Chapter 197: France's Alone Walk
The French people's anger is justified. Although Joseph's murder was covered up by various media, the truth has been obscured by too much false information at the public level.

The best way to cover up the truth is not to make the information disappear completely. Covering it up will only have the opposite effect.

It will allow things to progress over time, causing the truth to be manipulated into what the opponents wish to describe.

The best way to manipulate facts is to hide real information in layers of seemingly real false news, making it impossible for the public to distinguish. Even after a long time, people will not be able to form an overlapping memory space about the incident.

In this way, the truth will be buried in the long river of history. Even if the archives are declassified in the future, it will not change the reality that the truth does not remain in the minds of most people.

But the Joseph case happened not long ago, and the money for sending the human hibernation equipment into space was not paid by the European Space Agency.

Because Joseph died and the European Space Agency changed its leadership, this matter was never pushed forward. Instead, the contract was signed between Safran Group and Guangjia Aerospace. The money was paid by Safran, and the largest shareholder behind Safran is the French government.

To put it bluntly, this money was given by French taxpayers. Safran Group cooperated with Guangjia Aerospace on behalf of France, purchased the human hibernation equipment from Guangjia Technology, and then Guangjia Aerospace delivered it.

As a result, there is not a single French astronaut in space. You would be angry too.

Especially a country like France, which claims to be a great power and considers itself an important pole in the world and one of the five major rogue countries.

The French people have a long tradition of making trouble, and they are obviously extremely dissatisfied with this.

First, they vented their dissatisfaction on social media.

"Can you tell me why there is no French astronaut on the International Space Station? Denmark, Sweden, Germany, etc., but not France?

This is clearly NASA targeting France. And we still have to spend hundreds of millions of euros to send human hibernation equipment to astronauts from other countries.

This is the first time I have heard of someone paying for other people’s welfare.”

"America is definitely targeting France. France bears the lion's share of the European Space Agency's budget, but France is not even in the top five on the list of astronauts for the International Space Station.

The international status we have always relied on is not worth mentioning in the face of space reality. In the rules of the space game led by NASA, France is completely a third-rate country. "

"I saw on Twitter the happy selfies of astronauts from various countries before entering the human hibernation device. When I thought about the fact that this device is French and there is no French astronaut on it, I was so angry that I couldn't describe it in words.

As happy as I was when the Elysee Palace announced that we had mastered the technology of reusable rockets, I am now as angry as I was now."

The French people even took to the streets to protest, which is also an old tradition, but it is the white people who care more about this matter.

The minorities and illegal immigrants who are the main force of the protests don't care too much.

Compared with space, they care more about social welfare and retirement age.

When Charles de Gaulle saw the overwhelming response at the Elysee Palace, he asked the relevant personnel: "Can we urgently send French astronauts up there?"

"Not yet. If you want to go up, you need to first go to the Cologne Astronaut Center for six months of training, and then go to NASA's Astronaut Training Center in Houston for two years of training. A total of two and a half years of training, and only after passing the test can you go to the International Space Station.

At present, the fastest-progressing astronauts among us are only in the second stage.

But if we just want to send people up there for publicity purposes, I think we can do it after communicating with NASA."

Since the International Space Station officially started operating, some wealthy people have paid to experience it, and these wealthy people have only undergone a very short period of training.

However, they can only stay there for eight to ten days, which is completely different from the astronauts who can stay there for more than one hundred or two hundred days.

"Then let's negotiate with NASA and ask SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft to send a French astronaut up there." Dai Gaolong thought for a moment after he finished speaking.
"Forget it, let's not rush to talk to them. Isn't Le Gall still in China?
Let him talk to Guangjia Aerospace to see if we can cooperate with Guangjia Aerospace.

If it were possible, I think it would be much more meaningful than sending an astronaut up there.”

France has always been rebellious and has long been dissatisfied with the federal government's superior global system.

In the past, there was the Prism Gate and the acquisition of Alstom, and in the recent past, there was the assassination of Joseph. France has been cooperating with China in order to find a balance and reduce its dependence on the Federation.

Including in geopolitics, Dai Gaolong tried every means to offset the federation's influence on the European Union.

The same is true in the field of aerospace. He does not want to miss any opportunity that may reduce the influence of the Federation.

If France had its own space station, even just one module, it would be enough for the entire European country to revolve around France in the field of aerospace.

Since the Joseph incident, he has taken the initiative to learn about the current situation in the aerospace field. In his opinion, since Europe has an astronaut center, every astronaut must go to NASA for training before being allowed to go to the international space station.

Because of their training experience at NASA, these astronauts will naturally be close to America, which may be a means of control by the federal government.

After retirement, these astronauts will become the backbone of all sectors of European society, which will bring a lot of potential benefits to the Federation.

If France becomes the center of Europe's aerospace sector, it means that these benefits that originally belonged to the federation will be taken over by France.

"Ms. Lin, what is Dr. Wright's intention regarding cooperation in the field of space stations?" After receiving the request from Paris, Le Gall was obviously much more urgent, although he did not show it in his tone.

After thinking about the situation he had communicated with Chen Yuanguang, Lin Jia said, "We can give a cabin section to France. As for this project, the purchase cost is 20 billion US dollars.

We will provide France with a complete module and the specific parameters of the module."

"Is it a complete section?" asked Le Gall.

Lin Jia nodded and said, "Yes, a whole cabin.

It will include a base module providing living accommodations, life support, command and communications, several laboratory modules, and a habitable module.

We can write the specific parameters into the contract.”

Le Gall immediately said: “I have learned some Chinese in the past few days.

In Chinese, it is said that a gentleman's word is as good as gold.

I will go back to Paris as soon as possible to push this matter forward, and I hope we can sign the contract as soon as possible."

Legar's poor Mandarin and excited expression made Lin Jia wonder if the offer was too cheap.

However, Lin Jia did not ask him. Instead, he called Chen Yuanguang after returning home at night and asked, "Yuanguang, the French side agreed to the offer without any hesitation after hearing it.

Is this price too cheap? "

“It’s certainly cheap, but what I want is to build our space station into a project that can provide enough modules.

France is just the first country we are selling to, and the $20 billion offer is only for them.

We need France to announce that our offer is $50 billion.

This way, if other countries come to buy in the future, they will have to purchase according to the new quotation.”

Lin Jia is skeptical: "I don't rule out the possibility that France will agree to such conditions. After all, they get the substance and we get the face.

I also have no doubts about the offer of US$50 billion. I think many countries can afford it.

But besides France, will anyone buy it? Other countries can't completely ignore America's ideas like France did."

Chen Yuanguang said: "Even if the offer is $20 billion, we can still make money, the only difference is how much we make.

The services we provide in the aerospace field in the future will go far beyond space stations.

After we expanded our business in France, a large number of African countries came to us for cooperation, which can be seen as a kind of advertising effect.”

Chen Yuanguang thought for a moment and said, "Another very important point is that if we want to build commercial aerospace into a complete industry, we need a large number of upstream and downstream companies.

Some cooperation from external forces is needed. The other countries you just mentioned do not have the same autonomy as France, and it is difficult for them to cooperate with us against the wishes of America.

That’s true, but it’s also not true because they don’t necessarily need to work with us directly.

With France as a bridge, they can fully use France to reach cooperation with us.

For example, if France buys a second or even a third cabin in the future, it will actually be used by Germany or Italy, and they will pay by leasing it.

Besides, the current situation is changing so fast, and the future is still uncertain. Maybe in three to five years, America’s power will be far less than it is now.

The princes from all sides are ready to make a move."

After Le Gall returned to the hotel, he couldn't wait to communicate with the French mainland, "This is roughly the situation."

Being able to have his own space station is of great significance both to France's space industry and to him personally.

Needless to say, it is of great benefit to France's space industry. But for him personally, having France's own space station will enable him to realize his ambitions and increase his power.

Therefore, Le Gall had great motivation to push this matter forward, and his only worry was being assassinated.

"Isn't this price too expensive?" The voice from the Elysee Palace reached his ears through the communication network.

"No, this price is already very cheap. You should know that the Chinese provided us with a complete cabin. A complete cabin means that even if we leave the space station of Light Armor Aerospace, we can still operate independently in space.

Currently, the only two spacecraft with modules in the International Space Station are America and Osaka. In addition to complete modules, there are also some modules, such as Neon's Kibo laboratory module in the International Space Station.

The combined cost of Kibo’s development and launch exceeds $40 billion.”

The development cost of Kibo itself is about 2500 billion yen, the total price of the experimental equipment installed on Kibo is about 450 billion yen, and the ground facility development cost, astronaut training cost and launch cost are about 2360 billion yen.

This is the Japanese yen from 1990 to 2010, which is much more expensive than the current Japanese yen.

"Kibo is just a laboratory module, and the cost is more than $40 billion, while ours is a complete module, and the price is only $20 billion.

Moreover, Guangjia Aerospace hopes that we will announce the contract amount as US$50 billion, which is comparable to the market price.

I think this will be beneficial to both of us. When we charge other EU countries for usage fees in the future, we can show them the bills.

We spent 50 billion, so it's not too much to charge you other countries 20 billion combined, right?"

Le Gall thought he was a genius. This operation was equivalent to getting a space station for free.

"Okay, I will find a way to get the parliament to pass this special budget as soon as possible." Dai Gaolong finally made the decision.

"There's only one question: Will China be willing to export the space station?
Or they hope that China's space agency will cooperate with us instead of Light Armor Aerospace.

After all, we have been cooperating with the Chinese aerospace agency before."

When Chang'e landed on the moon, China helped France send a radon gas detector to the back of the moon.

Another advantage of being famous is that even if you have never built a space station, multi-module space station is a technology that China has not yet mastered, and the French have never worried that you would not be able to build a space station.

“I don’t think you need to worry about that. We can package all the manufacturing and launch orders and give them to Guangjia Aerospace. They should be willing.

Moreover, Guangjia Aerospace is similar to Safran Group, and China has a large stake in Guangjia Aerospace. "Dai Gaolong said.

Before the contract was signed and only a verbal agreement was reached, Dai Gaolong filmed a video and posted it on social media in order to calm the domestic public opinion storm as soon as possible:

"We will soon have our own space station, yes, France's own space station.

We will cooperate with Guangjia Aerospace to jointly develop a space station, which is expected to be sent into space before 2026.

The cooperation model between us is similar to that of the current International Space Station. We will own a complete module in the space station, just like America and Russia.

This will be a historic moment for France's space industry, and I hope everyone can wait patiently for that moment to come."

The news quickly caused a stir, because the International Space Station will be retired by 2030 at the latest. What do you mean by "France goes it alone"?
Brussels reacted particularly strongly. Shouldn't we all unite around NASA and jointly promote the development of the space industry?
"I do not agree with France's behavior. This reflects Charles de Gaulle's own serious European separatist ideas, putting the interests of France above the interests of the whole of Europe." A chairman from America said in an interview with the media.

The European Union approved a budget of 17 billion euros for you to develop the EU space program so that you can please America and give the money to NASA.

What do you mean by France wanting to become a separate faction now?
(End of this chapter)