Although he did not experience that era, Xia Yu was still very interested in the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The success of the Apollo program marked the end of the first phase, while the subsequent large-scale development of the Space Shuttle program signified an escalation of the race, entering the stage of developing reusable spacecraft.
Yes, it's such a waste to use spaceships only once. It would be so much better to make them like airplanes, reusable aircraft.
The idea was good, but it turned out to be very difficult to put into practice.
The Americans gritted their teeth and went for it, and the Alliance followed suit without hesitation, until they brought out the OK-GLI Blizzard.
Unfortunately, the giant, already terminally ill, could not be saved by aerospace technology.
After completing its first and final unmanned orbital flight before collapsing, Buran remained forever at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, becoming part of the legacy of Kazakhstan.
Should we go take a look?
Just as Xia Yu was having a little trouble with himself, he swiped down on the screen and suddenly saw an old news article.
On May 12, 2002, the Buran orbiter and the Energia rocket were destroyed in the collapse of the Mik-112 assembly building at Baikonur Cosmodrome...
It was somewhat unexpected yet understandable; that's just how it is when nobody cares and nobody protects you.
The fighter jets stored at this base need regular maintenance to justify the current prices; otherwise, they'd just be scrap metal.
Go take a look. The Buran was destroyed, but it wasn't the only space shuttle of its kind built by the Soviets.
Including two other production aircraft, there are a total of 13 aircraft, including various engineering and prototype aircraft.
The Baikonur Cosmodrome currently has three aircraft remaining: the most completed No. 2, Little Bird, and two full-size static models of production aircraft, specifically for matching and load testing.
So there's still something to see. Alexei is busy negotiating and probably can't get anyone to come, so he'll go by himself.
After making the decision, I called my parents again to tell them that I would be going home early for the Chinese New Year.
The elderly couple were naturally delighted; it had been almost four years before their son finally had time to return to China.
There's nothing to say about how they worked hard to pay off their debts before, but when they seized an opportunity, made money, and even built a new house in the countryside, their fortunes finally turned around.
You must go to the ancestral graves to burn incense and paper money, and pray earnestly.
Of course, Xia Yu had an even better piece of news that she hadn't told them, but that's what made it a surprise!
After making the call, the fatigue I had accumulated from traveling all day suddenly overwhelmed me.
He quickly washed up and got into bed. The barracks were heated, so it wasn't cold at all, but he was a little thirsty.
After a bottle of Jihuo brand mineral water, Xia Yu quickly drifted off to sleep.
When I opened my eyes again, it was already the next day.
After breakfast, they continued with their business. He and Alexei went their separate ways; he continued arguing with the other party, while Xia Yu went to inspect the batch of Su-25Ks.
There are a total of 8 aircraft, and they are in slightly better condition than the ones used by the black men.
"To be honest, these four aircraft haven't taken to the air for five years, and their engines need to be overhauled before they can be put back into service."
The lieutenant colonel in charge of the attack aircraft explained it to him.
The Su-25's two R-195 turbojet engines are the MiG-21's R-13 engines without afterburner, requiring a major overhaul every 500 hours.
It's just that because they still have 6 upgraded Su-25UBMs, the other side's spare engines can't all be given away like they did with the MiG-29s.
The good news is that the price of R-195 is not expensive, and Xia Yu only needs to pay for the materials to print it himself. If you don't have it, you don't have it!
However, eight Su-25Ks are enough to form two attack aircraft squadrons. Afica alone cannot handle them; it will need to find two buyers.
Busa was the first to be ruled out. After spending hundreds of millions of dollars of their budget, they were already broke. Not to mention that Xia Yu spent the price of a second-hand Su-25 to revive three of their out-of-service Frogfoot fighters.
With the best-performing aircraft included, this attack squadron is enough for Busa to use for another 10 years, so new customers must be developed.
As for "ground-licking machines," any country with extremist groups within its borders needs them, and Mari is a very good choice.
The Americans play a balancing act in the Sahel region. When terrorism and separatism are rampant, they spend money to fight them, but once the other side weakens, they slow down and slowly wear them down.
This is also why the number of enforcement contracts dropped sharply after Christmas, with most of them being patrol orders.
They are giving the targets they've attacked a chance to lick their wounds and recuperate.
Without these people causing trouble, how could the Kingdom of Fa exert its influence?
So Xia Yu decisively went to Nirier and picked up his previous part-time job selling weapons.
The people of the Philippines aren't worried, but several countries in the Sahel region, especially Mali, the hardest-hit area, are the most anxious. The more they fight terrorism, the more it seems to escalate. How did their countries get into this state?
As they gradually realize that the Chinese are unreliable, they will also find their own solutions, such as squeezing out budget for purchasing weapons and equipment.
According to Xia Yu, the Mali Air Force has no fighter jets at all, and two of its eight second-hand Mi-24Ds have crashed.
He spoke with them when he was in Oga, and they said they wanted to equip themselves with attack aircraft and were particularly interested in the Super Tucano produced in Pasir.
Before the advent of shoulder-fired air defense missiles, propeller-driven fighter jets capable of dropping precision-guided bombs were indeed a good option.
But now even the Korean Phantom-2000D has been defeated; toughness and resilience are the most important things.
The Su-25 Frogfoot perfectly fits this requirement. Once Xia Yu returns to Afica from China, we need to find a way to facilitate this deal.
Super Tucanoes are incredibly expensive, costing tens of millions of dollars each. Buying just one could equip an entire squadron of frog feet. They're definitely not something ordinary people can afford.
…………
"What? You want to take a walk around the area? Then I suggest you go see the Aral Sea, because I suspect that the sea will disappear in a few years."
During lunch, Xia Yu and Alexei discussed this topic, and the latter offered advice.
People often say that the phrase "the sea dries up and the rocks crumble" is just an adjective, but the fishermen of the Aral Sea have truly witnessed the "ocean" turn into a desert over half a century.
Human greed and climate change have jointly caused this result. Kazakhstan made some money selling its tantalum mines and stopped exploiting them to the point of exhaustion, so there is still some of the Aral Sea within its borders left, which is worth a visit.
You should see both natural landscapes and man-made "spectacles." The Baikonur Cosmodrome is located just west of the Aral Sea, both on the same route.
As for how to get there, Xia Yu chose to take a fighter jet.
Alexei happened to want to check the condition of the fighter jets, so he selected a MiG-31 and had Major Jakshanov, who wanted to fly Foxhounds a few more times, deliver it to the client.
Wearing the VKK-3 high-altitude compensation suit and sitting on the plane, looking at the instrument panel which didn't even have a central control screen, I felt a little excited.
Xia Yu will definitely fly the MiG-31, but he can't explain why he would, so he should just sit back and enjoy it!
"boom"
Once again, the MiG-31s soared into the sky, tearing through the sound barrier, and quickly climbed to Mach 2.8.
It could be even faster, but there's no need for that.
Once it exceeds Mach 2.5, the fighter jet breaks through the thermal barrier, allowing Xia Yu in the cockpit to experience a different kind of charm.
After less than half an hour of high-speed flight, the Baikonur Cosmodrome, more than 1,000 kilometers away, came into view; they had arrived.
"Buzz"
After the landing gear touched down, two huge drag chute packs opened, and the two quickly came to a stop on the runway of Yubereny Airport at the launch site.
Just 28 years ago, the unmanned Buran spacecraft returned from space and landed on the same runway.
The vast launch site covers an area of more than 6,700 square kilometers and has 13 launch pads, 5 launch control centers, 9 ground tracking stations, and a large number of supporting facilities.
For example, in the space museum in front of Xia Yu, the first thing that catches his eye is a Brown "space shuttle," which is also a physical model of the Buran.
It seems that each mass-produced model has a physical model like this, because each space shuttle has differences in details.
However, model aircraft cannot fly, prototype aircraft can fly and test in the atmosphere, and only mass-produced aircraft can enter space.
Accompanied by the museum director, Xia Yu went inside the Brown ship for a tour. The exhibits were more of an educational display, and Xia Yu just glanced at them briefly.
He was more interested in the Little Bird in the factory; that was the real deal.
Passing by the bronze statue of Yuri Gagarin, Xia Yu entered the museum. After browsing through a large number of photos and documents on the first floor, the actual objects such as the spacecraft return capsule, the Sokol-K intravehicular activity suit, and the Orlan-Dma extravehicular activity suit caught her eye.
Although they are all old items, they can indeed function in a space environment, and he would definitely like to collect a set if he had the chance.
Canned food and toothpaste are out of the question; Xia Yu is a man determined to eat hot pot in space, and he doesn't like these high-tech pre-made dishes.
Thinking about this made me a little hungry, and I realized that after walking around all morning, it was already lunchtime.
He went directly to the canteen to try the standard food at the launch site, and he also met the astronauts who were training there. Judging from their accents and appearances, they should be from different countries.
"You sell boat tickets here."
Xia Yu had a vague recollection that, in addition to accepting international orders, the Soyuz ship in the United States also seemed to sell private tickets. At least, he had read about it in a science magazine when he was a child, mentioning that there were wealthy Americans who paid for their own space voyages.
"Selling is just a matter of fact. As you know, the US retired its last space shuttle a few years ago, and the price doubled, so some interested private clients are also watching and waiting."
The person in charge accompanying Xia Yu spoke frankly: monopolies lead to price increases. If the US loses its ability to send astronauts into space, who else will they rip off?
It's just tough on those wealthy people with spending power. A ticket for a ship is indeed a bit too expensive, costing eighty or ninety million US dollars, which is equivalent to 10% of Xia Yu's entire net worth.
There are so many good things to do with that money; even a used space shuttle isn't that expensive.
However, SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft is working on (archaeological) manned spaceflight, which is expected to bring the price back to normal levels.
"Mr. Sherlock, you have this intention?"
"No, I was just asking."
Xia Yu quickly waved his hand.
He's the owner of PMC; is he going to the International Space Station to fight aliens?
However, after the other party mentioned it, Xia Yu had a different idea. As his life became more comfortable, he needed to and was able to make some special preparations.
After having lunch and a cup of coffee, they drove directly to the main event of the day: the abandoned hangar where the two Little Bird aircraft were stored.
Limited by meager space funding and the fact that it was a project that had long been abandoned, Baikonur abandoned many buildings and facilities, including the "resting place" for those space shuttles.
"Without surveillance or any preventative measures, many people illegally break in, take photos and videos, and upload them to YouTube. That's still considered good; some people even steal easily disassembled parts from airplanes and vandalize them with paint."
Upon arrival at the destination, the person in charge explained the situation of the Little Bird to Xia Yu.
He had seen the situation the other party described while watching videos yesterday.
Good manners are not something everyone possesses. The wisdom and achievements of humanity that have been lost deserve remembrance, not gimmicks or performance art.
From this perspective, although the Buran was destroyed in an accident, it at least preserved its final dignity as a scientific exploration vehicle.
The surviving Little Bird was not so lucky, but all the misfortune was probably for the sake of this encounter.
After unlocking the door and entering through the hangar's main entrance, Xia Yu saw the Little Bird aircraft covered in a thick layer of dust, along with comical graffiti on its fuselage.
Measuring 36.37 meters long, 16.35 meters high, and with a wingspan of 23.92 meters, its unassuming size makes it hard to believe that it can send 30 tons of cargo into low Earth orbit and return 20 tons of cargo to the ground.
The problem is that all of this came to an abrupt end on Christmas Day in 1991, and then time flew by to this day.
"Isn't anyone willing to buy it and give it a better home?"
Xia Yu asked the person in charge behind him.
He couldn't believe that no one had made a move in such a long time.
Only two countries have ever produced space shuttles, and the number of them is limited. The Americans are all about money, and a few years ago they put out a tender for $28.8 million (initially $42 million, then the price was lowered), attracting more than 20 buyers.
What about the Little Bird and the 2002-year-old Buran?
“Someone asked about it, and Kazakhstan is willing to sell because it’s not their pride; it’s just that Baikonur is here, and they’ve inherited everything from here.”
"Perhaps the decision can be made..."
The person in charge raised his hand and pointed to the north. Less than 2,000 kilometers away was a city called Mosike.
Yes, they have to agree there, otherwise the little bird will have to stay in this "cage" forever.
Russians also like money, but sometimes they consider politics more.
So, with Si Mao holding the property rights and Da Mao having the right to designate the transfer, these space shuttles were left unused.
It would be much easier if the property rights also belonged to Russia. Not to mention the one that was sold to an amusement park to open a restaurant, even the 002 prototype aircraft that had taken off and tested in the atmosphere multiple times was sold to Turkey for the Olympics, and has now ended up in the hands of the Germans.
"Oh, I see. I'll make a call."
Xia Yu arrived outside the hangar and dialed Alexei's number.
"What? You said you want to buy the Little Bird? Why would you buy that thing?!"
Alexei was very puzzled when he heard that his partner wanted to buy the space shuttle from the launch site.
Since they can't fly either, aren't fighter jets just more visually appealing?
These two chapters were so hard to write; I couldn't just make things up, and it's already so late.
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