บท 153: Chapter 149 Escape_1

"Is this the profound foundation of the Celestial Empire!"

Mae Mayu and Masashi Okada stood together on the beach outside the launch tower, the latter mumbling to himself.

On May 8th, at the Qiongzhou Space Launch Site, launch pad 3 hoisted a New Yuan 5B rocket, atop which sat the Chang'e 4.

The New Yuan 5B rocket... well, it looked somewhat scruffy.

This particular New Yuan 5B was a true workhorse, having already conducted three satellite launch missions and one H1 launch mission this year, making it the seventh reusable flight including last year's.

A seven-flight rocket, due to repeated atmospheric re-entry ablation, each time the surface would be left with marks akin to scorching, which became somewhat troublesome to deal with even with a fresh coat of paint.