Two Realms Shuttle Gate: Don't Call Me a Demon!-Chapter 681 - 408: Maiden Flight and Rocket Recovery_2

In her words, Ma Lin's voice carried a sour tone.

The current situation was not what she had hoped to see; originally planning on watching Jieke Group become a laughing stock, she suddenly found that Jieke Group's Kunpeng Rocket seemed genuinely likely to succeed on its first flight.

Meanwhile, inside the rocket command center, cheers also erupted as engineers excitedly hugged each other, their joy evident.

"Everyone quiet down, we haven't succeeded yet."

Though Pang Liangzhi said so, his own palms were slightly trembling, showing that he was not calm inside; the Kunpeng Rocket had not yet fully succeeded, and he was restraining his emotions.

"With a good start, success isn't far, and once we succeed, I will give everyone a bonus."

Su Jie's words immediately made the atmosphere even more fervent, though everyone quickly remembered their duties and soon sat back down to continue monitoring the rocket's status.

Around Southeast Asia, radar at various monitoring stations on land were tracking the flight trajectory of the Kunpeng Rocket.

On the sea, oceanic survey ships were precisely determining, recording, and reporting the rocket's velocity, altitude, and attitude at every moment; a large amount of measurement data was converging on the rocket command center from all directions, bringing continuous good news.

"Tracking is good!"

"Engine is working normally!"

"Flight attitude is normal!"

On rows of screens, digital colors were frequently exchanged, and an automatic recorder gently traced the curve of the rocket's flight trajectory on the display board.

And these screens were also being broadcast to major media outlets around the world, entering the viewer's eyes.

"How beautiful! This is our own rocket!"

Liu Yingying watched unblinkingly at the screens showing scenes captured by multiple cameras mounted on the Kunpeng Rocket.

Through the cameras, the Kunpeng Rocket had by then exited the atmosphere, looking down, one could see the glowing arc of Blue Star, the white cloud layers like gauze, the sharply defined coastlines, brown mountain ranges, and rivers stretching far and wide, vast and boundless, displaying the profound tranquility of space like a silent scroll.

"First-stage ignition separation."

In space, the first-stage rocket began to detach, which is the lowest part of the rocket, followed upwards by the rocket's second stage and nose cone.

Today's rockets all employ a multi-stage structure because the maximum speed of most single-stage rockets does not reach 7.9 kilometers per second, and a rocket must reach this speed to escape from Blue Star.

Thus, multi-staged rockets are necessary, and their structure is like a relay race, accelerating stage by stage, then surpassing the first cosmic velocity to send the spacecraft into Blue Star's orbit.

The Kunpeng Rocket also had a multi-stage structure, comprising two stages; at this time, the first-stage rocket was jettisoned, and the second-stage rocket continued ignition, further increasing its speed toward the intended orbit.

As the first-stage rocket lost its kinetic energy, it was like using all its energy to throw its child out into space, while it began to fall back to the embrace of Mother Earth.

This was a standard operation for rocket launches, as the first-stage rockets were basically single-use.

However, all the spectators watching the Kunpeng Rocket suddenly noticed that something was unusual with this first-stage rocket.

During the process of its tumbling descent, bursts of flames continued to emerge from the engine at the tail end of the rocket body, which gradually adjusted its position to a straight descending flight attitude, then re-entered the atmosphere.

"This is... rocket recovery."

All the viewers watching the live broadcast were shocked.

To date, only one aerospace company in the world could achieve rocket recovery, and that was the renowned Space Exploration Technology Company.

Even the official aerospace agencies of other countries could not achieve rocket recovery, which speaks volumes about its difficulty.

Under the astonished gazes of the crowd, when the rocket was still 10,000 meters from the ground, all remaining engines of the rocket ignited, using thrust to continuously reduce its landing speed, preparing for landing.

At the Red Sun Rocket Launch Site, as the Kunpeng Rocket had disappeared from view, tourists and media personnel had begun to leave the site.

But soon, some sharp-eyed tourists spotted a streak of fire in the sky, shining like a meteor.

Amid exclamations, more and more visitors started looking up.

He saw a nearly hundred-meter tall rocket core falling, its tail emitting bursts of flames, and the strong reactive thrust continuously slowing it down.

"The rocket is flying back,"

"Oh my god, Jieke Group actually has rocket recovery technology,"

"Are you kidding me? How can such a heavy rocket be recovered?"

In the shocked gaze of all the spectators, the first-stage rocket deployed four supports at an altitude of five kilometers above the ground.

Eventually, the entire first-stage rocket landed very steadily, almost without any deviation, at the rocket launch site.

The supports landed successfully without toppling over, and as all the rocket engines shut down, this charred first-stage rocket landed smoothly, making the recovery a success.

Only then did the belatedly aware audience let out screams of astonishment. Ma Lin was even more visibly shaken, dumbfounded by the technology displayed by Jieke Group.

....

Beautiful Country, NASA.

Over a hundred NASA employees were gathered together, watching the live broadcast of Kunpeng Rocket's maiden flight, mainly to scoff at Jieke Group.

As they watched, Jieke Group's Kunpeng Rocket flew smoothly, and even carried out a rocket recovery.

The previously noisy scene suddenly quieted down.

Towards the back of the group, there were two men drinking coffee

One was NASA administrator Burton, and the other, dressed in casual clothes, was Musk, invited by Administrator Burton. He was the founder and chairman of Space Exploration Technology Company.

"Oh my god, how is this possible!"

While drinking coffee and enjoying the live broadcast of the Kunpeng Rocket's maiden flight, Musk spat out his coffee.

Looking at the first-stage rocket recovered by Jieke Group, his expression froze.

Jieke Group's capability to launch the Kunpeng Rocket successfully was already a surprise to him, and now, they even managed rocket recovery, something Musk almost couldn't believe his eyes.

You know, when he founded Space Exploration Technology Company, it took six years and multiple failures before successfully launching the first non-governmental rocket into space.

Not to mention the rocket recovery technology, which had undergone countless failures during that time. It was from the accumulation of data from these failures that they derived the now mature rocket recovery technology.

And yet, Jieke Company's first rocket launch not only succeeded but also possessed rocket recovery technology.

Moreover, the technology and standards were much stronger than those of his own Space Exploration Technology Company.

After all, the Kunpeng Rocket was a rocket that was 185 meters long, 15 meters in diameter, and weighed tens of thousands of tons, making it the strongest rocket in human history.

Whereas the most mature model from Space Exploration Technology Company, Falcon 9, was 70 meters tall, 3.7 meters in diameter, and weighed 549 tons.

Compared with the two, obviously, the recovery of the Kunpeng Rocket was far more challenging. After all, such a massive weight was there, requiring higher technological complexity.

This also meant that Jieke Group had surpassed Space Exploration Technology Company, the world's most powerful private aerospace technology company.

"Jieke Group actually had such a major move as rocket recovery hidden up its sleeve, Musk, has anyone resigned from your company recently?"

Administrator Burton's hand trembled, spilling quite a bit of coffee. His brows furrowed deeply.

Musk, coming to his senses, understood Burton's implication that there might have been a leak of technology from his company. He shook his head: "No, we would never let go of talents who possess core rocket recovery technology, and besides, it involves materials, software, flight computers, controllers, and precision guidance systems all working in coordinated control, which isn't something you can achieve by poaching one or two people. So Jieke Group's rocket recovery technology must have been developed independently."

"Damn it, where did Jieke Group get all this advanced technology from?"

Burton looked visibly upset, having originally gathered everyone to mock Jieke Group, only to feel like the joke was on him.

"It really is baffling, the speed of their technological breakthroughs is too rapid, it's going to be hard for us in the rocket business from now on,"

Musk lamented, originally having dominated the rocket recovery race, now suddenly faced with Jieke Group as a competitor, putting immense pressure on him.