Homo sapiens

During the emergency video conference of the Federation of Geographical Areas.

Bill, the head of NASA, looked embarrassed.

The reason why he was embarrassed was mainly because of the Space Exploration Company matter. Other members of the Earth Alliance had previously reminded NASA to ask Bill and Musk to communicate well and not to increase the size of the Starlink satellites.

However, Musk’s backer is not Bill and NASA, but the Pentagon.

In order to ensure comprehensive monitoring of the Homo sapiens company and maintain a certain strategic space power, the Pentagon still resisted the pressure and allowed the Space Exploration Company to continue launching Starlink satellites.

However, what happened today suddenly exposed the vulnerability of Starlink satellites.

Although the cost of mass-produced Starlink satellites is very low, dozens of Starlink satellites can be launched at one time using ordinary Falcon launch vehicles.

The problem is that it is very easy to launch this thing into low-Earth orbit, but it is very troublesome to clean it up.

There are more than 3,000 Starlink satellites, plus other satellites of Homo sapiens and Terrestrial Alliance, and there are currently 5,632 satellites in operation in the entire low-Earth orbit.

This number is simply too crowded.

"The Starlink satellites have been affected by solar storms, and now a large amount of space debris is scurrying around in low-Earth orbit. The space station is almost scrapped."

President Kestekunde quickly comforted him: "Zhang, don't be angry. It has happened. Now we should find a way to save the eight astronauts on the space station."

"I propose to adjust the recent launch missions, postpone the moon base plan, and then free up two lunar landing spacecraft to safely bring eight astronauts back to Earth."

Bill hesitated for a moment: "Zhang... Zhang, are you too anxious? In fact, the space station can still support it for a while, so there is no need to be too anxious."

"Bill, I hope you can understand that if we don't act now, I'm afraid it will be even more troublesome next time."

Others whispered.

Alexander, the head of Lucia’s space department, thought for a while and expressed some of his own opinions:

"I agree with Zhang's idea. There are more and more space junks in low-Earth orbit. The longer the delay, the greater the danger of low-Earth orbit. It is better to arrange a spacecraft to bring people back as soon as possible!"

Although Bill was unwilling, he finally chose to compromise.

If we don’t save people now, it will not only chill the hearts of the astronauts, it will also plummet the morale of the free world, and it will also be detrimental to a series of future cooperation between the four major forces.

In desperation, Bill could only agree to adjust the launch mission and use the two lunar landing spacecraft for the emergency mission of retrieving astronauts from the space station.

After some discussion, everyone decided to launch the first emergency rescue spacecraft five days later, and the second emergency rescue spacecraft 12 days later.

As the management of the Land Alliance makes the decision.

Astronauts Zhang Ming, Owen, Kim Sang-moon, Robert and others in the new International Space Station also breathed a sigh of relief.

But they weren't too happy.

After all, the two emergency rescue spacecraft will take time. During this period, they must ensure the safety of the space station and prevent other accidents.

Usually when you say something like this.

If nothing else, an accident will happen.

In order to ensure nothing goes wrong, the Earth Federation Association has prepared four launch vehicles and four emergency rescue spacecraft, two of which are used as rescue spacecraft, and the remaining two are used as backup spacecraft.

A blink of an eye.

Five days passed by.

A Falcon Heavy launch vehicle is ready at a launch site in Florida.

As the commander pressed the launch button, the nozzle of the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle suddenly spit out light blue flames, pushing the launch vehicle towards low-Earth orbit.

Bill, Alexander, Conde and others who watched the launch through live broadcast saw that the launch process was very smooth, and there was a hint of relief on their faces.

It's just that they were happy too early.

Just after the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle dropped its booster and first stage near the Karman line, the spacecraft began to orbit.

At first, everything went very smoothly.

However, when the spacecraft entered the orbital area at an altitude of 300 kilometers, it began to run into trouble.

The satellite debris flying everywhere made the staff at the ground launch center feel like they were facing a formidable enemy. While monitoring the satellite debris, they adjusted the flight direction of the spacecraft.

It's just that if people are unlucky, they may choke to death even if they drink water.

After the rescue spacecraft made three consecutive dramatic maneuvers and changed its orbit, it was hit by a titanium alloy the size of a fingernail hitting the fuel tank at an altitude of 377 kilometers.

Suddenly, the methane in the fuel tank leaked rapidly.

The spacecraft that lost a lot of fuel began to lose power, and it became increasingly difficult to control its flight attitude.

Then the rescue spacecraft was hit by space debris again, destroying some of the spacecraft modules again.

Inside the Ground Launch Center of GLA.

Everyone was silent at this time.

They are all professionals, so they naturally know that the situation of the rescue spacecraft is not optimistic at this time. Even if it successfully reaches the space station, there will not be enough fuel to return to the earth.

In other words, this rescue spacecraft is useless.

The helpless reality of a bad start cast a shadow over the hearts of everyone present.

More than two hours later.

The rescue spacecraft finally slowly arrived at the new International Space Station.

Then the spacecraft hit the solar panel of the space station. This situation made Zhang Ming and other astronauts inside the space station suddenly feel big, and they were unable to complain.

Instead of waiting for a rescue spaceship, a scrap spaceship arrived. It was really a bad attitude.

…

Ceylon Ocean.

Ceylon Island, headquarters of the Space Division of Homo sapiens Corporation.

Inside the solar monitoring office.

The person in charge, Huang Xiancai, raised his head and realized that Wu Sigong knocked on the door and walked in: "Old Wu, why are you here in such a hurry?"

"It's urgent. There was another solar flare just now. Although the level was smaller than last time, it..."

As soon as he finished speaking, the alarm sounded again in the office.

Huang Xiancai was stunned for a moment before he realized: "What's going on?"

Suddenly his landline phone rang, and Huang Xiancai picked up the phone: "Hey, this is the Sun Monitoring Office. Why do you need help?"

"The solar flare just erupted again, with an energy intensity of X2 level. It is expected to reach the earth in 35 minutes, affecting..."

After listening to the report, Huang Xiancai frowned.

However, he did not dwell on it, but quickly informed him to let other departments of the company prepare as soon as possible to avoid being affected by the solar storm.

More than thirty minutes passed in a blink of an eye.

The solar storm arrived as promised, once again sweeping across the Earth-linked satellites in low-Earth orbit.

The space station, which was already in a semi-disabled state, became even more precarious under the impact of the solar storm.

Wu Kang, who was still stationed at the space station, was almost numb when faced with this solar storm.

This time, the solar storm destroyed 12 Starlink satellites, further expanding the space debris in low-Earth orbit and making the danger of entering and exiting low-Earth orbit skyrocketing.

For example, when the rescue spacecraft was launched this time, the rescue spacecraft was directly scrapped due to the presence of dense space debris.

But Zhang Ming and others were extremely anxious at this time.

Because the gas and liquid inside the space station are decreasing, if they cannot obtain supplies within the next half month, or return directly to Earth, they will be in big trouble.

However, there is now too much space junk in low-Earth orbit, which has seriously affected the Earth Alliance's spacecraft entering and exiting the atmosphere.

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