In August, above the vast grassland.
A huge site has been designated, and the ground leveling work has been done in the central area.
In the center, circles of signs divide the ground regularly.
This is the test site for the first land recovery of Hongyan rocket.
After several months of adjustment work, the recovery research on the Hongyan rocket is basically completed.
What will happen now will be his first recycling.
However, although this time it is a rocket recovery test, the Hongyan rocket will not go through the actual launch process.
Instead, shortly after takeoff, it changed direction and flew to the rocket recycling site.
Beside the recycling yard, in various low buildings, people are making final preparations for rocket recycling.
To be honest, in the process of rocket recovery, what everyone can do is actually limited.
After all, during the landing process, everything is controlled by the computer, and you can't control it even if you want to.
However, there is still a lot of preparation work to be done, the most important of which is various fire and explosion prevention work.
Since the rocket explosion accident last year, the emphasis on fire and explosion prevention in all aspects has increased by several orders of magnitude.
"Brother Xingyang, Brother Bo, they should be launching soon, right?" Qin Ming asked, looking at the time on his watch.
"Three and a half minutes to go."
Zhang Xingyang glanced at Qin Ming beside him.
"Why, don't you have confidence in the return control system you made?"
Qin Ming was shocked and didn't feel particularly embarrassed:
"I'm a little worried. After all, this is our first time."
"No country in the world has ever had a rocket recycling precedent."
“I don’t know if we can succeed this time.”
Zhang Xingyang patted Qin Ming on the shoulder, smiled and said:
"It doesn't matter if we fail this time, we can still afford the loss now."
"And the low-orbit satellite communication network project has now been approved. We will have many opportunities to verify our technology in the future."
"Nothing to worry about."
Zhang Xingyang glanced at his watch and said, "There are still two minutes left. Take a deep breath to relax."
"Wait a while, when you are busy!"
After this explanation, Qin Ming also realized that his current worries were unnecessary.
So after taking a few deep breaths, I calmed down my nervousness.
"The launch is about to start over there, go back to your job." Zhang Xingyang looked at the time and said to Qin Ming.
In the launch center on the other side, Geng Bo and his people were doing the countdown before the rocket launch.
As the countdown ended, the Hongyan rocket rose from the launch pad.
The recycling yard where Zhang Xingyang was located also received the news that the rocket had set off at this time, and began to wait nervously.
This launch does not require so much fuel because the rocket does not actually re-enter and return from the atmosphere.
The fuel tank of the first-stage rocket was not filled with fuel beforehand.
This is also to prevent the rocket from exploding if recovery fails and to reduce the power of the rocket explosion.
Because the distance was not very far, after the rocket flew for a few minutes, it was already close to the recycling site.
At this time, everyone in the recycling yard hid behind an explosion-proof bunker made of several meters of reinforced concrete.
When it was tens of kilometers away from the recovery site, the rocket's engine began to gradually reduce its thrust, and began to adjust its direction controlled by the four-sided rudder.
Adjust your own angle bit by bit, gradually transforming yourself from the original state that was almost parallel to the earth to a direction perpendicular to the earth.
When the rocket was only a few kilometers away from the recovery site, the rocket was almost 90 degrees from the ground.
And at this time, the speed of the rocket has also become very slow.
Of course, this is also extremely fast compared to the normal launch speed of the rocket.
When the rocket arrived over the launch site, it was completely vertical to the ground.
It was at this time that the four supporting legs on the lower part of the first-stage rocket popped out to provide support for the rocket when it landed.
Looking out at the rocket landing site from the explosion-proof glass on the reinforced concrete explosion-proof shelter.
The flames ejected from the tail of the rocket are now very weak, but they still set off gusts of wind on the flat ground.
Grains of gravel and sand on the ground were blown around.
As the height of the rocket got lower and lower, Zhang Xingyang's heart lifted higher and higher, almost reaching his throat.
As the altitude dropped, the rocket began to autonomously shut down several engines that had been working before.
The engines that provide thrust for the rocket range from five to three to only one.
Finally, when the height was only a few meters, the only working engine had stopped working.
The rocket weighing hundreds of tons fell directly to the ground with four support legs made of high-strength titanium alloy.
Each rod can handle nearly a hundred tons of pressure. Fortunately, the material science of the Rocket Research Institute is still passable, and there is no breakage.
Seeing the rocket parked steadily at the recycling site, everyone did not celebrate first.
Instead, he rushed out and began to observe and collect various recovery data of the rocket.
In particular, a large number of engineers who are responsible for rocket maintenance have been impatient to check the condition of the rocket.
Especially the damage to the rocket propulsion system.
You know, in this rocket that is almost out of fuel, the most valuable thing now is its propulsion system consisting of 11 engines connected in parallel.
The total price of each propulsion system, including the 11 YF-110 liquid oxygen kerosene engines, is as high as 20 million yuan.
This does not include the cost of the propulsion system control system.
Fortunately, the rocket uses liquid oxygen kerosene as a fuel that does not produce highly toxic substances. If the traditional unprotected fuel was used, no one would dare to rush forward without any protection.
Zhang Xingyang also followed the running engineers and ran quickly towards the rocket standing on the recycling field.
Although the recycling site was still filled with dust and heat waves at this time, everyone ignored these slightly harsh conditions.
Panting heavily, Zhang Xingyang came to the side of the rocket. After taking a few deep breaths, he carefully observed the external conditions of the rocket.
During the recovery process, due to the relatively large force received, although the four support legs that popped up on the rocket body were not broken, they were deformed to a certain extent.
This shows that even the support legs made of titanium alloy are unlikely to be able to withstand the weight of such a behemoth.
However, if the engine shutdown procedure of the rocket is slightly improved during the lowering altitude, the pressure on the support legs can be effectively reduced.
Zhang Xingyang looked at the rocket in front of him, which was like a hill, and stretched his waist.
Looking at the vast expanse, the sky is as blue as the deep sea.
Now it can be said that the world is vast and there is a lot to do!
(End of chapter)
