"Five!"
"Four!"
"Three!"
"Two!"
"One!"
"Zero!"
"Ignite!"
A light blue arc of light extended from the end of the wings toward the back of the aerospaceplane.
Starlight dragged a long and narrow blue plume as it lifted off from the Jinling launch site. Under the gaze of all of the launch site's ground crew, engineers, and commanders, it disappeared into the clouds.
The launch plan went very smoothly.
After leaving the troposphere, Starlight's pair of stubby ailerons slowly rotated. They lowered the angle of the nozzles connected to the end of the wings and gradually extended the direction of the nose of the aircraft.
At the same time, the blue plume behind the wings gradually expanded and began to work against gravity, pushing Starlight into a trajectory tangent to the Earth and into the boundless deep space outside of Earth.
Time quickly passed by.
After nearly an hour of flight, Starlight finally lived up to expectations. It smoothly broke through the edge of the dense atmosphere and reached low-Earth orbit, beginning a 72-hour orbit.
Xu Zhenghong, the test pilot, was sitting in the cockpit. He carefully looked at the orbital altitude, spacecraft surface temperature, and other data on the instrument.
After confirming that everything was normal, he finally let out a sigh of relief.
This was his 57th test flight mission, and it was his highest flight ever. When he was in the test pilot team, he never thought that he would one day fly an aircraft outside the atmosphere.
Until one day, his superiors found him and arranged a test flight mission for Starlight …
Even though the aircraft was equipped with an escape capsule, only God knew if it would work or not.
Xu Zhenghong reached out and turned on the automatic cruise mode. He then disconnected the connection between the spacesuit and the environmental life support system. He then reached out and pressed the side of his helmet. He took a deep breath and spoke.
"This is Starlight, we have successfully reached the target orbit, requesting further instructions."
A series of noisy static noises came from the communication channel.
After the communication signal stabilized, the response from the ground command center quickly came.
"This is the ground command center. Congratulations on successfully completing the first flight test. Please maintain the orbital altitude and continue flying for two hours. The next flight test will begin in two hours. "
Xu Zhenghong: "Roger that. Entering cruise mode."
Liu Biao, who was sitting in the co-pilot seat, also disconnected the environmental life support system. He reached out and loosened the connection port on the spacesuit helmet. He looked at the space outside the cockpit and smiled.
"The scenery here is quite good."
Xu Zhenghong looked at the sparks under the clouds and the deep universe above the sparks and replied with a smile.
"Yeah."
This was probably the most beautiful scenery he had ever seen.
At this moment, in the distance, a silver spacecraft slowly ascended and passed through the edge of the dense atmosphere.
Liu Biao, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, narrowed his eyes and asked.
"What's that?"
"It should be Space-X's BFR spacecraft, I heard they're also launching today." Xu Zhenghong looked at his comrade and said, "You have good eyesight, you even saw it."
Liu Biao smiled awkwardly after being praised by the captain.
"Do you think we should go over and say hello to them?"
Xu Zhenghong: "Good idea, you can ask the ground command center and see what the commander has to say."
Liu Biao awkwardly scratched his head and said, "Uh, I was just joking, don't take it seriously."
Xu Zhenghong paused for a second and spoke.
"That's enough of a joke. Take a 10-minute break, then start working."
Liu Biao, who was sitting in the passenger seat, immediately sat up straight.
"Yes, sir!"
…
On the other side of the orbital track.
Just as Starlight discovered the BFS spacecraft, the BFS spacecraft also discovered them.
Even though neither side was equipped with a special spacecraft detection radar, since they were at the same orbital altitude, they could see each other at a glance.
Travis looked at the silver spacecraft outside the porthole and suddenly spoke.
"According to the Marine Corps tradition, should we write down our email address on a piece of paper and stick it on the window?"
Johnson raised his eyebrows and joked.
"The Marine Corps doesn't have this tradition, that's the Air Force … Also, even if we did that, they wouldn't be able to see us from so far away."
"You're right," Travis mumbled to himself and didn't say anything else.
Unlike the two men, Jones, who was sitting on the other side of the spacecraft, was completely attracted by the blue planet behind the spacecraft.
Jones looked out the porthole for a long time and said, "What a beautiful view …"
Travis glanced at Jones, then looked out the window and snorted.
"That's right, the view is beautiful."
"Speaking of which, we all received training at different training bases, and we only met two weeks before the launch mission." Johnson suddenly smiled and said, "I mean, why don't we talk?"
Travis retracted his gaze from the porthole and asked, "What do you want to talk about?"
"Talk about life, talk about dreams, talk about why we're sitting here, talk about why we signed up to go to Mars … Oh, sh * t, if only there was a bottle of whiskey here." Johnson scratched his head and made a funny face.
Jones said in a low voice, "The supplies can't be unlocked until we land … I heard that during the training."
Travis's attention was not on those unimportant questions. Instead, he answered the first question.
Instead, he asked, "Didn't we already talk about this on the show?"
Johnson shrugged and made a helpless expression.
"I'm the only one who talked about it, you guys haven't."
Travis hesitated for a bit and didn't answer the question. Instead, he looked at Jones.
"Ladies first."
"Huh? Me? I … "Jones looked around awkwardly and sighed as if he had given up. He said," Alright, I hope you won't laugh at me after I tell you. I'm having a little problem with my relationship … "
Johnson: "Relationship problem? Breakup? Divorce? Or … Oh, sorry, I shouldn't have asked … "
"It's a breakup." Jones went silent for a while and said, "It might not seem like a big deal to you guys, but it was a huge blow to me. I wanted to get back on my feet and move to a new place. "
Travis raised his eyebrows and said in disbelief, "And then you saw the recruitment advertisement for the Ares program?"
"Yeah." Jones forced a smile and said, "It's surprising, isn't it? My colleagues were shocked, no one expected me to be selected … The immigration office quickly approved my application, and Space-X even reimbursed my plane ticket from Amsterdam to the United States. I thought about it and thought it was a good idea, so … "
Jones didn't know how to express himself, so he shrugged and said, "Anyway, I'm sitting here now."
"That's ridiculous …" Travis looked at Jones in disbelief and said, "If I had to travel this far just because of a breakup, I would have already flown out of the solar system."
"Stop, don't say that." Johnson patted Travis on the shoulder and said, "Our lady is done, now it's your turn. I've always been curious about what makes a quarterback on the football field become an astronaut. "
Finally, he had to face this question.
Travis hesitated for a second, then shrugged as if he had given up.
"Because … of debt."
Johnson looked at him in surprise and said, "Credit card?"
"Sort of …" Travis looked away.
Johnson smiled brightly and patted him on the shoulder encouragingly.
"Haha, there are no annoying bills on Mars, you're free now."
Travis smiled from the bottom of his heart, but he didn't reply.
Jones looked at him, and her woman's intuition told her that this guy wasn't telling the truth.
At the very least, the reason he participated in this project wasn't just because of debt.
Johnson didn't care about these details. He just felt like Travis didn't want to continue this topic, so he didn't ask any further.
A person's past wasn't important, what was important was how they faced the future.
Since they were sitting here, they were teammates, and they had to face all problems together …
The chatterbox gradually opened, and the atmosphere gradually became familiar.
Johnson nodded with satisfaction as he looked at the cheerful expressions on his teammates' faces.
As the "captain" of this flight, in addition to being responsible for the operation, he was also responsible for the mental state of his teammates.
After all, they would have to squat in this small and compact spaceship for nearly two months. This feeling was probably not much better than being imprisoned.
Time passed by minute by minute. The blue planet behind them and the spacecraft that had long disappeared were gradually getting further away from them.
Just like that, the BFS spacecraft left the geosynchronous orbit and flew toward the fiery red planet, filled with longing for a new continent and a bright future …
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