Chapter 318 Running to Space

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 at the distant sky, where a red sun was rising from the coastline.

Light and darkness are perfectly intertwined at this moment, like a frozen film.

"I hope we can still see such a beautiful sight." Collins whispered aside.

Although the astonishing height of the Saturn 5 even created an illusion that it would never be able to reach the top, the elevator finally stopped in front of the corridor bridge.

The NASA staff opened the elevator door for them and nodded to them. At the same time, the engineer also completed the last inspection before launch. The three of them walked across the connecting bridge between the rocket and the launch platform, and got into the narrow space. In the command cabin.

Zhang Heng tried his best to keep the space suit from touching the complicated instruments and pipelines around him. At the same time, he found his seat, and the door of the command module closed slowly behind him.

So far, there are only three of them left in the spacecraft.

Both Armstrong and Collins are old men from NASA, and they have performed space missions before, so they both acted calmly. However, compared to Armstrong's unchanging expression, Collins can still be seen to be a little nervous.

After all, NASA has just had a series of events before, mysterious infectious diseases, and the crazy attrition of training camps... All these seem to correspond to the widely circulated rumor that "God does not want humans to go to the moon".

Even with Collins' psychological quality, it is difficult to completely ignore these external disturbances.

But when the mission started, he quickly picked up his mood and devoted himself to this space flight.

Like Apollo 11 in history, NASA still arranged for Armstrong to be the commander, Collins to be the pilot of the command/service module, and Zhang Heng to replace Buzz Aldrin as the lunar module the driver.

Collins was also the only person who did not land on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission, because he needed to stay in the command/service module when the lunar module and the command/service module were separated. On the way back, Collins will drive the command module back to Earth by himself.

In terms of safety, he is the highest among the three, but the price is that he has already arrived at the "doorway" of the moon but cannot go up to have a look. However, in terms of mission ranking, he is still higher than the lunar module pilot Zhang Heng's.

After contact during the isolation period, Zhang Heng, Armstrong and Collins also became a lot more familiar, because Armstrong and Collins returned to the team relatively late, and the three of them did not have the opportunity to train together. This once made NASA's top management worry about the three tacit understanding between.

But until now, they have no better solution. They can only try to create an environment for the three of them to be familiar with each other during the isolation period. Zhang Heng also used this to confirm one thing.

That is, what happened in the parallel copy will not be brought into the normal copy. Armstrong has no memory of the time the two spent together in the Lewis Flight Dynamics Laboratory 14 years ago.

This can also be seen from the expression on Armstrong's face when the two met again later. Armstrong looked at him as if he was looking at a stranger.

Zhang Heng is still a little bit regretful, although he also knows that this situation is the most likely, because in the past 14 years, his appearance has not changed in any way, and there is no sign of aging on his body, which is not a bad thing in anyone's eyes. It is difficult to find a convincing explanation for normal things.

Zhang Heng has more or less learned about what happened after the two separated from the Internet and books in later generations.

Armstrong married Janet Elizabeth Shearon in 1956, whom he met in college. They had three children together. His daughter, Karen, was diagnosed with a malignant tumor and lost the ability to speak and walk. Karen died on Armstrong and Janet's wedding anniversary.

This incident hit him hard, which is why Zhang Heng felt that he became more silent when he saw him for the second time, even though Armstrong never showed his grief in front of anyone.

However, when he later applied for NASA's astronaut, apart from his own love of flying, there was also a sense of escape in it. Perhaps only in the high-intensity training and work could he temporarily forget the pain of losing his daughter. In addition, Armstrong's road to marriage was not smooth.

In 1989, Janet left a note to Armstrong at the dining table requesting the end of their 38-year marriage, in Armstrong's own words later

——"Our marriage is like a failed flight, silently collapsed... If possible, I would like to say, I love my wife, I am sorry..."

But at this moment, Armstrong, who was sitting in the command/service module, didn't think about these things. He had already focused all his energy on this mission, which is why NASA rated Armstrong as a stable and reliable leader.

In a sense, although Armstrong and Zhang Heng are in different eras, they have many similarities and can see each other's shadow from each other.

There was a tacit understanding between the two at the Lewis Flight Dynamics Laboratory at the beginning, but after returning to the copy of the Apollo training camp fourteen years later, although Armstrong did not remember what happened before, the relationship between the two The subtle sense of tacit understanding has not completely disappeared.

Armstrong could also sense this. He and Zhang Heng met for the first time, but it felt like an old friend reunited after a long absence. Moreover, Zhang Heng seemed to know his family situation and early experiences very well.

…………

The ground control center far away in Houston issued an instruction to count down the ignition for the last two minutes, and all the staff on the ground had evacuated to a safe area at this time.

It’s just that the number of people who came to watch the launch of Apollo 11 today has exceeded one million. In addition, there are dozens of cameras live broadcasting the whole process. Zhang Heng used the last time to check his body again. safety belt, to ensure nothing goes wrong.

At this time, the countdown also came to the last 15 seconds, and the internal guidance was started... Immediately after 9 seconds left, the engine started to ignite, and the five F1 rocket engines of the first-stage rocket were running at full speed. About 12,000kg of aviation fuel is burned, which is equivalent to the sum of the afterburning consumption of 1,500 jet fighters.

The red flames ejected from the base created a huge cloud of dust all around, and the powerful thrust generated by this pushed the spacecraft away from the ground.