With Wu Hao's encouragement, everyone immediately put into work again. Zhou Xiangming also immediately went to the launch site of the No. 2 rocket to make final preparations before launch.

The second retractable experimental rocket is different from the low-cost rocket with 3D printing materials that has just been launched, in addition to the difference in technology and method, the shape of this rocket is also very different from the former.

Because it is an experimental rocket, this retractable rocket only has a one-stage part, so it looks like a long log.

As mentioned earlier, the main recovery of this retractable rocket is the first stage of the rocket, and the second stage is too difficult and has no recovery value. Therefore, this test is also mainly to test its first-level part.

Different from the ordinary first-stage rocket body, the first-stage part of this retractable rocket is mainly composed of three parts.

The first is the rocket body, which is basically the same as the shape of the first-stage rocket body of a normal rocket, but it is different at the top and end.

On this experimental rocket, it is also marked with a special color. At the top of the first stage of this rocket, there is a dark blue painting area of about one meter.

This area is not only painted in a different color, but also has a different structure from other rockets, which is the parachute recovery device designed and developed by the R&D team for this retractable rocket.

The reason why it takes up so much space is mainly that the parachute takes up more space. Yu Chengwu and the others equipped this rocket with three large parachutes, which are similar in shape and structure in form and material to the parachutes of the Shenzhou series of spacecraft.

At the tail end of the rocket, on the body of the rocket, there are three sets of black prismatic devices similar to the tail. This is the landing support frame of the rocket, which is folded and retracted close to the rocket body when launched, so as to reduce the air resistance as much as possible.

When landing, the landing support frame is opened, which supports the entire arrow body when landing and plays a role in cushioning and shock absorption. The style and structure of this point turned out to be the same as that of the landing gear of the Falcon rocket.

Why not use the same technology as the Falcon rocket and use the rocket engine to land smoothly. To be honest, it's not that they don't want to, it's that their technology can't reach it yet. The main thing is the gap between the materials and manufacturing process of the engine, which Wu Hao has no way to solve at present.

That's why they use this parachute relaxation to replace the engine thrust reverser when the rocket lands, and even use this technology to reduce the lack of technology and materials in the engine, shorten the use time of the engine, reduce costs and so on.

In this way, Zhang Jun is not wrong even though this is the beggar version of the Falcon rocket.

At the same time that Zhou Xiangming and his team were nervously making the final preparations before launch, in the control center, Yu Chengwu was also introducing the basic situation of the rocket to Wu Hao, Zhang Jun and other guests.

“…… The total height of the first stage of this recyclable rocket is 10.2 meters, the weight is 725.7 kilograms, and the altitude of this test launch is 20 kilometers, that is, 20,000 meters.

After reaching this altitude, the rocket engine will be temporarily turned off, and when the rocket falls, the top will throw the guide umbrella of the main parachute, and the guide parachute will bring out the main parachute, thus reducing the rocket's descent speed.

At the same time, the three landing support frames at the bottom of the rocket will also be opened, waiting for landing, and the ranging radar at the bottom of the rocket will also be turned on. And the main engine of the rocket is turned on at a position about ten meters from the ground to provide a strong reverse thrust, thereby further reducing the falling speed of the rocket.

And at the moment when the rocket lands, the engine will be shut down, and the parachute located at the top will automatically disengage to avoid accidents such as the rocket being pulled down by the parachute or towed away due to the wind speed on the ground. ”

Speaking of this, Yu Chengwu paused for a moment and then continued: "Theoretically, the landing location of this rocket can be controlled by the grid plate on the rocket, and the landing error can be controlled within a small range.

However, the reality is complicated. Because we use the parachute recovery landing method, it is easy to be affected by the direction of the air flow and wind in the air, which makes the landing site worse.

This deviation can be large or small, so in order to compensate for the recycling problem caused by this problem, we have specially prepared a transport truck and a crane.

After the rocket lands, our ground recovery team will rush to the landing site as soon as possible to lift the rocket onto a transport truck and transport it away. ”

Hearing Yu Chengwu's explanation, everyone also nodded, and they had a general understanding of the first-stage recoverable technology of this rocket.

After listening to it, Zhang Jun quickly raised the question he was concerned about: "How much can the cost of this kind of retractable rocket be reduced." ”

"It depends on how many times this rocket can be reused."

Yu Chengwu explained with a smile: "According to our preliminary design requirements, the first stage of this rocket will be reused more than five times. Although some maintenance costs and fuel refueling costs are added to this, the average launch cost of the five times is only one-third of that of the previous rocket, which can be said to be very low.

Of course, this price is only a conservative estimate, and it is possible that it will continue to decrease in the future. ”

After hearing Yu Chengwu's words, Wu Hao shook his head, his expectation was still a little too optimistic, in fact, as long as it was reduced by one, it was already a great success.

"Thirty minutes countdown, all personnel in the launch site are evacuated."

"Start charging, start the self-test procedure of the rocket body system before the test flight."

With one command after another, the rocket also entered the final stage of preparation for the launcher. Seeing this, Wu Hao patted Zhang Jun on the shoulder, and then walked outside.

"What, don't you look at it?" Zhang Jun caught up and said.

Wu Hao said with a smile: "Isn't it more intuitive to see from the outside?" ”

"Yes." Zhang Jun nodded, and then came to a second-floor observation deck with him.

At this moment, a lot of people gathered on the observation deck, and when they saw them coming up, they all greeted him.

Wu Hao greeted everyone with a smile, and then came to the front of the observation deck. Some observation glasses were set up on the side of the railing, and some people set up some cameras, all of whom were paying close attention to the situation at the rocket launch site a kilometer away.

Seeing him coming, someone immediately took the initiative to give up the observation glass. Seeing this, Zhang Jun hurriedly went up to observe.

Wu Hao looked at the dark blue pure sky above his head, and couldn't help but raise his head and close his eyes in the afterglow of the sunset, feeling the slightest breeze.

"Countdown one minute to prepare!"

"Ten, nine, eight...... Two, one, ignition, take off! ”

Bang!

I saw fierce flames from the bottom of the rocket erected on the launch site in the distance, and puffs of smoke and dust rolled up.

The rocket broke through the smoke and dust, slowly added, and hit the sky!

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