NASA was a bunch of amateurs

High above.

The rocket climbed straight upward at a steady supersonic speed, though it looked slow to the naked eye. Every second, it covered dozens of times its own length, quickly shrinking into a raging point of light against the dark sky.

A dim figure clung to its scorching hull, channeling a technique to withstand the oncoming torrent of air.

This feels awful. I really want to get inside.

Sixty seconds after liftoff, the rocket began passing through max Q. The impact Gao Jian felt reached its peak, but he still pressed as close to the cylindrical hull as possible to avoid creating additional drag.

At this point, tremendous lateral and axial aerodynamic pressure battered the rocket. This was the most dangerous stage of a launch: the slightest structural defect could immediately escalate into catastrophe.

The Challenger space shuttle had perished at max Q, seventy-three seconds into its flight.

Inside the Command Module, the four astronauts were also pressed into their seats by more than 2 Gs. It was not enough to leave them breathless, but the rocket's violent shuddering still made them clench their teeth and pray silently.

Then a sharp sound came from the cabin wall.

Knock, knock.

Colonel Robert—a naval test pilot, a veteran of long-duration stays aboard the International Space Station, the overall leader of the Deep Space mission, and commander of this Moon Landing Crew—was certain he had not imagined it.

His first instinct was that the fairing or a heat-shield tile had come loose prematurely and struck something. He turned toward the monitoring panel beside the viewport, but it showed no abnormalities in the spacecraft's outer structure.

Knock, knock.

The soft sound came again at a regular rhythm. The interval between knocks gave the colonel an absurd thought.

Who's knocking out there?

Just then, ground control transmitted a message. "Orion, this is Houston. All spacecraft telemetry parameters are nominal."

No-nominal?

With difficulty, he turned to look at the other three astronauts, only to meet their anxious gazes.

Everyone had heard it. It was not his imagination.

The lunar crew consisted of two American astronauts, one European lunar-orbit engineer, and one Canadian lunar landing astronaut. This was also the standard configuration for international cooperation under the Artemis Program, so all four had extensive spaceflight experience.

That only made them more aware that these strange noises were not normal.

Eighty-two seconds after launch, the rocket's shuddering began to ease. The SLS rocket had passed the peak aerodynamic pressure produced by speed and air density. Once the main structure's safety was confirmed, main engine power increased from 65% to 109%. Instead of falling, the rocket's G-load rose.

Ninety-seven seconds after launch, the load reached 3 Gs.

Throughout those roughly thirty-seven seconds, the strange noises outside the cabin had never stopped, continuing at the same steady rhythm.

Knock, knock.

Unable to take it anymore, Colonel Robert fought against the 3-G load and insisted on reporting to ground control. "Houston, we have unusual noises outside the cabin. Suspected loose external structure. Requesting an inspection."

Unusual noises?

Good. There should be.

With so many loose bolts, a little clattering was perfectly normal.

Chief commander Blackwell exchanged a silent glance with Deputy Administrator Anderson. Behind them, the other two white senior officials-Artemis Program director Nelson and SLS project director Miller-also remained silent.

Blackwell had a reasonable justification for ordering ignition ahead of schedule.

Force-seven gusts exceeding 20 m/s were expected at ground level at the scheduled launch time. Advancing the launch within an acceptable window to ensure success was entirely defensible.

And if the predicted high winds never appeared?

No matter. Any excuse would do, such as, "Our calculations were wrong."

If someone absolutely had to take responsibility, they could always sacrifice the young meteorological remote-sensing employee who had just graduated that year, joined NASA as an intern, and was still paying off student loans.

"Houston copies. We'll perform an external inspection. Watch for cabin deformation and continue reporting any changes in the sounds."

The communications officer delivered that response under the chief commander's instructions.

As a key engineer overseeing the rocket's flight, the flight director was deeply anxious. He instinctively looked up at the chief commander, only to find him chatting and laughing with the deputy administrator.

"Chief, I ran a spacecraft systems self-check. It didn't identify the source of the fault," the flight director said.

Blackwell turned and studied him through narrowed eyes. "What's the rush? It's just a noise. If actual deformation occurs, issue the abort command."

Deputy Administrator Anderson also snapped, "It's a few little noises. What are you so nervous about?"

Project director Miller chimed in. "Relax. Airflow resonance can produce unusual noises. Just run some checks."

Artemis Program director Nelson said, "As long as there's no deformation or leakage, the situation remains under control. Go run some more checks."

Faced with all four superiors, the flight director had no choice but to swallow his objections.

All four were in good spirits, especially the chief commander. Hadn't he ordered the early launch precisely for this moment?

The meteorological remote-sensing department had indeed detected a disruption in laminar airflow moments earlier. But it was not high winds at low altitude-it was intensified vertical wind shear high above. The entire rocket would be subjected to sustained lateral airflow.

Some preexisting design defects would steadily worsen under that sustained lateral assault, ultimately producing an irreversible catastrophe.

Then this lunar landing, watched by the entire world, could end in tragedy... Landing on the moon had been nonsense from the outset, and they did not want anyone flying too high.

People ought to stay obediently on the ground.

As for CNSA's lunar landing... Frankly, that Cthulhu-like monster entrenched in East Asia was a bit troublesome. Thanks to certain groups, it was impervious to outside interference. Still, they had prepared enough contingencies to make those two Long March 10 rockets crash in an "accident" two years later.

They guaranteed it. The destruction of the Long March 10 rockets would be just as spectacular and dazzling as that of this spacecraft.

Meanwhile, the commander aboard the Orion spacecraft repeatedly reported new noises, but each report was brushed aside with a few simple self-check instructions.

Incompetence on the ground, panic aboard the spacecraft.

The commander was close to breaking down himself, but soon received instructions from the flight director.

The flight director had actually bypassed his superiors and contacted Orion directly.

The flight director asked, "Any cabin deformation?"

The commander replied, "No cabin deformation."

The flight director asked, "Any loss of pressurization?"

The commander replied, "No pressure leaks."

The flight director asked, "Where are the noises coming from?"

The commander replied, "They seem to be on the fairing. No, they've moved to the cabin wall. Wait, now they seem to have gone all the way around, from near the spacecraft to the escape tower, farther from the Command Module..."

The flight director said, "What?"

The flight director was utterly baffled. He could not make sense of the situation. Just then, an enormous bang came through the sensors, so loud that even the ground-based monitors for sound inside the spacecraft picked it up.

Blackwell's expression shifted.

An internal sympathetic detonation?

No, why was there only a bang and no explosion?

Never mind. A noise that loud had to mean an internal failure.

He had also noticed the flight director's little maneuver. "Quickly, keep checking," he said coldly. "Make absolutely sure the flight attitude is normal! If one pass isn't enough, run several more. You must ensure the astronauts' safety. If ground control mishandles this, you'll be held responsible."

The flight director inwardly lamented his predicament, but helplessly instructed the technicians to begin another round of checks.

This flight director really is a nuisance.

After reprimanding his subordinate, Blackwell looked at Anderson, his eyes filled with admiration.

What a brilliant method. Noises circling the hull, followed by an internal bang. As long as the mechanical failures were complex and concealed enough, the FBI would never uncover the truth in its subsequent investigation.

He had feared that interference from Elon Musk and that meddlesome CNAS observer might create a risk of the launch succeeding. Fortunately, the deputy administrator had prepared ample contingencies.

Still, this incident had sounded an alarm for him. Elon Musk was becoming increasingly troublesome. Previously, the former president had protected him, making him untouchable. Now things were different. He needed to be dealt with sooner rather than later.

Seeing Blackwell's gaze seeking approval, Deputy Administrator Anderson smiled back.

His own eyes were filled with admiration for the chief commander.

After all, he was only a deputy administrator and could not intervene freely in every aspect of rocket development. He had merely tampered with procurement for the rocket's skin, buying some inferior materials. But those circling noises and that internal bang... The chief commander truly thought of everything.

Nelson and Miller exchanged a glance, both struck by the other two men's ruthlessness.

The recent bang had stirred the executives' nerves. All four remained silent, waiting for the moment the rocket's attitude began to subtly deviate.

Meanwhile.

"Motherfucker, why does this piece-of-junk rocket have so many problems?"

Gao Jian punched the SLS rocket's outer hull.

Suddenly, he felt as though the ship of his dreams was actually a rotten wooden boat, held together by rusty nails. His rosy view of the SLS had shattered to hell.

A precision wrench appeared in his hand. Hanging one-handed from a barely raised edge of the skin, he pressed as close to the rocket as possible to reduce drag. Enduring a surface heated to over a thousand degrees and Mach 3 airflow, he wielded the wrench and repaired the damaged skin bit by bit.

"Fix this, then fix that. Fix that, then fix this. I want to cultivate. I want to cultivate. Nobody's stopping me from cultivating..."

Gao Jian muttered incessantly, his hands never faltering.

With exquisitely controlled force, every turn of his wrench restored defects and faults in the spacecraft's outer layer to pristine condition.

The path of cultivation lay within this very work.

The rocket's failure rate was terrifyingly high. Gao Jian had thought scanning it beforehand with his divine sense would be sufficient insurance, never expecting deeper, hidden problems to emerge one after another under the stresses of launch.

They were all minor faults, like loose fasteners, but enough small problems could easily cause uncontrollable changes in the rocket's flight attitude. Losing stability was the least of his worries. What he feared was the rocket exploding in midair or plunging headfirst into the ground.

If it exploded, even a Foundation Establishment cultivator like him would probably die.

Then, in his dying moments, Gao Jian would surely have only one thought:

"Everyone at NASA is an amateur."

In just over forty seconds, Gao Jian twisted and scrambled about, repairing at least twenty external hazards. But before he could catch his breath, a crosswind gust suddenly struck.

The wind was not particularly fast, only around force six or seven, but its impact was sustained.

Inside the cabin, the commander also noticed the change in wind pressure. A wind-shear warning from the ground followed.

"Bad news. Crosswind gusts."

The expressions of all four astronauts changed abruptly.

The instant the wind struck, the entire rocket began to tilt slightly.

Ignoring the warnings from the ground, Colonel Robert watched the changing tilt angle closely and reminded his crewmates, "Check your restraints. Secure yourselves."

A slight deviation in the rocket's trajectory would not matter, but if sustained crosswind gusts forced it significantly off course, their only option would be to attempt an escape using the escape tower, even though that system had worked only once in history.

Ten years earlier, the Soyuz MS-10 rocket had exploded during launch. The escape tower functioned normally, dragging the entire Command Module away from the rocket. The two astronauts inside were battered senseless, but both survived.

He hoped they would be lucky enough too.

But as he watched the rocket's tilt grow ever greater, despair gradually overtook the commander.

At that moment, a dull impact far louder than the earlier noises rang out.

It was Gao Jian!

Gao Jian sucked at his teeth, savoring the last crumbs of his medicinal pill. He had planted his entire body against one side of the rocket, supplying thrust almost equal to the crosswind gusts and forcibly holding the rocket's attitude steady!

Even with a space rocket on his back and a lunar spacecraft in his hands, Gao Jian was going to cultivate!

On the ground, Houston was astonished to discover that the rocket, whose deviation had nearly reached the critical limit, was slowly straightening again. The flight director had been about to command the escape tower's activation, but stopped himself.

It could recover from that?

Was the spacecraft's adaptive augmentation system really that incredible?

Blecherwell's eyes widened.

He had never expected the predicted crosswind to fail to knock the rocket off course, much less for the rocket to correct itself automatically. That meant the crosswind was far weaker than anticipated.

It meant the early launch order he had issued at enormous risk had accomplished absolutely nothing.

And the earlier circling noises and internal bang had yet to produce any adverse consequences.

His heart sank.

"What exactly is going on?" he asked.

The young meteorologist, exhilarated by their narrow escape, cheered. "Fantastic! The wind didn't push the rocket off course. Looks like we overestimated its effect on the rocket. This is great, just great... Chief, aren't you happy?"

Blecherwell forced a smile, then scowled and snapped, "Luck won't always be on our side, idiot. Go reflect on this and learn your lesson!"

After the scolding, the meteorologist sheepishly complied.

"These amateurs. Can't they even read a weather forecast?"

Gao Jian gritted his teeth and braced against the rocket, carrying it for more than ten seconds through the most dangerous crosswind zone, which extended for several kilometers.

Fortunately, as the rocket climbed, he soon broke through the crosswind layer and entered a region of thinner air.

Wisps of spiritual energy from the pill crumbs in his mouth seeped down his throat into his dantian, replenishing his spiritual power while making his mind increasingly clear.

The rocket had now been airborne for 120 seconds and was more than 45 kilometers above the ground. The separation shock at the 132-second mark would be the crucial point at which it entered its second phase.

At that point, the SLS Block 1B's two five-segment solid rocket boosters would completely exhaust their fuel, and the separation bolts would detonate to release the boosters.

In other words, he only had to hold on for another twelve seconds. After booster separation, the rocket's high-frequency vibrations would ease considerably, and the risk of disintegration would drop sharply. He would have made it through the most dangerous stretch.

Gao Jian breathed a sigh of relief.

The atmosphere was now extremely thin. Fortunately, even tossed into a vacuum, a Foundation Establishment cultivator could survive for several days and nights. Without the constant battering of dense air, Gao Jian felt much more comfortable. By comparison, the current 3.6-G load hardly mattered.

The 132-second mark arrived.

At ground control's command, the separation bolts detonated with a roar, and the solid rocket boosters began to separate!

But the entire rocket suddenly lurched.

Gao Jian looked closely, and his Dao heart recoiled in horror.

Why the fuck did the bolts only detonate on one side?

"The explosive bolts in section B failed to detonate. Booster separation incomplete." Another urgent report rang through the control room.

Blackwell's expression changed. "Send a second detonation command."

A technician replied anxiously, "The system has already automatically retransmitted two rounds of backup detonation signals. Telemetry confirms normal firing current. The bolts aren't mechanically jammed, but there's still no response."

Blecherwell said helplessly, "Then there's nothing we can do. Give up. Find a way to bring them back."

The flight director's gaze sharpened. "No. There's still a way."

With that, under commands from the ground, the four RS-25 engines gimbaled to their mechanical limits. Main engine thrust vectoring was pushed to maximum, continuously counteracting the lateral deviation in an attempt to offset the rocket's imbalance.

He could still do something!

He was going to be the best flight director.

But the flight director's efforts were as futile as a mantis trying to stop a cart.

Blecherwell and the other three executives stared at the screen. With the ultra-high-definition optical cameras continuously tracking it, they could all see clearly that only the left side of the rocket's separation assembly had detached successfully. The right side remained perfectly intact.

This was their ultimate act of sabotage-no, their ultimate solution.

Yes. From the very beginning, the separation bolts on the other main booster had not been loaded with enough explosives.

This was the perfect method the four executives had devised together.

Surely such a bold and sincere pledge of allegiance would persuade that Zion Elder to accept them?

Just as the corners of Blecherwell's mouth were about to lift, a fierce streak of azure sword light slashed into the separation assembly in section B, cleaving it clean off the rocket! The consummate control of that sword qi made the cut even more precise than the explosive separation in section A!

Boom!

The solid booster in section B instantly detached from the rocket and plunged into the atmosphere.

The entire rocket abruptly righted itself!

Separation had succeeded! The rocket had entered its second stage!

The azure sword light had been so incredibly fast that it might have appeared in only one or two frames of the video. Almost no one had seen what happened, so everyone believed the second detonation command had worked.

"It worked! The detonation worked!"

Deafening cheers erupted throughout the command center.

Blackwell was dumbfounded.