"Shenzhou No. 1!" Fan Danbing widened his eyes and looked at everyone in front of him... and blurted out and debuted.

It doesn't matter if he shouted like this, and everyone present was stunned, especially Commander He grabbed Fan Wubing's hand and asked, "How do you know this is Shenzhou 1?!"

No wonder everyone is so nervous. The big guy in front of me is indeed the first generation of unmanned experimental spacecraft in my country. This name was just signed by the Internet and it was not announced to the outside world. Where did Fan Wubing know? You know, if this is a leak accident, it is very scary to pursue it.

After Fan Wubing shouted out, he felt a little regretful. Seeing that everyone looked surprised, he kept talking nonsense, "Isn't this the high-power launch vehicle? I remember someone said that this thing can transport more than ten tons of things into geosynchronous orbit, right?"

"This is not a launch vehicle." After being interrupted by him, everyone laughed. It is no wonder that the non-manned experimental spacecraft was released for the first time, and the outside world had no idea. It is understandable that Fan Wubing regards this as a launch vehicle.

The high-power launch vehicles at that time were often connected to several levels, and the Shenzhou-1 spacecraft looked like one of them, and it was normal for someone to see it wrong.

"This is the first generation of non-manned experimental spacecraft developed by our country. In the future, it may be manned." Commander He explained to Fan Wubing.

Before the Seventh System, my country's manned spacecraft was officially included in the national plan for development. This project was later named the "Shenzhou" spacecraft manned spacecraft project. The "Shenzhou" spacecraft manned spacecraft system, the "Long March" launch vehicle system, the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center spacecraft launch site system, the spacecraft measurement and control and communication system, astronaut system, scientific research and technical test system, etc. It is the largest and most complex spacecraft project in my country in the 1990s.

Fan Wubing naturally knew this, so he was still a little excited when he looked at the spaceship warehouse erected high. He couldn't help but ask, "Can you touch this thing?"

"It's not impossible to touch it, but you need to remove dust and static electricity and wear special protective gear. It's so late today, I think I won't bother." Commander He replied with a smile.

Fan Wubing shook his head, thinking that this was a pity, so he had to wait until tomorrow, but it was really exciting to be able to touch Shenzhou-1 before launch.

They were watching the spaceship inside through the floor-to-ceiling glass. Fan Wubing sighed while thinking about the incident of stealing satellites. This time the base invited him to come to see the spaceship, which was actually a reward. Although it did not involve any material reward, for him, wealth was nothing and could not be seen in his eyes. This difficult opportunity was very meaningful to him.

Fan Wubing looked at the spaceship not far away carefully and saw that there were staff members constantly conducting inspections. So he asked, "If it were officially launched, would it carry some things inside? For example, small animals or something?"

An expert next to Commander He replied, "That won't be true, after all, it's the first time. We plan to do it step by step, first get a dummy and carry various sensors on it. After getting first-hand environmental data, we will improve this part of the content in the future, and then get a monkey or planet or something. This is also an internationally common practice.

The so-called international common practice is actually what the United States and Russia do. After all, no one has completed the overloaded aerospace project independently except them.

"However, we will carry some small things on it, one is the flag, the national flag of the People's Republic of China, the flag of the Macao Special Administrative Region, the Olympic flag, etc., the second is various tickets and commemorative seals, and the third is the seeds of crops such as green roots, watermelon, corn, barley, etc., as well as Chinese medicinal materials such as licorice and isatis root." The expert added.

Fan Wubing was very happy after reading this. After praising her eyes, she suddenly asked, "By the way, is the capital expenditure a lot?"

"That's inevitable. If we can save, we can save it. After all, once this manned spacecraft project begins, it will never stop," Commander He replied.

Fan Wubing nodded and knew the truth. If it weren't for the huge cost of manned spaceflight and no direct economic benefits, the country would probably have started research in this area. Rather than saying that the scientific research strength has improved, the country has a little money in its hands and can afford it.

Jiuquan launch base is located in the northwest Gobi. It is known as the death zone in history. As early as the Neolithic period, Eastern and Western cultures converged here. From the Western Han Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, all dynasties, the request of the great sponsors of the Great Sponsors, Sichuan Zhijun established a city here. Unfortunately, after the Ming Dynasty, no one cared about it here for more than 500 years. In 1958, New China created the first missile launch site here and formed the first missile launch force of the Republic.

Since the central government approved the manned aerospace project in 1992, there have been differences of opinions on the site selection of the launch site. At that time, there were two main launch sites available, one was the Xichang launch site in Sichuan, and the other was the Jiuquan launch site in the northwest Gobi.

The opinion believes that the launch site should be built in Xichang base, because the Xichang base was built for launching spacecraft from the beginning, and two long bundles of large rockets have been launched there. With ready-made launch towers, there is no need to build a new launch site, which can save hundreds of millions of dollars.

Another opinion believes that the launch site should be built in the Jiuquan base in the northwest. The reason is that the Jiuquan base is on the Great Gobi Desert. The launch site covers an area of ​​50,000 square kilometers, has a wide view and good visibility. There is basically no population within 200 kilometers of the navigation area, and there are no dense towns and traffic trunk lines within 600 kilometers. If astronauts fall, it will be easy to find. Moreover, the Gobi Desert has dry climate and fewer lightning days. There is no rainy season, and the launch meteorological conditions are better.

If the spacecraft is launched here, the landing point when the astronauts return can be chosen in the flat and endless Inner Mongolia grasslands, which is easy to search. Xichang's climate is harsh and thunderstorms occur frequently all year round, which is not easy to meet the meteorological conditions for launch. Moreover, the launch site is surrounded by mountains and trees. Once the astronauts fall into the deep mountains and forests, it is difficult to rescue them. In addition, the direction of Xichang's launch is northwest. If it is launched in winter, if the astronauts fall into the sea, the water temperature is very low and the safety is not guaranteed.

Later, after more than a year of investigation and demonstration, the location of the launch of the spacecraft was finally set at the Jiuquan base in the northwest.

But there was another fierce argument over what kind of launch site to build.

This kind of opinion advocates the creation of the most advanced and modern launch site, that is, the "three-vernal" mode launch site, where rockets can be vertically assembled, tested, and transported vertically. The design of this launch site was first originated from the Kennedy Space Launch Center in the United States, and was later adopted by France and Japan. It was a popular launch site internationally at that time. The advantage is that the launch time is fast. After the rocket is shipped to the launch site, it usually takes only three days to launch, while the traditional old-mode launch site in the past would take at least half a month.

Another opinion advocates continuing to use the old mode launch site in the past, that is, the parallel test launch site. The reason is that the old mode launch site in China has been in operation for several years, the technology is very mature, and the construction cost is very low, so there is no need to spend a lot of money to build a new launch site, not to mention that everything has to be redesigned, which is technically risky.

"The quarrel was quite fierce at that time, because the "three-sided" launch site in the United States cost about several hundred million US dollars." The commander of the station said to Fan Wubing, "For this reason, the two experts with different opinions quarreled very hard. Especially some old experts, they firmly opposed the "three-sided" launch site. One of the reasons is that they are used to saving for a long time, being poor, and being afraid of being poor! When making arguments for each project, they are always worried about spending money, and they are even more reluctant to spend more money. Once they spend money, they feel distressed. They can save a little, and they always want to save a little. At that time, the Internet was good that you sponsored a large sum of money, which was considered to be a solution to the urgent need.

Fan Wubing heard the words of Commander He a little moved. He felt a little ashamed and scratched his head and said, "Did I sponsor a sum of money? Haha, I don't remember it very much."

After a quarrel and argument, the senior management decided to build a new "three-sided" mode launch site, provided that given the limited total funding for manned spaceflight projects, the investment was controlled within one billion yuan.

With such a small amount of funds, it was necessary to build a launch site with an internationally advanced level. At that time, many foreign experts thought it was a fantasy. However, Chinese astronauts designed and built by themselves based on their actual situation. After the hard work of four, a launch site with an internationally advanced level of "three-fold" model finally stood on the Gobi Desert on the east side of the Ruoshui River in Jiuquan Base.

Oh, no wonder I was invited to visit this time. It turned out that I was this big sponsor. Fan Wubing shook his head and smiled.

"Uh, I can't discuss it?" Fan Wubing asked.

"What?" Commander He said in confusion.

"I am willing to sponsor another 100 million US dollars for the manned spacecraft, but the condition is to carry two diamond rings on the spacecraft." Fan Wubing touched his head. After careful consideration, he made his own request to Commander He.
Chapter completed!