Chapter 382 Launch Countdown

After hearing Madeleine say that if it weren't for Li Changheng, she might not let Jim go up into the sky again, Annie suddenly felt a little absurd.

Then, knowing that Madeleine was comforting herself, she couldn't help but think that Li Changheng's luck has always been good.

And Jim can't die after experiencing the unlucky number of Apollo 13, and his luck must be super good.

Thinking of this, I immediately felt a lot better.

After Li Changheng returned to the special lounge with Jim and Lothar, he really fell asleep not long after washing up.

Jim and Lothar, who were not sleepy at all, also relaxed.

At 6 o'clock in the morning, Li Changheng, who had rested for 7 hours, felt Jim's footsteps when he walked to his bedside.

"Henry, wake up, wake up."

He opened his eyes and nodded to Jim. Half an hour later, the three of them drove to the huge preparation room of the launch center and put on their spacesuits with the help of professionals.

There is nothing wrong with Li Changheng, but Jim and Lothar are in a little trouble.

Europeans and Americans have a lot of hair, and astronauts have to put on a heart rate monitor before putting on their spacesuits. Therefore, Jim and Lothar can be heard in the preparation room from time to time.

At ten o'clock in the morning, the three of them put on their spacesuits and appeared at the gate of the building with their portable life support backpacks in their hands.

In an instant, he was blinded by the flash and had to squint his eyes.

Jim, who has experienced this situation several times, looked back at Li Changheng and Lothar.

Seeing that the two of them did not intend to accept an interview, they took the lead and waved to the crowd a few meters away, while walking unhurriedly towards the car that took the three of them to the launch site.

When he got out of the car and saw the 120-meter-high launch pad and the 110-meter-high Saturn V launch vehicle, Li Changheng began to feel a little nervous at this moment.

Because the lift-off phase is arguably the most dangerous step, any little glitch will arise.

The three of them are equivalent to sitting on a first-stage thruster equipped with 2169 tons of high-purity kerosene and liquid oxygen, and a second-stage thruster of 440 tons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen.

There is also a super volcano on the third thruster of 110 tons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen.

Not to mention the remains, maybe not even the ashes can be found.

"Take it easy, Henry."

Jim patted him on the shoulder with a smile and said, "The three-level propellers produced by Boeing and North American Airlines are still trustworthy.

Before Apollo 14, we launched a total of nine Saturn Vs and never had any problems.

Therefore, space docking, landing on the moon and returning to Earth orbit, and entering the atmosphere are the most dangerous. "

There is a veteran who has experienced 4 times, and this time it is 5 times, Li Changheng and Lothar really relaxed a lot.

But by the time they got on the elevator, even Jim was silent and serious.

Because in the entire Apollo program, that is, when the Apollo 1 astronauts had entered the command module, and the command module was locked from the outside, an electric spark actually ignited the pure oxygen in the cockpit, and then caused a fire. ACCIDENT.

And these three became the only people who died in the whole plan.

My thoughts diverged, and the elevator reached the top without knowing it.

Jim walked into the passage leading to the rocket, looked back at Li Changheng and Lothar, "Are you ready?"

Li Changheng and Lothar nodded hurriedly.

At a time like this, unless there is a nervous breakdown in fear, it is impossible for anyone to say that they want to quit.

Even because of nervousness and excitement, there is no time and thought to experience what fear is.

Li Changheng followed Jim, and after only a few steps, he felt the blood in his whole body was agitated, and soon the specialized medical team in the command center noticed that his heartbeat started to speed up.

Fortunately, these people have experienced 8 times since Apollo 7, and it is clear that this is normal.

The iron frame passage of more than ten meters was quickly completed.

Li Changheng, the pilot of the lunar module, got into the command module first, followed by Lothar, and finally Jim sitting in the middle.

After the three sat in their flying chairs, two middle-aged men covered in white one-piece and hooded bodies followed into the command cabin.

One stepped directly on Li Changheng's shoulder, and stepped on him vigorously with his legs, and the other person who tied him with a fixed seat belt was able to completely immobilize Li Changheng.

Otherwise, the spacesuit inflated inside cannot be tied to death at all.

After all three were secured, the cabin door was quickly locked after the two helpers left.

Then wait for the final self-test on the ground, and then inject liquid kerosene, liquid oxygen, and liquid hydrogen into the three thrusters, and then enter the launch procedure.

Li Changheng glanced at the cancel launch button in front of Jim, as well as the switch to activate the escape tower connected to the command module, resisting the urge to reach out, took a deep breath and simply closed his eyes and fell asleep.

But the eyes were closed, but the hearing became stronger again.

There was a very slight 'buzzing' sound, and Li Changheng couldn't help looking at Jim.

Then a few seconds later, Lothar, who heard the same thing, also looked at Jim.

Jim grinned and said, "Don't worry, it's the fuel pipe that injects liquid fuel into the thruster."

Lothar and Li Changheng, who were also rookies, felt relieved.

If they could see the entire rocket at this time, they would see the shell of the rocket, which was beginning to emit white mist representing low temperature.

And not long after, ice began to form on the outer shell at a speed visible to the naked eye.

After the fuel injection was completed, in the command center in Houston, Horn, the commander-in-chief who had been in charge of 14 launch missions, was feeling a little nervous, unconsciously pressing the retractable pen, and asked into the microphone.

"Listen up to all the Apollo 14 launch crew, tell me if I can launch?"

Soon there was a response on the radio.

"The rocket pushes the monitoring team, preparations are complete, everything is normal."

Horn breathed a sigh of relief, "Return to the monitoring team?"

"Everything is fine, SIR".

"Channel monitoring team?"

"Everything is fine, SIR".

"Computer monitoring team?"

"Everything is fine, SIR".

"Medical surveillance team?"

"Everything is fine, SIR".

"Second and third power group?"

"Everything is fine, SIR".

"Navigation group?"

"Everything is fine, SIR".

"Astronaut life support team?"

"normal."

"The lunar module crew?"

"normal."

"Communications and booking program group?"

"normal."

"Flight trajectory monitoring team?"

"normal."

"Communications and networking group?"

"normal."

"Rescue team?"

"normal."

Horn smiled and pressed the communication button, "The launch center, everything is normal and can be launched."

At the Florida launch center, after receiving the confirmation notice, the on-site commander immediately asked the launch pad.

After getting an affirmative reply from the on-site chief engineer again.

Take a deep breath and press a button.

Thousands of spectators in the viewing area two kilometers away from the launch pad soon heard the sound of "60 seconds countdown to launch".

The scene immediately became restless and noisy.

More than a dozen professional cameras like telescopes were immediately aimed straight at the huge Saturn 5.