On the outskirts of Jin Ling City, a Volvo 18 wheeler drove on the concrete roads, creating a dust cloud behind.
Normally, a truck like this would have been stopped by traffic cops for driving on concrete roads.
This truck could drive smoothly because there were two military vehicles escorting it, one at the front and the other at the back.
Most people would walk the other way when they saw this intimidating scene.
The cars headed east and entered the eastern area of a high-tech zone. They stopped at a hundred-acre factory.
A man wearing a hard hat and work clothes walked to the truck and spoke a few words with the guy sitting in the passenger seat. Then, he began to gesture the military cars to enter the factory.
The factory company’s name was erected near the gate.
“Star Sky Technology Space Shuttle Assembly Center.”
The name sounded quite futuristic.
A black sedan with a red flag was parked near the factory entrance.
Wang Peng turned off the engine and glanced at the military cars. He couldn’t help but wonder.
“You really plan on building a space shuttle?”
Lu Zhou: “Of course, why?”
“Nothing… I thought aerospace was just for scaring the United States.”
After all, Wang Peng’s family had ties to the government, and he had heard rumors before.
He heard that, on the surface, the moon landing conference was to lay out China’s plan regarding controllable fusion, but in fact, it was only used to scare the United States and Europe. He even heard that the Ministry of Science and Technology planned to make Lu Zhou the chief designer, but Lu Zhou insisted on only being a consultant.
Wang Peng had to admit, scare tactics like these were useful.
After all, the idea of a “mass driver” scared people shitless. If the mass driver could really send tons of load into low-earth orbit, it could even be used for sending mail packages…
Even though China had no intention of doing this, other countries were still worried.
Especially since Lu Zhou was a chief consultant…
“No way, I could never intentionally try to scare people as a political play, I’d rather just do it legitimately.” Lu Zhou smiled and said,” Okay, no more joking around, I actually thought about building a spacecraft for a long time.”
“I always thought you were a mathematician.”
“I am a mathematician.”
Lu Zhou didn’t spend long in the car. After he got out, he walked straight to the assembly center.
Because of Xiao Ai, the entire assembly center could theoretically achieve a complete automated production process. Other than the technicians responsible for equipment, electronics, and maintenance, the only necessary staff members were those from the security department.
There were twice as many security members as there were normal employees.
Being able to automate a production process to this extent was rare, even in western countries.
Once the processing materials arrived, the assembly center could get to work.
Lu Zhou planned on building an independent and research department here, as well as a dedicated astronaut training center. However, he couldn’t do all of this at once since it would take a long time.
Lu Zhou was inside the factory.
He looked at the rows of industrial robots and took a photo. He then sent the photo to Xiao Ai and smiled.
“What do you think, do you like your new toy?”
Xiao Ai instantly replied.
[Yeah! Super satisfied! Thank you, Master!]
Lu Zhou: “That’s good… Oh yeah, don’t forget what I told you. Don’t make anything weird… Also, build the space shuttle according to the drawings, don’t add any extra components.”
Lu Zhou got the space shuttle blueprints from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. The engine and fuel tank were modified, while the rest was basically an exact copy.
Even though China had never built a working space shuttle, that didn’t mean they didn’t have space shuttle researchers. China only stopped space shuttle research after the Soviet’s failure.
There were a lot of advanced technological concepts in the 863 initiative. The reason some technical routes were abandoned wasn’t that they weren’t good concepts, but it was because it didn’t align with the times.
If they could invent a high energy density power storing device and power source, then they could totally replace traditional chemical rockets and significantly increase the thrust.
Fortunately, Lu Zhou had already solved both of those problems.
Xiao Ai: [Don’t worry! Xiao Ai will take care of it! (๑•̀ᄇ•́)و✧]
Lu Zhou saw Xiao Ai’s reply and couldn’t help but smirk.
Even though this thing acted a bit retarded sometimes, it was still backed by total obedience.
He heard footsteps behind him.
Lu Zhou looked over and saw Chen Yushan at the factory entrance. She was walking toward him.
Lu Zhou looked at her and put his phone away. He then smiled and asked, “Why are you here?”
Around March, the headquarters of Star Sky Technology was moved from Shanghai to Jinling. The new office was in Jinling’s CBD, not the high-tech zone. It took at least an hour to drive from the city to the high-tech zone.
Chen Yushan stood next to Lu Zhou and smiled.
“Well, I’m still the CEO of Star Sky Technology, how could I not come on such an important day? What do you think? Are you happy?”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “I’m very happy, thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” Chen Yushan smirked and jokingly said, “Speaking of which, I’ve never been to space. If you can really make this space shuttle work, maybe we can take a day-trip to the moon.”
Lu Zhou: “A day trip is too short, we have to stay for at least a couple of days.”
Chen Yushan said, “Then we should build a hotel on the moon.”
Lu Zhou smiled as he said, “Your ambitions are… interesting.”
Chen Yushan couldn’t help but roll her eyes.
“What do you mean interesting, I’m a businesswoman! I’m thinking about business!”
“Sure sure, whatever.”