Entering Orbital Phase, Someone's Here!

Following Chen Yi's instructions.

Qin Xiaoyu, who had been ready for a long time, immediately controlled the drone to take off and ascend.

Rumble!

The drone shot up to an altitude of 800 meters, its tail flame flaring.

The aircraft body trailed a sonic boom cloud, flying eastward diagonally upside down into the sky.

"Switching relay signal!"

Chen Yi pressed a key, and the live broadcast screen flickered.

The signal antenna, which had almost dropped to its lowest horizontal altitude, began to move upward, its crosshairs aimed at the relay drone that was accelerating eastward diagonally upside down.

The control signal from Chen Yi's side was transmitted through the relay drone, which then connected to the lunar landing drone that had already flown below the horizon.

Various signals and image information from the lunar landing drone were then transmitted back to Chen Yi's side through the relay drone.

"President Chen, the lunar landing drone has gone below the horizon. Tracking and filming are complete."

Not long after the relay drone took off, the signal switched.

The Hurricane Team, which had been responsible for tracking and filming the lunar landing drone, also called out their report.

The planet is round.

The lunar landing drone was now flying in a parabolic trajectory, deep into the Pacific Ocean.

Even at the high altitude of the thermosphere.

The signal angle was blocked by the horizon.

"Xia University tracking normal, remote sensing signal normal, estimated to continue tracking for another minute!"

"Bay Mountain Top Team tracking normal, despite mosquito attacks, my focus remains unshaken!"

"Bay North University tracking normal, remote sensing signal normal, expected to witness the lunar landing drone entering orbit around the planet!"

"The speed is so fast, the image of the lunar landing drone is already showing afterimages."

"Look at the streamer's avionics interface, the drone is almost at first cosmic velocity, it must be fast!"

"Spread the word, the streamer is fast."

The Hurricane Team's tracking and filming concluded.

Fuhai Xia University, the Bay Mountain Top Team, and the Bay North University teams began to take over.

In the comment section, the latest tracking images and videos uploaded by these three teams began to appear one after another.

Penghai Air Traffic Control Bureau.

When the Hurricane Team's tracking and filming ended.

Lin Xiaobei, who was providing dispatch information to the various passenger planes landing and taking off in Penghai, suddenly saw a number on her work order tracking interface light up red.

"Number 0A01."

"Isn't this the drone that reported its intention to land on the moon not long ago? Why has the signal been lost?"

"Troublesome."

"These guys flying drones are just troublesome."

"They're not under our jurisdiction, yet they still expect us to track and dispatch."

Lin Xiaobei frowned, her beautiful brows furrowed.

She transferred the drone's number and the signal loss code to another dispatch management interface to report it, then continued her work.

It was just a signal loss.

It wasn't a collision with a civil aviation flight path.

Reporting it was enough; she didn't need to concern herself with anything else.

She was too lazy to investigate the situation of a private drone that wasn't carrying passengers.

"Xiaobei, it's time to switch shifts.

I'm on the night shift today. Were there any special air traffic situations during the day?"

Less than two minutes after reporting the drone signal loss, another air traffic controller, Zhang Qin, walked over, indicating that Xiaobei could clock out and hand over her duties.

"The weather has been good these past few days, no special air traffic situations.

Just a drone with number 0A01 lost its signal after more than ten minutes of takeoff, but it didn't enter any no-fly zones or civil aviation altitudes throughout its flight.

Sister Qin, please keep an eye on it later to see if the drone's signal reappears. It's possible the drone's positioning chip has malfunctioned."

Lin Xiaobei clicked the button to hand over her work, picked up her water cup, and told Zhang Qin about the drone signal loss.

"Drone signal loss?"

Zhang Qin sat down at her post and seemed to recall something: "Was the reported test flight near the seaside park?"

"It seems like it, the latitude and longitude reported, it was near the seaside park."

Lin Xiaobei thought about the reporting and review process at the time, answering uncertainly.

"That's it then."

Zhang Qin confirmed, "This drone's signal won't appear again. It's about to fly off the planet, beyond the Air Traffic Control Bureau's signal range."

???

The drone is flying off the planet?

Lin Xiaobei was a bit confused. What kind of new internet meme was this?

"You don't know?"

Zhang Qin asked strangely.

"What should I know?" Lin Xiaobei was even more puzzled.

"Didn't he mention the destination when he reported it?"

Zhang Qin replied, "To the moon! This person is the highly popular boss of Yifei in the drone community recently. The drone he reported to you is live-streaming its flight to the moon. It's almost off the planet now, entering orbital space. You should go out and check your phone, this has already made several trending searches."

"Flying to the moon."

Lin Xiaobei left the dispatch area with a sense of confusion. She took out her phone from the storage area, opened the internet, and whoosh! Several trending search recommendations popped up. The content was about the drone flying to the moon that Zhang Qin had mentioned. She casually selected a link and clicked it, jumping to the live stream.

"Altitude 325,300 meters, speed 7.86 kilometers per second, acceleration 8.3 meters per square second, about to reach first cosmic velocity, initiating automatic orbital program."

Listening to the parameters and operations being broadcast in the video, Lin Xiaobei froze. This voice was exactly the same as the one that had called her not long ago to report the drone's test flight.

Flying to the moon.

It really was flying to the moon?!

Closing the bullet comments, Chen Yi, who was focused on controlling the drone, was unaware that the ATC operator he had spoken with was now questioning his entire life. At this moment, watching the drone approach first cosmic velocity, he opened the avionics system's automatic control program and began inputting parameters.

During the orbital phase, the flight path is not a perfect circle but an ellipse. Within this elliptical orbit, there are various altitudes like perigee and apogee. For the spacecraft to escape the planet's gravity more efficiently and head towards other planets, when to accelerate and when to change orbits are all crucial, requiring strict calculations.

"Accelerate at perigee to raise the orbit, change trajectory at apogee to escape."

"These chemical fuel spacecraft are so troublesome. Their energy specific impulse is garbage, and it takes multiple orbital changes and accelerations just to get to the moon. It seems the Hall effect thruster drone project needs to be put on the agenda as soon as possible. Then, the spacecraft's energy specific impulse can be drastically increased for a vertical lunar landing."

Chen Yi muttered to himself as he set up the parameters. Several minutes later, the orbital flight program setup was complete. Chen Yi controlled the drone, adjusted its attitude, precisely entered the orbit, and began the orbital flight phase according to the automatic program.

"The attitude for entering orbit, one word: amazing!"

"It's entered orbital flight status, with two-fifths of the fuel propellant remaining. This drone is too powerful!"

"Brothers, according to the lunar landing procedure, the lunar landing drone needs to orbit three more times, accelerating to the second cosmic velocity of 11.2 km/s. Then, it will escape the planet at apogee following the Hohmann transfer route and enter the lunar flight phase. The entire process will take about 3 to 5 days."

I have calculated the orbital parameters for the lunar landing drone, obtaining the times and angles for its orbital flight as it passes over various regions of the globe.

Everyone can prepare their space telescopes in advance and, according to the schedule of times and angles, track and photograph the lunar landing drone together.

"Holy crap, you've already calculated the orbital parameters?"

"Awesome, I've got my Celestron 90DX ready, I was just waiting for this tracking and shooting list."

"Everyone participates, everyone lands on the moon!"

"What a shame, the streamer's drone doesn't have a radio broadcast function, otherwise my grandpa's old radio could be put to use. It's what he used to listen to 'The East is Red' on, a real treasure."

"'The East is Red' gets a thumbs up! Brothers from northern Shaanxi score big!"

"Satellites played 'The East is Red' in the 60s, maybe the lunar landing drone should play 'The Times are Calling' now."

"'The Times are Calling'? What kind of DNA song is that? Aren't you afraid people will start doing broadcast gymnastics in the streets?"

Less than a few minutes after the drone entered its orbital state.

Some tech wizards, using the drone's orbital altitude and speed parameters, calculated its subsequent orbital trajectory.

At the same time, they also provided further observation and shooting times and angles for the subsequent lunar landing drone's orbital flight.

"Brother Yi, the leaders from the Penghai City Bureau called this morning. They said some important people are looking for you."

Amidst the cheers of netizens, who were busy downloading the tracking and shooting time and angle table, preparing to join the celebratory event of the drone's lunar landing.

On the live broadcast scene, Qin Xiaoyu, as Chen Yi's assistant secretary, also received a phone call and walked over to report softly.