Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The biggest breaking news this year wasn’t some celebrity’s wedding, nor was it Daya Bay’s power generation success, but instead, it was the successful launch and return of Skyglow.
Everything from the successful launch, to the 25-second congratulatory video, to The New York Times report, and the safe return of Skyglow. Every moment grabbed everyone’s attention.
There are plenty of rocket scientists.
But Lu Zhou was probably the only rocket scientist who flew in his own rocket.
Even Elon Musk, who had been called the real-life Iron Man, said he would never fly on his Falcon 9 rocket.
This sensational flight completely changed everyone’s opinions regarding aerospace.
2020 was going to be a new aerospace era.
This would revolutionize the aerospace industry.
Interestingly enough, if it wasn’t for NASA’s news release on Columbia TV, most people wouldn’t have known that Skyglow was using an ion thruster propulsion system.
After the news came out, neither Star Sky Technology nor the Chinese government denied or confirmed the claims. For most people, this silently confirmed that Skyglow was using ion thrusters.
The people praying for Skyglow’s safe return were ecstatic.
For a long time, China had been chasing the footsteps of the United States and Russia in the aerospace field. When it came to the design of high-thrust rockets and spacecraft, China was even behind Japan and Europe. When Skyglow successfully used ion thruster propulsion technology, it placed China five years ahead of everyone else.
The first step of the moon landing plan was a success.
Next was figuring out how to safely send people there.
Most people didn’t care about those distant things. Skyglow’s safe return proved many people wrong.
After Lu Zhou heard about what happened from Chen Yushan, he opened Weibo and posted the photo he took of Earth, along with a caption.
[Who said I’m not coming back?]
Less than 30 seconds after he posted the photo, there were hundreds of comments.
[Haha, what do the NASA experts have to say now? What happened to disintegrate on re-entry?]
[F*ck The New York Times, fake news!]
[I just want to say one thing, God Lu you’re nutty!]
[Actually, Skyglow was supposed to disintegrate, but NASA jinxed it.]
[Haha, I knew that God Lu knew what he’s doing!]
[God Lu, I want to have a kid with you in space ~~]
[Jesus Christ!]
[No one’s talking about how handsome God Lu is, so I’ll say it!]
[…]
Within half an hour, the retweets were in the tens of thousands. It was also retweeted by Everyone Daily, CTV, and other major media outlets. It quickly spread throughout Weibo and other social media sites.
A lot of people posted Lu Zhou’s Weibo photo on Twitter and tagged The New York Times’ account.
Interestingly enough, the first to respond wasn’t The New York Times, but it was NASA’s official account.
In NASA’s tweet, they quickly clarified that they never said that the Skyglow could disintegrate on re-entry. And that The New York Times twisted their words at the press conference.
There was a lot of backlash on Twitter, and people were all tagging The New York Times’ account.
Lu Zhou thought that this matter would be over. After all, in his opinion, this was only a test flight, nothing amazing. However, this matter was far from complete.
After interviewing the two astronauts, CTV used previously recorded material and made a documentary regarding the launch of Skyglow.
A classic CTV documentary style was used, and it highlighted the difficulty of research and the danger of the launch. The focus of attention was on Lu Zhou, who flew with the two other astronauts. He was depicted as a hero who risked his life for research.
They even quoted him.
“I’m the chief designer. If I want firsthand experience, I have to go!”
The quote made it seem like Lu Zhou was going to space to battle aliens…
Inside a special ward at 301 Hospital, Lu Zhou threw the half-read newspaper on the table and shook his head while sitting on the hospital bed.
The reason he was in the ward wasn’t that he was sick. It was because just like the two astronauts, the higher-ups asked him to undergo medical inspections.
Even though he had repeatedly stated that he was healthy, he wasn’t able to argue with the old 301 Hospital doctors.
Of course, Lu Zhou knew that they had good intentions; they were just scared he was secretly ill.
Therefore, he didn’t resist.
“It’s written pretty nicely…”
Wang Peng stared at Lu Zhou and had a weird expression on his face.
I’ve never seen you this humble before…
Yan Yan came over and said, “Objectively speaking, the news article is pretty touching.”
“You guys don’t get it,” Lu Zhou said as he shook his head.
Chen Yushan, who was standing beside the hospital bed, asked, “Can I take a guess?”
Lu Zhou sighed and said, “Go ahead.”
After their hug the day he returned to Earth, his relationship with Chen Yushan became more complex.
However, Lu Zhou didn’t know how to describe this complexity.
Therefore, neither of them mentioned the hug. They merely pretended as if nothing had happened.
How do I describe this?
Lu Zhou didn’t know what this type of feeling was.
Maybe I’ve never experienced this before…
“Well… Through this launch, you want to tell people that there is no difference between space travel and normal travel, and that it is less dangerous than they imagined?”
Lu Zhou went silent for a while as his eyes drifted aside.
“Okay, you’re half correct.”
Actually, she was only a quarter correct.
Half of the reason was because of Lu Zhou’s system mission, the other quarter was purely because he wanted to see what exactly would happen when the spacecraft was flying. He wanted to know exactly where he could improve, instead of only hearing the aviators’ suggestions and studying the data.
Even though Chen Yushan was only half correct, she still smiled happily.
Yan Yan, who was standing next to her, silently pouted. She picked up the medical inspection sheet and walked out of the ward.
Lu Zhou didn’t notice her subtle change. He was focused on the snowflakes falling outside of the window.
I guess it’s winter.
STAR-2 experimental reactor’s successful fusion ignition was around this time last year.
Time really flies…
