Scholar’s Advanced Technological System

“5!”

“Four!”

“Three!”

“Two!”

“One!”

“Zero!”

“Ignite! ”

A light blue arc jet extends from the end of the wing that opens outward toward the back of the sky shuttle.

Dragging on a narrow blue plume, the Sauvignon, launched from the Golden Ring Space Launch Center, disappeared at the end of the cloud under the attention of all the ground crew of the Launch Center, as well as engineers and commanders.

The launch plan went very well.

After leaving the troposphere, a pair of short, chunky auxiliary wings of the Xia Guang slowly rotated, lowering the angle of the jet port connected to the end of the wing and gradually stretching the direction of the head.

Meanwhile, the blue feathers behind the wings gradually magnified and began to work directly against gravity, pushing the Xia Guang to chart a trajectory that was relevant to the Earth and fly into the infinite depths beyond.

Time goes by.

After nearly an hour of flight, the Xia Guang finally broke through the edge of a dense section of the atmosphere, reaching near-Earth orbit and embarking on a 72-hour circular flight.

Sitting in the cockpit, the pilot in the main cockpit, Xu Zhenghong, took a closer look at the orbital height on the instrument, the surface temperature of the spacecraft and other data.

After confirming that everything was fine, his expression was tight and he finally relaxed.

This was his 57th test flight and his highest. Previously, when he was testing the Pilot's Brigade, he never thought he would fly the plane out of the atmosphere one day.

Until one day, his superiors found him and arranged a test flight for the Shimmer...

Although the plane was equipped with an escape pod, only genius knew that it didn't work.

Reaching out to open the automatic cruise mode, Xu Zhenghong then disconnected the in-cabin space suit from the environmental protection system. Finally, he reached out and pressed on the side of the helmet and took a deep breath to say.

“This is the Xia Guang, we have successfully reached the target orbit, requesting instructions for the next step. ”

A noisy stream of current sounds is coming from the communication channel.

As communication signals stabilized, the ground command centre responded quickly.

“… this is Ground Command, congratulations on successfully completing your first test flight exercise. Please maintain orbital altitude for two hours and the next test flight exercise will begin in two hours. ”

Xu Zhenghong: “Roger, we're in cruise mode. ”

Sitting in the co-pilot's seat, Liu Biao also unhooked the environmental protection system, reached out and loosened the connecting port at the helmet of the space suit, and threw his gaze into the space outside the cockpit, laughing and saying.

“It's a nice view. ”

Xu Zhenghong smiled and replied after looking at the dotted spark below the cloud and the deep universe above it.

“Yeah.”

This is probably the most beautiful view he's ever seen.

At this point, on the far side, a silver spacecraft slowly climbed up altitude and crossed the edge of a dense section of the atmosphere.

Looking in that direction, Liu Biaoxuan, sitting in the passenger seat, squinted his eyes and asked.

“What's that?”

“It should be Space-X's BFR spacecraft, I heard they were also launching today," Xu Zhenghong laughed at his comrades sitting next to him, "Your eyes are strange, you can see them all. ”

By the captain, Liu Biao was embarrassed to laugh.

“Do you want us to go over there and say hello? ”

Xu Zhenghong: “Good idea. Ask the Ground Command Center and see what the Chief Commander says. ”

Liu Biao's expression touched the back of his head with some embarrassment and said: "Well, I'm just kidding. Activate the atmosphere. Don't be serious. ”

Xu Zhenghong paused for a moment and said.

“Just kidding, take 10 minutes off, then get to work. ”

Liu Biao, sitting in the co-pilot's seat, straightened his waistplate immediately.

“Yes!”

……

At the same time, the other side of the track.

While the BFS ship was spotted on the Xia Guang, the BFS ship also spotted them.

Although neither side is equipped with radar specifically for the detection of spacecraft, the same orbital altitude and the same distance are not extraordinary, so it is immediately apparent.

As the silver spacecraft outside the starboard window slowly moved away, Tyvey leaned against the seat and suddenly said.

“In Marine tradition, shouldn't we write down the mailbox on paper and stick it on the window at this point? ”

Johnson raised his eyebrows and said amusing.

“Marines don't have that tradition, it's Air Force... and I guess even if we did, they wouldn't be able to see it that far apart. ”

“Exactly.” Tevy muttered to himself and stopped talking.

Unlike the two older men, Jones, sitting on the other side of the spacecraft, has been completely attracted to the blue planet behind the spacecraft.

Looking out the starboard window for a long time, Jones softly moaned: “What a beautiful view...”

After looking at Jones, Tevy also threw her gaze out the window, humming.

“Yes, it's a beautiful view. ”

“Speaking of which, we were all trained at different training bases, and we only met two weeks before the launch mission," Johnson said, staring at the two people out the window, suddenly smiling. "I mean, why don't we talk? ”

Retrieving his gaze from the starboard window, Tevy cast a gaze at him asking, “Talk about what? ”

“Talk about life, talk about dreams, talk about why we're sitting here, why we signed up for Mars... Oh, shit, I wish there was a bottle of whiskey here.” Johnson touched his head with some anguish and said with a weird expression.

Jones whispered: "Living stock can't be unlocked until it lands… I heard it when I was trained. ”

Instead of focusing on irrelevant questions, Tevy answered his previous sentence.

“Didn't you already say that on the show? ”

Johnson shrugged his shoulders and made a helpless look.

“I'm the only one who said that you haven't. ”

Tevy hesitated for a moment, eventually not answering the question, but looking at Jones.

“Ladies first. ”

“Me? I...” Jones looked right and left, then gave up sighing and said, “Well, I hope you don't laugh at me after I say it. I have a little emotional problem...”

Johnson: "Emotional issues? Break up or divorce? Or... Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked the bottom--”

“It was a breakup,” Jones continued silently for a while, "which may not seem like much to you, but it was a big blow to me. I want to get back together and live somewhere else. ”

Tevy lifted his eyebrows and asked a little incredibly: "And then just at this point, did you see the recruitment ad for Ares? ”

“Yes,” Jones squeezed a slightly reluctant smile out of his face, continuing, “isn't that surprising? My colleagues were shocked and no one thought I had been elected... Immigration quickly passed my application and Space-X even reimbursed me for my airline ticket from Amsterdam to the United States. I thought about it later and thought it was good, so..."

Doesn't seem to know how to put it, Jones shrugged his shoulders and ended the topic with a hard end, "Anyway, I'm sitting here right now. ”

“That's too exaggerated...” Tevy looked at Jones a little incredibly, whimpering and mumbling, "If it's just because we broke up, we're going this far, I'm afraid I'm flying out of the solar system. ”

“Stop, don't say such bad things," Johnson slapped Tevy on the shoulder, "our lady's done, and now it's your turn. I've been curious about what makes a quarterback on a football field an astronaut. ”

Finally, this is the problem.

Tevy hesitated and finally gave up looking shrugged.

“because… the debt problem. ”

Johnson looked at him surprised: "Credit card? ”

“Kind of...” Tevy shifted his gaze somewhat subtly.

Johnson smiled cheerfully and patted him on the shoulder with encouragement.

“Ha ha, no nasty bills on Mars, you're free now. ”

Tevy laughed from the inside out, but didn't answer.

Jones glanced at him and the woman's instincts told her that the guy wasn't telling the truth or saying he wasn't finished.

At the very least, the reason for his participation in the programme was certainly not as simple as the debt problem.

Johnson didn't care about the details, as opposed to Jones, he just didn't think Tevy seemed keen to continue the conversation, so he didn't go into it.

A man's past doesn't matter, what matters is how he faces the future.

Now that they're sitting here, they're teammates, they're a team, and they have to face all the problems together...

The box gradually opened and the atmosphere grew more sophisticated.

Looking back at the two cheerful teammates, Johnson nodded with satisfaction.

As the "captain” of the flight, Columbus sailed to the new continent, in addition to being responsible for professional operations, he was also responsible for coordinating the state of mind of his teammates.

After all, almost two months in this small and compact manned spacecraft is probably no better than jail time.

Time goes by, and the blue planet behind it, and the spacecraft that's long gone, is gradually moving away from them.

So, with a desire for a new continent and a vision for a better future, the BFS spacecraft left its synchronous orbit and went into a pitch-black deep sky towards that flaming red planet...