Supplying the International Space Station was not only an international obligation of several major aerospace countries, but it was also an opportunity for countries to develop their own aerospace technology. With profits from the tens of billions of rubles, domestic aerospace companies would have the money to develop new aeroengines and improve existing launch technology.
While contracting to Celestial Trade could reduce the financial budget in this area, it was undoubtedly bad news for domestic aerospace companies. After all, there were only so many launch plans each year. Other than X-Space that could make money from commercial launches, most aerospace companies relied on national projects to survive.
What Natasha said was also what Russia's leader wanted.
If Celestial Trade planned to sell rockets, Russia would certainly be happy to buy, but if Celestial Trade only planned to contract the launch project, there was no need to discuss at all.
"Are you not going to listen to my price?" Jiang Chen said helplessly.
Natasha shook her head.
"The Kremlin won't agree, even if your price is very attractive."
It was difficult.
However, Natasha's words were not unreasonable. If they only considered this problem from a cost-saving perspective, why didn't the Russians outsource the project to America's X-Space? With the first-stage rocket recovery technology, the Falcon rocket could reduce the launch cost to a terrifying number.
Although there seemed to be no room for negotiation, Jiang Chen was never the kind of person who would easily give up.
After a moment of contemplation, he said.
"Do you really not want to talk about the price? I mean the RM-320 rocket engine. "
"I said there's no room for negotiation … wait, what did you say?!" Natasha suddenly froze and looked at Jiang Chen in shock.
"Did I not make myself clear enough? The price of the RM-320 rocket engine. "Jiang Chen smiled.
Natasha put away the shock on her face, looked at Jiang Chen calmly and said quickly.
"What do you want?"
Based on the materials submitted by Celestial Trade and the observation of Russian experts, the performance of the RM-320 rocket engine was more than one level higher than the RD-180 that Russia was proud of. Even the Merlin 1D engine of X-Space couldn't compete with it.
The combustion chamber could withstand 500 atmospheres of pressure, and the thrust-value ratio of 1: 300. The production cost was only half of Russia's RD-180!
Roscosmos proposed to the Kremlin more than once that they hoped to use the friendly relationship between Russia and Xin to order a batch of RM-320 rocket engines. Although he might not be able to replicate it, he could at least use part of its design as a reference.
Natasha never thought that Jiang Chen would agree to sell the engine, so she didn't mention it at all.
Happiness came too suddenly!
Jiang Chen scanned Natasha's body and said in a playful tone, "Take a guess?"
Faced with the undisguised stare, Natasha's cheeks turned red, but she quickly noticed the mockery in his eyes and glared at Jiang Chen.
"I don't know."
Jiang Chen extended five fingers.
"Five years. Within five years, Russia's International Space Station supply project will be contracted by Celestial Trade. After five years, we will sell the RM-320 rocket engine samples and design drawings to Russian Aerospace at market prices. "
Exchanging a five-year contract for an outdated technology was a great deal.
As for why it was "outdated", it was naturally because when Jiang Chen built the space elevator, all rocket launch technology would be outdated.
Because of the emergence of the space elevator, the launch cost of tens of millions of dollars would be directly compressed to a few hundred dollars. This was also the reason why in the apocalypse at the end of the 21st century, launch rocket technology was completely halted.
"… I can't give you an answer. I have to ask my superiors first," Natasha said with difficulty.
Jiang Chen made a gesture of invitation.
Natasha nodded, walked to the side, took out her mobile phone, and dialed the KGB headquarters in Moscow.
The call lasted for a long time. She suddenly looked serious and walked to Jiang Chen's side with the phone in her hand.
"Our superiors want to discuss it with you in person."
After that, she handed the phone to Jiang Chen and took two steps back.
Jiang Chen put the phone to his ear. Before he could speak, English with a strong Russian accent came from the other side.
"Three years at most."
The voice was familiar, but Jiang Chen couldn't remember where he heard it.
"Three years is too short."
"We have to consider technology replacement."
"You can rest assured. Even after eight years, the RM-320 engine can still maintain its lead," Jiang Chen replied in a confident tone.
The other end of the phone was silent for two seconds.
"Three years. Three years later, you will sell the RM-320 engine technology to us. We will extend the supply mission to the International Space Station to you for eight years at a price of 40 billion Rubles. "
"Deal!" Jiang Chen said without hesitation.
Although the expression on his face didn't change, Jiang Chen was so happy that he almost laughed out loud. 40 billion Rubles was equivalent to more than 600 million US dollars. At most two years, he could create a space elevator. By that time, the cost of transporting supplies to the space station could even be reduced to one million!
[Not US dollars, but Rubles …]
"It seems that we have reached an agreement." With Jiang Chen's affirmative answer, the voice on the other side was obviously a lot more relaxed. She didn't seem to realize that she was tricked.
"I always feel that your voice is a bit familiar. Before I hang up, can I ask who you are?" Jiang Chen said cheerfully without blushing.
"Didn't our Miss Agent tell you?"
"She only told me that you are their superior." Jiang Chen suddenly paused.
Wait, Natasha used "we", not "my" superior.
The other side was silent for a moment before she said in a relaxed tone.
"You can call me Putin. If you have the opportunity, you are welcome to visit Moscow … "
With the phone in his hand, Jiang Chen was stunned.
[Wait, the person I just discussed business with is the Russian president?!
And I tricked him?!]
…
The 12th quantum satellite was successfully launched. Celestial Trade announced that it would provide Wi-Fi coverage to Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, Moro, Malaysia and other countries. Based on the cooperation program with local telecommunications operators, as long as users signed up for the service, they would receive 12 hours of Wi-Fi experience time. After the experience time was exhausted, users could purchase service packages with different speeds based on the region.
At present, Celestial Trade was discussing cooperation with telecommunications operators in the UA, Canada, Britain, France and other countries to consider promoting global Wi-Fi to North America and Western Europe.
On the other hand, the war between Future Group and B City Consortium continued. However, neither side made a new move. They were in a stalemate in the area where they already made a move. The UA Department of Justice was still collecting evidence for the anti-trust investigation, and B City Consortium was still busy trying to save the bank.
What was more troublesome was that Websense, which provided security services for B City Consortium, completely upgraded its server firewall and specifically upgraded the defense against hacker attacks.
Based on Xie Lei's statement, the upgraded security system of B City Consortium was like an iron bucket, and the original vulnerabilities were basically filled. Unless they could obtain an internal computer as a backdoor, even with the quantum computer, it would not be easy to hack into the system.
After all, they had hired so many technicians, and they weren't doing it for free.
On the other hand, Jean collected news about the two companies on the internet and presented it to Jiang Chen.
"The Federal Reserve injected 100 billion USD into First B City Bank. The Capital gathered a number of cybersecurity companies to host an Internet security summit. The information security in the financial sector was the focus of the summit. "
"The Federal Reserve made a move. Looks like B City Bank is temporarily stabilized." Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.
Just as he was thinking about what to do next, Xia Shiyu's call suddenly came.
"Hello? What's up? "
"Someone is looking for you and wants to talk to you in person."
"Who?"
"Carson Lodge, a shareholder of First B City Bank."
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