Jinling Aerospace Launch Center.
A colossal, magnificently scaled aerospace plane crouched on the launch runway, fully prepared for departure.
Its name was the Rosy Glow, though it differed somewhat from the Rosy Glow of several years ago. To accommodate long-distance flights and more flexible launch missions, the Aerospace Technology Research Institute of the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study had redesigned its fusion power unit and high-power Hall Thrusters. At the cost of maximum speed, its cruising range and engine stability had been improved.
Now, let alone Mars, it could easily reach even the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter within a month. However, the Lunar Orbital Construction Committee had no practical need to send people that far away yet. If they merely wanted to collect rock samples, unmanned probes could accomplish that perfectly well.
The pilots for this flight were also the original crew from the Mars Rescue mission, and the only astronauts in the Astronaut Corps with experience cruising in Mars orbit.
As a piece of experimental equipment sealed within a metal cube-shaped cargo container was loaded into the hold, the aerospace plane completed its final launch preparations.
Liu Biao and Xu Zhenghong, already dressed in their intravehicular spacesuits, boarded the gangway under the watchful eyes of the ground crew and entered the aerospace plane. They took their seats in the pilot and copilot positions respectively, then connected their spacesuits to the cabin's life-support system.
"Back to Mars at last."
"I wonder if we'll still be able to see the wreckage of the BFS spacecraft when we get there."
Grinning, Xu Zhenghong checked that all the cockpit instruments were functioning normally, then said with a smile, "Haha, it's been more than a year. We probably won't find it."
Liu Biao joked, "If conditions allow, maybe we can fish it