The rocket climbed higher and higher, quickly dwindling into a tiny speck.
If a rocket did not explode within a minute of liftoff, it meant the launch had already succeeded by more than half. During the time that followed, its flight proceeded smoothly as well. Chen Shouyi watched the rocket burn through its fuel stage by stage, eventually reaching low Earth orbit.
The probe at the nose automatically detached from the wreckage, while the Plasma Engine began operating.
"Signal received successfully."
"Departing along the predetermined orbit."
"Clap, clap, clap!" The president began applauding.
Soon, the applause grew more and more fervent, and everyone's expression was filled with excitement.
To be honest, before the launch, everyone had been anxious and on tenterhooks.
The unmanned outer-Solar-System space probe was no satellite. It was enormous, and simply accommodating a Plasma Engine and its accompanying Nuclear Fusion reactor gave it a mass of over a hundred tons.
Rather than launching a probe,
it would be more accurate to say they were launching an unmanned spacecraft.
And the rocket used to launch it was even more astonishing.
It stood over 130 meters tall and weighed 45 million tons.
Without a doubt, this was the largest-payload rocket humanity had ever built, and it also represented a tremendous leap in human technology.
"Thank you all for your day-and-night efforts. You've worked hard." The president delivered his address. "I won't say much about what he said. I hope everyone will remember the mission and remember the responsibility, continue climbing the heights of technological achievement, and stop forming little factions. Don't discriminate between domestic and foreign people, either. Anyone with ability should be promoted and rewarded without restriction."
There was naturally a reason he had brought this up.
The scientists involved in the space program were not all citizens