In the boundless darkness.
A black aerospaceplane slowly approached from the edge of the starry sky. The silent radio echoed in the vast deep space, communicating with the ground command center tens of millions of kilometers away with a delay of hundreds of seconds.
"This is' Messenger ', we are close to the' New World '."
"Get close."
"Roger that."
Starlight was a ship model.
As for "Messenger", it was the code name of this aerospaceplane.
Ever since the aerospace industry went from elite to large-scale, there were more than five Starlight sailing in outer space, not to mention the early models of Skyglow that had gradually been discontinued. As for the Magpie Bridge, there were even more Starlight.
If they continued to call each other by ship model, it would be easy to cause confusion. Therefore, they called each ship by its code name.
Xu Zhenghong, who was sitting in the main pilot seat, reached out and pulled the right-hand joystick, then pressed the button to lock the orbit.
With the assistance of the automatic navigation device, the co-pilot Liu Biao carefully monitored the speed and distance parameters. He cooperated with Xu Zhenghong to pilot Starlight toward the intersection of the Mars transfer orbit and the Moi3 orbit.
"Turn on the high-gain directional antenna and laser calibration device."
"Roger that."
The most critical moment was here.
There was only one chance. Only when the three main parameters of speed, angle, and distance were met could Starlight successfully enter orbit.
If they missed this opportunity, they would have to circle Mars for at least half a week to correct the orbit.
One minute felt as long as a century.
Finally, when the words [Orbit Successful] appeared on the screen, Xu Zhenghong and Liu Biao, who were tense, let out a sigh of relief.
"This is' Messenger ', we have entered the Moi3 orbit."
"This is the ground command center, we have received your message. From now on, the ground navigation is over, the rest is up to you. "
"Roger that, please wish us luck."
The communication was over.
Compared to the hundreds of seconds of communication delay, it was unrealistic for the ground command center to guide Starlight to complete the remaining complicated orbit switching.
They could only rely on themselves for the rest of the journey.
However, even though there was no navigation from the ground command center, Xu Zhenghong and Liu Biao, who were sitting in the cockpit, breathed a sigh of relief.
Unless there was a meteorite collision or some other accident, there were very few parts that required them to manually operate.
It could even be said that if everything went smoothly, they only needed to press the button to open the hatch after reaching the predetermined orbit and throw the Z particle clock out of the cargo compartment like laying an egg. The mission of this voyage would be considered complete.
"Do you want something to drink?"
"No need."
"Then I'll have to order some myself." Liu Biao grinned and unlocked the life insurance device. He left the passenger seat and floated to the refrigerator in the living area. He then took out the chilled coffee.
In fact, he wanted to drink beer more, but he was still in the middle of a mission, so he naturally couldn't drink that stuff.
Liu Biao returned to the cockpit with a bag full of coffee. He reattached himself to the seat and secured the bag of cold extract coffee to the chest of his spacesuit. He then took out a straw and brought it to his mouth.
In a gravity-free environment, no matter if it was a beverage or something else, the taste of all liquid foods would change in a miraculous way. The flowing liquid became like jelly, and there was an indescribably strange taste to it.
Fortunately, the taste was still the same.
Liu Biao looked at the burning planet outside the cockpit. He squinted his eyes and took a sip of the straw. He stared at the beautiful scenery for a long time and suddenly spoke emotionally.
"It's so beautiful."
Xu Zhenghong, who was sitting quietly in the main pilot's seat, also nodded in agreement.
"Yeah."
After exchanging a few sentences, the two of them fell into a silent silence. They were completely immersed in the beautiful scenery that they didn't have the time to appreciate before.
No matter how many times they looked at it, they would never get tired of it. Every time they looked at it, they couldn't help but be fascinated.
It was difficult to describe this feeling.
It was like …
A new world was right in front of them.
After about an hour or two, Liu Biao glanced at the orbit data on the cockpit instrument. He estimated that it was about time. He reached out and turned on the deep space navigation optical sensor, aimed it at the center of Mars, and corrected the scale data on the star map for the second time.
After the next orbit change, they would enter the lowest orbit.
If they were lucky, they should be able to see the return capsule of the BFS spacecraft there.
"Sooner or later, we will expand our territory to this point."
"I wonder if I'll be able to see it in my lifetime."
"It doesn't matter if we don't see it, someone will see it for us … Get ready to work."
"Roger that."
Almost at the same time, after the spacecraft decelerated for the last time, it had successfully cut into the lowest orbit.
Liu Biao quietly listened to the countdown in his ear. He looked at the virtual beacon on the eyepiece of his helmet. He was sitting in the co-pilot seat. He pushed the safety on the joystick with his thumb and placed his thumb on the green button.
The second the countdown was completed.
His thumb pressed down almost reflexively.
With a slight electric noise, a metal ball surrounded by two black rings was thrown down from the back of the cargo hold. It was like a thumbtack nailed to a blackboard, firmly stuck in the orbit of Mars.
Xu Zhenghong confirmed the orbital parameters of the Z particle clock from the laser calibrator. He switched the communication channel to the ground command center and spoke in a calm voice.
"The package has successfully entered orbit. The first phase of the mission is complete!"
The response took about four minutes. During this time, their mission was to maintain the current flight orbit and quietly wait for the next instruction.
The mission at hand finally came to an end, and Xu Zhenghong's expression finally relaxed a little. He unlocked the life support system in the cabin and moved his somewhat sore shoulders.
Sitting next to him, Liu Biao looked at the black dot on the stern camera that gradually disappeared. He suddenly smiled and spoke.
"… It's like putting a ring on the bride."
Xu Zhenghong grinned and said with a smile.
"That's quite romantic."
"I always thought that aerospace itself was a romantic thing … Speaking of which, what about the rest of the work?"
"Wait for news from the ground command center. Return to the moi3 orbit, then quietly wait there." Xu Zhenghong looked at the metal ball in the distance. He squinted his eyes and said, "Wait until the experiment is over and confirm the state of the z particle clock.
"After that, we can go home."
Suddenly, a "roger" sound came from the ground command center's communication channel.
The two people sitting in the cockpit were excited at the same time.
On the other hand, in the aerospace ground command center tens of millions of kilometers away.
Lu Zhou, who was standing in the command room, slowly raised his left hand and glanced at the silver watch he was wearing.
The time was exactly on the hour.
Lu Zhou estimated that the preparation work was almost done. He raised his head and looked across the crowd in the ground command center. His gaze fell on the large screen that was as tall as two people.
He spoke in a voice that everyone could hear.
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