Chapter 524 When it rains, it pours
In the emergency video conference of the Local Association.
NASA director Bill looked embarrassed.
The reason why he was embarrassed was mainly because of the Space Exploration Corporation's affairs. Originally, other members of the Space Association had previously reminded NASA to let Bill and Musk communicate well and not increase the scale of Starlink satellites.
However, Musk’s backer is not Bill and NASA, but the Pentagon.
In order to ensure comprehensive monitoring of Sapiens and maintain a certain level of space strategic power, the Pentagon still resisted the pressure and allowed SpaceX to continue launching Starlink satellites.
However, today's incident suddenly exposed the vulnerability of Starlink satellites.
Although the cost of mass-produced Starlink satellites is very low, dozens of Starlink satellites can be launched at a time using ordinary Falcon launch vehicles.
The problem is, it's very easy to launch this thing into low-Earth orbit, but it's very troublesome to clean up.
There are more than 3,000 Starlink satellites, plus other satellites from Sapiens and Earth Connect, and there are currently 5,632 satellites in operation in low-Earth orbit.
This number is really too crowded.
"The Starlink satellites were affected by the solar storm, and now a large piece of space junk has been created, which is running around in low-Earth orbit. The space station is almost scrapped."
President Keister Conde quickly comforted him, "Zhang, don't be angry. It has already happened. Now we should find a way to save the eight astronauts in the space station."
"I propose to adjust the recent launch missions, postpone the lunar base plan, and then free up two lunar landing spacecraft to bring eight astronauts back to Earth safely first."
Bill hesitated for a moment: "This... Zhang, aren't you too hasty? In fact, the space station can still hold out for a while, there's no need to be too hasty."
"Bill, I hope you can understand that if we don't act now, I'm afraid there will be more trouble later."
Others began to whisper.
Alexander, the head of Lucia's space department, thought about it and expressed his own views:
"I agree with Zhang's idea. There is more and more space junk in low-Earth orbit now. The longer we delay, the greater the danger of low-Earth orbit. We should arrange a spacecraft to bring people back as soon as possible!"
Although Bill was unwilling, he finally chose to compromise.
If we don't rescue people now, it will not only discourage the astronauts, but also cause the morale of the free world to plummet, and it will also be detrimental to the future series of cooperation among the four major forces.
In desperation, Bill had to agree to adjust the launch mission and use the two lunar spacecraft for the emergency mission of bringing back the astronauts to the space station.
After some discussion, everyone decided to launch the first emergency rescue spacecraft 5 days later and the second emergency rescue spacecraft 12 days later.
As the management of the Local Association makes its decision.
Astronauts such as Zhang Ming, Owen, Kim Sang-wen, and Robert in the new international space station also breathed a sigh of relief.
But they were not too happy.
After all, the two emergency rescue spacecraft take time, and during this period, they must ensure the safety of the space station and avoid other accidents.
Usually when you say this kind of thing.
If nothing unexpected happens, an accident is going to happen.
In order to ensure that everything goes smoothly, the Geo-Association prepared four launch vehicles and four emergency rescue spacecraft, two of which were used as rescue spacecraft and the remaining two as backup spacecraft.
In the blink of an eye.
5 days passed in the blink of an eye.
A Falcon Heavy rocket is ready to launch at a launch site in Florida.
As the commander pressed the launch button, a light blue flame suddenly spewed out of the nozzle of the Falcon Heavy carrier rocket, propelling the carrier rocket towards low-Earth orbit.
Bill, Alexander, Conde and others who were watching the launch through the live broadcast saw that the launch process was very smooth and a hint of relief .
It's just that they were happy too early.
Just after the Falcon Heavy rocket dropped its booster and core stage near the Karman line, the spacecraft began its orbiting maneuver.
At the beginning, everything went very smoothly.
However, when the spacecraft entered the orbital region at an altitude of 300 kilometers, it began to run into trouble.
The satellite debris flying around made the staff at the ground launch center feel like they were facing a formidable enemy. They had to monitor the satellite debris while adjusting the flight direction of the spacecraft.
But if a person is unlucky, he may even choke to death when drinking water.
After the rescue spacecraft made three drastic maneuvers and changed its trajectory, it was hit by a titanium alloy the size of a fingernail on its fuel tank at an altitude of 377 kilometers.
Suddenly, the methane in the fuel tank leaked rapidly.
The spacecraft lost a lot of fuel and began to lack power, and it became increasingly difficult to control its flight posture.
Then the rescue spacecraft was hit by space debris again, destroying part of the spacecraft module again.
Inside the ground launch center of the Earth Union.
Everyone was silent at this time.
They are all professionals and naturally know that the situation of the rescue spacecraft is not optimistic at this time. Even if it successfully reaches the space station , there will not be enough fuel to return to Earth.
In other words, this rescue spacecraft was scrapped.
The helpless reality of a failed start cast a shadow over the hearts of everyone present.
More than two hours later.
The rescue spacecraft finally slowly arrived at the new international space station.
Then the spacecraft crashed into the solar panels of the space station. This situation made astronauts such as Zhang Ming in the space station suddenly overwhelmed and unable to complain.
Instead of waiting for a rescue ship, we waited for a useless ship, which was really frustrating.
…
Ceylon Ocean.
Ceylon Island, headquarters of the space division of Sapiens Corporation.
Inside the Sun Monitoring Office.
Huang Xiancai, the person in charge, looked up and saw Wu Sigong knocking on the door and walking in: "Old Wu, why are you in such a hurry?"
"It's urgent. There was another solar flare just now. Although the level is smaller than the last time, but..."
As soon as he finished speaking, the alarm sounded again in the office.
Huang Xian was stunned for a moment before he reacted: "What's going on?"
Suddenly his landline rang, and Huang Xiancai picked up the phone: "Hello, this is the Sun Monitoring Office. What can I do for you?"
"Just now, the solar flare erupted again, with an energy intensity of X2 level. It is expected to reach the earth in 35 minutes, affecting..."
After listening to the report, Huang Xiancai frowned.
However, he did not dwell on it, but quickly notified other departments of the company to prepare as soon as possible to avoid being affected by the solar storm.
More than thirty minutes passed in the blink of an eye.
The solar storm arrived as expected, once again sweeping across Earth-linked satellites in low-Earth orbit.
The space station, which was already in a semi-destroyed state, became even more precarious under the impact of the solar storm.
Wu Kang, who was still stationed in the space station, felt almost numb when facing the approaching solar storm.
This time, the solar storm destroyed 12 Starlink satellites, further expanding the space debris in low-Earth orbit and making the danger of entering and exiting low-Earth orbit increase sharply.
For example, the rescue spacecraft launched this time was directly scrapped due to the presence of dense space debris.
But Zhang Ming and others were extremely anxious at this time.
Because the gas and liquid inside the space station are decreasing, if they cannot get supplies within the next half month, or return to Earth directly, they will be in big trouble.
However, there is now too much space debris , which has seriously affected the spacecraft of the Earth Association entering and exiting the atmosphere.
