Chapter 364 Heading for Deep Space

February 9th.

Li Qingye made a rare appearance on the Homo Sapiens Company's public channel.

He appeared at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Lamon Port Aerospace City on Cianlan Island and, via a pre-recorded television broadcast, delivered a speech titled "Grounded on Earth, Reaching for Deep Space."

Lamon Port is located on the eastern coast of Cianlan Island, directly facing the vast Pacific Ocean. At a latitude of about 8.5 degrees North, it is extremely close to the Equator, making it a very suitable location for a space launch site.

Furthermore, since Cianlan Island is located near the equatorial doldrums, the typhoons that frequently occur in Southeast Asia rarely make landfall on the island, which is advantageous for space launches.

After his television appearance, Li Qingye didn't leave immediately. Although his location was top-secret, there was actually no need to be overly concerned at this stage.

After all, the major world powers all understood that attacking Li Qingye would result in mutually assured destruction.

According to the Homo Sapiens Company's public defense quarterly report, the company currently possessed a total of 725 thermonuclear warheads, in addition to the 224 atomic bombs from its previous stockpile.

When the Homo Sapiens Company first made its official debut, these numbers were only 206 thermonuclear warheads and 224 atomic bombs.

The outside world was extremely worried about this. The Homo Sapiens Company was frantically expanding its nuclear arsenal at a rate of 200 thermonuclear warheads per quarter.

In the face of the Homo Sapiens Company's frenzy, America had recently restarted some of its heavy water refineries, also preparing to expand its own nuclear arsenal.

Some of the older generation who had lived through the last century were once again reminded of those days of living on edge.

Therefore, Li Qingye's security was currently quite high. As long as the major powers lacked the resolve for mutual destruction, they would never dare to use drastic measures against him.

Of course, it was also very difficult for the outside world to pinpoint the location of the elusive Li Qingye.

After all, with the Homo Sapiens Company's dense network of subways and various underground cities, locating its management was an incredibly difficult task.

...

The Aerospace City was located 8.6 kilometers south of Lamon Port.

After the staff from Manila TV Station and the Homo Sapiens News Corporation finished filming the pre-recorded segment, they were arranged to conduct interviews in other parts of the base.

Meanwhile, Li Qingye, accompanied by Jose Garcia, the head of the Aerospace City, and chief engineer Antonio, toured the final assembly workshop of the Lamon Port Aerospace City.

Antonio explained to him, "Mr. Chairman, because the passivation technology for metallic hydrogen propellant has yet to be made practical, we are temporarily using methane-liquid oxygen engines."

"I've read your previous reports. Have you found the cause of those failed launches?"

Antonio nodded. "We've already identified it. The main issue was the irrational placement of several sensors, which caused the launch vehicle's computer system to make a misjudgment. It has been adjusted now."

Li Qingye turned his head. "Jose, go and handle the noon launch. Dr. Antonio is all I need here."

"Yes, Mr. Chairman."

Jose left the inspection group to attend to the day's noon launch.

Led by Antonio, Li Qingye entered the final assembly workshop.

A massive, 113-meter-tall launch vehicle lay on its side inside the workshop, where hundreds of technicians were busy at work, completely focused.

Of course, this wasn't the launch vehicle scheduled for launch today.

If it were the rocket about to be launched, Antonio and Jose would never have brought Li Qingye to see it.

Although the explosive power of methalox is no match for metallic hydrogen, its blast would still be extraordinarily powerful.

The launch vehicle scheduled for liftoff had already been fueled with methane and liquid oxygen, posing a certain degree of risk.

Although the risk was very small, Jose and Antonio didn't let their guard down. After all, the old Soviets once had an accident where a launch vehicle exploded on the launchpad, blowing several high-ranking officials present at the scene to smithereens.

A wise man does not stand under a collapsing wall.

Li Qingye's safety was tied to the stability of the Homo Sapiens Company; it was impossible to be too cautious.

...

Antonio explained to him in a low voice, "In the first six test launches, we've already confirmed all the parameters for the Ape-Eating Eagle."

This massive launch vehicle had a special designation within the Homo Sapiens Company: the "Ape-eating Eagle-class Carrier Rocket."

This naming convention was to differentiate their launch vehicles from those of other powers.

Generally speaking, America and the European Union primarily used names from mythology, while Lucia mainly used scientific terms.

The Homo Sapiens Company, on the other hand, used representative birds from the locations of its various branches.

For example, the Ape-Eating Eagle for the Luzon Branch, the Siamese Fireback for the Siam Branch, the Green Peafowl for the Hongsawaddy Branch, the Rhinoceros Hornbill for the Malaysia Branch, the Oriental Magpie-Robin for the Dongba Branch, the Indian Pitta for the Nepal Branch, and the Ceylon Junglefowl for the Ceylon Branch.

As a heavy-lift launch vehicle, it was christened the "Ape-Eating Eagle-class."

Li Qingye asked, "What's the maximum payload to low-Earth, synchronous, and lunar orbit?"

"150 tons to low-Earth orbit, 100 tons to synchronous orbit, and 63 tons to lunar orbit."

"Not bad! That's almost on par with the Space Exploration Company's Space Launch System rocket."

Antonio chuckled and shrugged. "Some of our technology was 'inspired by' Space Exploration Company's."

Antonio felt no shame about this. Patents in the aerospace field were practically worthless, and the major powers guarded their own space technology jealously, never allowing other powers to get a foothold.

After deciding to develop space technology, Li Qingye had Chen Jianxiong establish a technology acquisition office within the Foreign Affairs Division, specifically responsible for "drawing inspiration from" the space technology of other powers.

In any case, the Foreign Affairs Division had already picked clean all the major aerospace bases and companies around the world.

When it came to heavy-lift and super heavy-lift launch vehicles, there weren't many targets to "draw from."

For instance, Antonio himself was a former launch vehicle designer for the Lucia Space Group, and his mentor had even participated in the design of the Proton carrier rocket.

Lucia's space technology could only be described as "technology through archaeology."

Besides them, only America had the technology for heavy-lift and super heavy-lift launch vehicles.

For example, the Saturn V developed in the 1960s, and in more recent years, the Falcon Heavy and Space Launch System developed by Space Exploration Company.

Many people might be unfamiliar with the Space Launch System.

But many are probably very familiar with the project that uses the Space Launch System rocket: NASA's "King of Pigeons" project—the Artemis program.

The launch vehicle used for the Artemis program is the Space Launch System, "developed" by Space Exploration Company.

This launch vehicle was actually cobbled together from recycled parts. Its engines were inherited from NASA's spare inventory of Space Shuttle engines, and only after technological integration was the Space Launch System super heavy-lift launch vehicle "developed."

NASA had no other choice. Fortunately, America's foundation in space technology was deep; otherwise, the technology would have long since died out.

Not long ago, after countless delays, Artemis 1 was finally launched successfully.

Although Li Qingye joked that the Artemis program was a refurbished machine, he still acknowledged its technology.

The initial model of the Space Launch System was designed for the manned portion of the Constellation program, so its low-Earth orbit payload was about 70 tons, and it generated 3,810 tons of thrust at launch.

Space Exploration Company is currently integrating the second-phase cargo model. It's designed for a low-Earth orbit payload of around 130 tons, with a launch thrust of approximately 4,173 tons, and will be 117 meters tall with a total weight of 2,948 tons.

There are also plans for a later model with a low-Earth orbit payload class of 165 tons.

Therefore, the Homo Sapiens Company drew upon the Space Launch System's rocket technology and then added its own.