Chapter 1108 Unintentionally promoted history
While Chang Haonan was thinking about how to overcome the problem of processing large-size wide-chord blades.
France, Paris.
Jean-Jacques Dordan was frowning as he looked at the two reports in front of him that had similar content but completely different conclusions.
It''s all about China''s aerospace engineering.
In fact, China''s successful first manned space flight has become the biggest topic of the European Space Agency (ESA) in the past half month.
But on this topic, ESA is divided into two completely different factions.
One group advocates that there are never too many escape routes, and that when its own resources are insufficient, it should try to open cooperation with any other country and organization with space capabilities.
After all, just a few months ago, they even signed an agreement with Roscosmos, with the latter specifically developing a Soyuz series rocket suitable for the Guyana Space Center to alleviate the problem of tight European space transportation capacity.
From this point of view, having a few more partners is not a problem at all.
The other group believes that although China''s aerospace level is in a promising situation, its foundation is not solid and the ground is shaking. Its own areas of expertise are highly overlapped with those of the EU. The introduction of cooperation is completely intensifying competition, and it also needs to take into account the United States. human risk.
As an organization established with the support of the European Union and multiple countries, even though Dordan is the director, he does not have the unequivocal influence within ESA like his counterparts in other countries.
More often than not, he seems to work more like a coordinator.
Not only must the interests of various member states, especially the initial member states, be balanced, but the impact of the external environment must also be taken into consideration.
For example, NASA is keen on long-arm jurisdiction...
In short, the oil and water are rich, but the money earned is definitely useless money...
At this moment, a sudden knock on the door interrupted Director Dordan''s sigh.
After looking up at the person who came, he performed a face-changing art at the speed of light and quickly stood up to invite the person in:
"Bernard, long time no see..."
As he spoke, he picked up two cups and placed them in front of the two of them:
"Want something to drink?"
Bernard Kandel is an ESA policy development advisor and an honorary professor at the Institut Universitaire de France.
"No."
Kandel waved his hand, obviously not accepting this trick.
He is considered a veteran within ESA, but his current title is only nominal.
He has neither real power nor much control.
If I hadn’t had a good personal relationship with Dordan, I probably wouldn’t have made the trip:
"You made a special trip to call me here, I guess it''s not just to reminisce about old times..."
Dordan, whose purpose was directly revealed, only showed a moment of embarrassment:
"The Chinese side...has posed a problem for me this time."
This sentence made Kandel immediately stunned:
"You mean... they sent their first astronaut into space?"
"Otherwise..."
Dordan sighed:
"What else could it be?"
Kandel almost laughed out loud when he heard this:
"But we...no, it''s you. Haven''t you given up on independently completing the manned spaceflight project a long time ago?"
There was a strong sense of schadenfreude in his tone.
But Dordan just shrank his head and glanced at the other party -
In the mid-1980s, ESA had a manned space program that was expected to cost more than 100 billion West German Marks.
Kandel himself is an enthusiastic supporter and promoter of this plan.
However, if Europeans are asked to implement such a complex project, the results will not be surprising -
ESA ultimately proposed a stifling three-stage development route.
The first is to develop a spacecraft similar to the Soyuz, and develop an improved version based on the Ariane 3 rocket to send the spacecraft and astronauts into space.
The second one is the Space Shuttle Emissary, which is slightly smaller than the U.S. Space Shuttle. It is expected to be launched by the Ariane 5 rocket that was still in the plan at the time.
The third is to develop the "Columbus" space capsule, which is actually a small space station that allows astronauts to stay in orbit uninterrupted.
Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the problem is already huge -
Spaceship - space shuttle - small space station.
The relationship between the three is not so much a succession relationship, but a parallel relationship.
Especially the first two items.
Indeed, even though the Soviets already had spacecraft, they still began to develop the new Buran space shuttle in the 1980s.
But after all, the Soyuz has been used for almost 30 years, and iterating new products is a smooth process.
What about your ESA?
Resources are not enough to begin with, and two delivery vehicles have to be built at the same time.
It''s unreasonable no matter how you look at it.
In short, despite the mutual refusal, we finally came up with such a plan full of compromises.
The whole plan had to come to nothing.
Only the name "Columbus" has been used on a module of the International Space Station.
Kandel was also stimulated by this incident and left ESA''s business line.
Now looking at the Chinese people coming from behind, it is inevitable to have the thought "you really deserve this".
Dordan, who had also experienced the whole process that year, could not easily refute, had to change the topic: "It''s not entirely related to manned spaceflight..."
He said and took the two reports on the table:
"Anyway, take a look at this first."
Although Kandel was still holding his breath in his heart, after all, he had a good personal relationship with Dordan and it was impossible to directly offend him.
After all, it’s here.
Therefore, I finally took it into my hands and quickly turned it over to the end at the speed of one glance and ten lines.
After a period of silence, he slowly said:
"I think... in the field of aerospace, international cooperation is the general trend after all. Even the Americans and Russians can come together to build a space station. It is not unreasonable for some people to hope that we will be open-minded on this matter..."
Dordan''s eyes moved slightly.
It seems that the other party supports the first opinion.
But before he could speak, he heard Kandel change the subject:
"But we must also consider that our aerospace projects are deeply tied to NASA, and the risks mentioned in this second report do exist..."
"Currently, it seems that what the Chinese are good at is developing functional space payloads, such as satellites and spacecrafts, but their shortcoming is the lack of large rockets with strong carrying capacity. This is completely consistent with our ecological niche in international aerospace...it cannot be simply used Judging from the situation in the EASA aviation industry..."
These words are of a very high level.
It''s like saying something.
Humphrey possessed belongs to yes.
Dordan also showed an expression that he couldn''t bear to look at:
"I invited you here today, not to help me carry water..."
Kandel shrugged and put down the two reports in his hands:
"I don''t even need to look at the name of the person who submitted the report to know that this is an internal struggle between the ELDO faction and the ESRO faction... You, the director, can''t do anything to them. What can I, a professor who left ESA long ago, do?"
ELDO, European Launch Vehicle Development Organization.
ESRO, European Space Research Organization.
These are two organizations established simultaneously in 1962 on the basis of the European Community in the early days of space exploration.
Although the two merged to form today''s European Space Agency in 1975, the entanglement of interests between them does not disappear so easily.
On the contrary, it is intensified due to resource sharing.
The previous extremely abstract manned space program is also related to the infighting between these two factions.
The positions of the two parties have differed at different times, but in general, the former prefers open cooperation, while the latter prefers to bind NASA.
As for why the previous cooperation with the Russians was able to pass...
That''s also because NASA took the lead.
Now that the partner has been changed to China, the ESRO faction is naturally not so easy to talk to.
Before Dordan could speak again, Kandel asked:
"Speaking of which... I remember at the beginning of this year, weren''t we going to cooperate with China on the Galileo satellite navigation system? Why didn''t we let it go?"
"Don''t mention it..."
The former loosened the tie around his neck:
"We have just begun to discuss the feasibility of cooperation internally. We have not even decided on the candidates for the inspection team sent to China, and the news leaked out... The Americans put very strong pressure, and many people who were initially inclined to cooperate quickly changed. I lost my attitude and finally had to put it aside for the time being..."
Kandel spread his hands and showed an "I knew it" expression:
"So you see, even the cooperation on a global satellite navigation system will be leaked so quickly. If you want to cooperate with China in the more sensitive field of manned spaceflight or even deep space exploration, what is the difference between that and dreaming?"
“…”
Dordan was speechless.
After a long while, he said sadly:
"The bond between us and NASA... is indeed a bit too deep..."
Unexpectedly, this somewhat self-defeating speech made Kandel change his mind:
"Actually...it''s not impossible."
"Ah?"
Dordan became energetic instantly.
"Your ESA has been penetrated almost like a sieve... there is definitely no hope."
Kandel put it very bluntly.
"Well…"
Dordan scratched his head in embarrassment.
Kandel ignored him completely:
"If you really want to break the situation, you can only consider opening up private capital to enter the aerospace industry, and then find a white glove to complete the matter..."
(End of chapter)