launched into the Pacific Ocean last year didn't seem to be able to reach the United States. When will China be able to manufacture missiles that can reach the United States?"

The Prime Minister coughed, "On behalf of comrades, this...may not be convenient to disclose here."

Tang Hua: "Let me give you a general answer. In the future, our missiles will definitely be able to hit the United States directly, and we don't have to wait too long."

……

"If the warhead installed on Dongfeng-3 is not 2.5 tons, but 700 kilograms, its range may be significantly improved."

Qian Xuesen once calculated the trajectory of Dongfeng-3 under different loads and came to a conclusion.

Tang Hua: "700 kilograms is the weight of the second-generation hydrogen bomb warhead that Qian Sanqiang and the others are working on. The equivalent is 300 million tons of TNT, which is slightly smaller than the current 400 million tons, but it is enough. Dongfeng-3 is replaced by this Warhead, how much can the range be increased?"

"The theoretical calculation of the computer shows that the upper limit is 8300 kilometers." Qian Xuesen drew a line on the globe with a pen. "Take off from these four bases in the northeast, and you can barely reach Los Angeles on the west coast."