48 Hours a Day

The elevator kept rising on the mobile launch platform, and the three of them were getting farther and farther away from the ground. Zhang Heng looked up to the distant sky, where a round of red sunshine was rising from the coastline.

Light interacts perfectly with this moment of darkness, like a film that is rated.

“I hope we can still see such a beautiful sight.” Collins whispered beside him.

Even though Saturn 5's incredible altitude created the illusion that it would never reach the top, the elevator eventually stopped in front of the corridor bridge.

NASA staff opened the elevator door for them and nodded at them, while the engineer completed the last pre-launch inspection, and the three men crossed the bridge between the rocket and the launch platform and entered the narrow command compartment.

Zhang Heng tried to keep the suit from touching the complex instruments and pipelines around him, while finding his seat, and the hatch of the command compartment slowly closed behind him.

That leaves only three of them in the spacecraft.

Armstrong and Collins are both NASA seniors and have been on an aerospace mission before, so they have all been calm, but Collins is still a little nervous compared to Armstrong's unchanged divinity.

After all, NASA has just had a string of events before, mysterious infectious diseases, and crazy attrition in training camps… all this seems to echo the widespread rumor that "God doesn't want humans to climb the moon”.

Even with Collins' psychological qualities, it is difficult to completely ignore these outside disturbances.

But when the mission began, he quickly cleaned up his mind and concentrated on this space flight.

As with the historical Apollo XI, NASA arranged for Armstrong to be the commander, Collins to be the pilot of the command service cabin, and Zhang Hengzhengzheng to replace Buzz Aldrin's position as the driver of the lunar cabin.

Corinth was also the only person on the Apollo 11 who did not board the moon because he needed to remain in the command room when the moon and command room were separated. Once Armstrong and Zhang Heng were unable to return from the moon, Corinth had to fly the command room back to Earth on his own.

In terms of safety, he was the highest of the three, but the price was that he could not go up to the "doorway" of the moon, but in terms of mission order, he still had to be higher than the lunar cabin driver Zhang Heng.

After contact during quarantine, Zhang Heng and Armstrong, as well as Collins, became much more familiar, as Armstrong and Collins returned late and the three did not have the opportunity to train together, which made NASA executives worry about the acquiescence between the three.

Today, however, they have no better solution but to try to create a familiar environment for the three of them during the quarantine period. Zhang Heng also identified one thing.

And that is that what happens in parallel copies doesn't come into the normal copies, and Armstrong doesn't have any impression of the time they spent together in the Lewis Flight Power Lab 14 years ago.

This can be seen from the look on Armstrong's face, who looked at him like he was looking at a stranger.

Zhang Heng was somewhat unfortunate, although he also knew that this was the most likely situation, because 14 years later, his appearance had not changed and there were no signs of aging, which was not normal in anyone's eyes and it was difficult to find a convincing explanation.

Zhang Heng has learned more or less about what happened after the separation of the two people from the network and books of future generations.

Armstrong married Janet Elizabeth Helen in 1956, who he met in college and had three children, and his daughter Karen, who had been diagnosed with malignant tumors and had lost her language and walking skills, eventually died on the anniversary of her marriage to Amstrom and Janet.

This hit him hard, which is why Zhang Heng felt more silent when he saw him for the second time, even though Armstrong never looked sad in front of anyone.

But he later recruited NASA astronauts, apart from his own passion for flying, did not try to escape much, perhaps only in intensive training and work could he temporarily forget the pain of losing his daughter, apart from the fact that Armstrong's marriage did not go smoothly.

In 1989, Janet left a note at the table for Armstrong asking to end their 38-year marriage.

- "Our marriage is like a failed flight, a silent breakdown... and if possible, I would also say that I love my wife and I am sorry...”

At this point, however, Armstrong, sitting in the command room, is not thinking about these things, and he has focused all his energies on this mission, which is why NASA evaluates Armstrong as a stable and reliable leader.

In a way, Armstrong and Zhang Heng are in different times, but they have a lot of similarities and can see each other's shadows.

There was an acquiescence between the two at Lewis Flight Power Lab, and 14 years later they returned to the copy of Apollo Training Camp. Although Armstrong did not remember what had happened before, the subtle sense of acquiescence between the two had not completely disappeared.

As Armstrong can also see, he and Zhang Hengming only met for the first time, but had a feeling of not seeing each other for a long time, and Zhang Hengming seemed to have a good understanding of his family situation and early experience.

…………

The ground control center in Houston issued a final two-minute ignition countdown order, by which time all ground personnel had been evacuated to safety.

In addition to the millions of people who came to the scene today to watch the Apollo 11 ascent, dozens of cameras were broadcasting live. Zhang Heng used his last time to check his seat belt again to make sure it didn't fail.

At this point, the countdown also reached the last 15 seconds, starting the internal guide… Immediately with 9 seconds remaining, the engine started igniting, and the five f1 rocket engines of the first stage rocket were fully operational, burning approximately 12,000 kg of aviation fuel per second, equivalent to the sum of the intensive combustion consumption of 1,500 jet fighters.

The red flame emanating from the base raised a huge amount of sand and dust around it, creating a powerful thrust that propelled the spacecraft off the ground.