Feeling down for a moment, Zhang Tianyuan returned to reality.
"Let's take another look at the trending news around the world online."
"Hmm... I've found it. The top result is... um, 'He actually held his wife's hand in front of her' 'Superstar Abby comes out as gay'..."
"???"
Zhang Tianyuan tilted his head and looked at the computer screen, where most of the news displayed was gossip.
In the movie, three days after the moon's orbit shifted, the first civilian to discover the shift, the big fat man, announced his findings, which quickly caused a global sensation.
The news broke shortly after NASA finalized its lunar exploration strategy.
By the time the rocket, a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency, was launched, society was in complete chaos. As the movie put it, "Robbery had become the British people's favorite pastime."
The internet is so calm right now, it seems nothing bad has happened on the moon.
Zhang Tianyuan then went to the aerospace team and asked them to roughly test the Earth-Moon distance based on the existing conditions. The conclusion was that the distance was normal.
"Judging from the current situation, it seems that the lunar orbital shift has not yet occurred?" Sun Deyi said, walking to the side.
Zhang Tianyuan said, "Yes, but it should only be a day or two. The timeline in the movie is relatively clear, and the plot is about to begin."
He wouldn't be surprised if the moon's orbit shifted in the next second.
"But ultimately, this is a good thing for us."
at the same time.
The NASA staff member on duty returned to their seat with a cup of coffee, glanced at the screen, and immediately froze.
A warning message popped up on the screen because the system had automatically detected a strange rocket launch trajectory.
"Wang Defa!" The staff member on duty put down his coffee, typed a few keystrokes on the keyboard, and confirmed that the track detected by the system was correct.
but...
"How is this possible?!"
This rocket launch trajectory... it only has the second half, not the first half!
Where can you find rockets launched from space?
Where is its orbital path?
The staff on duty operated the computer extensively, but still couldn't find the rocket's launch trajectory within the atmosphere.
and
He went through all the global rocket launch registration records and was quite certain that no rockets were scheduled to launch in the next few days.
"Could there be a system error?"
Just as he was thinking this, the phone suddenly rang. He answered it and immediately recognized the voice on the other end:
"Director Fowler!"
Opposite her was the female astronaut rescued by Brian eleven years ago Endeavour. Since landing, she had focused on her career development within NASA, and she certainly had the skills; today she was NASA's second-in-command.
Fowler's voice sounded tired as she asked, "The military's space surveillance system just detected an unidentified rocket launching, and its trajectory is abnormal. They're asking if we've made the same discovery."
Upon hearing this, the staff member on duty turned to look at the computer screen, where only half of the launch trajectory was visible.
"Yes... Director, our system did just report an abnormal launch, and the trajectory is highly suspicious."
Fowler grunted in response, "Then submit the relevant documents and data according to the procedure. We won't be concerned with the rest."
After saying that, she hung up the phone and went back to sleep.
The staff on duty sat back down at their computers, staring at the strange trajectory, still unable to fathom how the rocket had launched.
Was it first transported into space and then launched from there?
Besides NASA, many other space agencies from various countries also discovered the Mutual Aid Society rocket.
Such a large rocket, with such intense light, could not be concealed by the global satellite network.
In less than an hour, the world's leading space agencies were all alerted. Everyone was puzzled by the rocket that did not have a complete launch trajectory and began to speculate about which country it was the work of.
"Since it wasn't us, it must have been launched by the other side. Aside from a slight possibility they might have done it, no other country could possibly have that kind of technology!"
In his office, facing the half-finished launch track, 51-year-old Chief Engineer Ji Feiyu spoke with absolute certainty.
His students and subordinates also agreed with this view.
"Early observations of the rocket's exhaust confirm that it ignited in space, and prior to that, its speed was extremely low, far below cosmic velocity."
How did they do it?
of?"
"This rocket has now entered the Earth-Moon transfer orbit. What mission is it going to perform?"
Problems kept popping up, but none of them could be solved.
Chief Engineer Ji Feiyu could only instruct people to intensify their tracking and timely reporting, while also leveraging his personal connections to try and find out about the current situation from overseas counterparts.
But when he made the call, he discovered that his international counterparts were also completely bewildered. Some of his North America colleagues even had the same question and called him to ask if they were behind the rocket.
Both sides were equally surprised when they learned that it wasn't true.
"It wasn't you guys?!" xS12
"So who launched this rocket?"
After asking around, everyone discovered something even more terrifying.
That is, nobody acknowledges it.
Logically speaking, given the huge commotion this has caused, and considering it's not military technology but clearly for civilian use, shouldn't it be easy for them to come out and admit it?
A full day passed, and not only did no one step forward to claim it was their technology, everyone became even more silent.
At this point, Chief Engineer Ji even went through diplomatic channels to confirm with all parties that the mysterious rocket was not launched by any official space agency or commercial space company.
This is the most credible guarantee; it's backed by official credibility.
but...
"It wasn't launched by you, it wasn't launched by me, and it wasn't launched by him either. So, was it launched by aliens?"
Chief Engineer Ji and his team were even more puzzled.
In the conference room, everyone looked at the strange trajectory detected that day, still unable to figure out how the rocket, which started at almost zero speed, successfully entered space.
They examined most possibilities on paper, even considering space assembly, but still couldn't explain the rocket's low-speed start-up problem.
Several hours later, Chief Engineer Ji suddenly heard a ringing sound from his cell phone in his pocket.
He took out his phone, but before he could even turn it on, a strange premonition arose in his mind. He clearly remembered putting his phone on silent mode before the meeting...
When the screen is turned on, the phone inexplicably reverts to ringtone mode.
A new email has been received in my inbox:
[An explanation of air-launched rockets and a reminder about lunar orbital deviations]