Homo sapiens.

Chapter 524
During the emergency video conference of the Earth Federation Association.

Bill, the head of NASA, looked embarrassed.

The reason for his embarrassment is mainly because of the matter of the Space Exploration Company. The other members of the Earth Federation Association have reminded NASA before to let Bill and Musk communicate well and not increase the size of the Starlink satellites.

However, Musk's backer is not Bill and NASA, but the Pentagon.

In order to ensure comprehensive monitoring of Homo sapiens and maintain a certain space strategic force, the Pentagon is still under pressure to let Space Exploration continue to launch Starlink satellites.

However, what happened today suddenly exposed the vulnerability of Starlink satellites.

Although the cost of mass-produced Starlink satellites is very low, dozens of Starlink satellites can be produced at a time using ordinary Falcon launch vehicles.

The problem is, it's so easy to launch this thing into low Earth orbit, it's a pain to clean up.

More than 3000 Starlink satellites, together with other satellites of Homo sapiens and Earthlink, currently have 5632 satellites in operation in the entire low-Earth orbit.

This number is simply too crowded.

"The Starlink satellite was affected by the solar storm, and now it has created a large piece of space junk, which is scurrying around in low-Earth orbit. The space station is almost scrapped."

Chairman Kester Conde quickly comforted: "Zhang, don't be angry, things have happened, now we should find a way to save the eight astronauts on the space station."

"I propose to adjust the recent launch missions, postpone the plan for the moon base, and then free up two lunar landing spacecraft to bring eight astronauts back to Earth safely."

Bill hesitated for a moment: "This... Zhang, are you too anxious? In fact, the space station can last for a while, so there is no need to be too anxious."

"Bill, I hope you can understand that if we don't act now, I'm afraid there will be even more trouble in the future."

The others whispered.

Alexander, head of Lucia's space department, thought about it and expressed some of his own opinions:
"I agree with Zhang's idea. There is more and more space junk in low-Earth orbit. The more it drags on, the greater the danger of low-Earth orbit. Let's arrange a spaceship to bring people back as soon as possible!"

Although Bill was unwilling, he finally chose to compromise.

If people are not rescued now, not only will the hearts of the astronauts be chilled, but the morale of the free world will plummet, and it will not be conducive to a series of cooperation between the four major forces in the future.

In desperation, Bill could only agree to adjust the launch mission and use the two lunar landing spacecraft for the emergency mission of picking up the astronauts on the space station.

After some discussion, it was decided to launch the first emergency rescue spacecraft 5 days later, and the second emergency rescue spacecraft 12 days later.

With the decision made by the management of the Union Association.

Zhang Ming, Owen, Jin Shangwen, Robert and other astronauts in the new International Space Station also breathed a sigh of relief.

But they were not too happy.

After all, it takes time for the two emergency rescue spacecraft. During this period, they must ensure the safety of the space station and prevent other accidents.

Usually when you say something like this.

No accidents, accidents are about to happen.

In order to ensure nothing goes wrong, the Earth Federation has prepared four launch vehicles and four emergency rescue spacecraft, two of which are used as rescue spacecraft, and the remaining two are used as backup spacecraft.

A blink of an eye.

5 days slipped away.

A Falcon Heavy launch vehicle is ready at the launch site in Florida.

As the commander pressed the launch button, light blue flames spewed out from the nozzle of the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle, pushing the launch vehicle towards low-Earth orbit.

Through the live broadcast, Bill, Alexander, Comte and others who watched the launch saw a trace of relief on their faces when they saw that the launch process went very smoothly.

It's just that they were too happy.

Just after the Falcon Heavy dropped its booster and core stage near the Karman line, the spacecraft began an orbital maneuver.

In the beginning, everything went very well.

However, when the spacecraft entered the orbital region at an altitude of 300 kilometers, it started to run into trouble.

The satellite fragments scurrying around made the staff of the ground launch center feel like they were facing a formidable enemy. While monitoring the satellite fragments, they adjusted the flight direction of the spacecraft.

It's just that if people are unlucky, they may be choked to death even drinking water.

After three consecutive large-scale maneuvers and orbit changes, the rescue spacecraft was hit by a fingernail-sized titanium alloy at an altitude of 377 kilometers to hit the fuel tank.

Suddenly, the methane in the fuel tank leaked rapidly.

The spacecraft that lost a lot of fuel began to have insufficient power, and the flight attitude control became more and more difficult.

Then the rescue spacecraft was hit by space junk again, destroying part of the spacecraft module again.

Ground Union's Ground Launch Center.

Everyone was silent at this moment.

They are all professionals, so they naturally know that the situation of the rescue spacecraft is not optimistic at this time. Even if they successfully arrive at the space station, there is not enough fuel to return to Earth.

In other words, the rescue spacecraft was abolished.

The helpless reality of being unfavorable at the beginning cast a shadow over the hearts of everyone present.

After more than two hours.

The rescue spacecraft finally lumbers to the new International Space Station.

Then the spacecraft hit the solar panel of the space station. This situation made Zhang Ming and other astronauts in the space station suddenly feel a big head and two big, and at the same time, they were unable to complain.

Not waiting for a rescue spacecraft, but waiting for a scrap spacecraft, it is really a mentality.

……

Ceylon Ocean.

Ceylon Island, Homo Sapiens Space Division Headquarters.

Inside the Sun Monitoring Office.

Huang Xiancai, the person in charge, raised his head, only to find that Wu Sigong knocked on the door and walked in: "Old Wu, why are you here in such a hurry?"

"There is something urgent. The solar flare erupted again just now. Although the level is smaller than last time, but..."

As soon as the voice fell, the alarm sounded again in the office.

Huang Xian was stunned for a moment before realizing: "What's going on?"

Suddenly his fixed phone rang, and Huang Xiancai picked up the phone: "Hello, this is the Sun Monitoring Office, why do you need help?"

"The solar flare erupted again just now, with an energy intensity of X2 level, and it is expected to reach the earth in 35 minutes, affecting..."

After listening to the report, Huang Xiancai frowned.

However, he did not dwell on it, but quickly informed other departments of the company to prepare as soon as possible to avoid the impact of the solar storm.

More than 30 minutes passed in a blink of an eye.

The solar storm arrived as promised, and once again swept the Earth-linked satellite in low-Earth orbit.

The space station, which was already in a semi-disabled state, became even more precarious under the impact of the solar storm.

Wu Kang, who was still stationed at the space station, was almost paralyzed in the face of this solar storm.

And this time the solar storm destroyed 12 Starlink satellites, further expanding the space junk in low-Earth orbit, and the danger of entering and leaving low-Earth orbit skyrocketed.

For example, the launch of the rescue spacecraft this time caused the rescue spacecraft to be scrapped directly due to the existence of dense space junk.

But Zhang Ming and the others were extremely anxious at this time.

Because the gas and liquid inside the space station are decreasing, if they cannot get supplies in the next half a month, or return directly to the earth, then they will be in big trouble.

However, there is now too much space junk in the entire low-Earth orbit, which has seriously affected the entry and exit of the Earth Federation's spacecraft into and out of the atmosphere.

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(End of this chapter)