The Federation team’s success greatly boosted the morale of the Flame Country team and brought joy to the six billion people on Blue Star who were eagerly anticipating the outcome, even giving Chen Xin confidence in the success of this rescue operation.
After all, the Federation had completed the task at the cost of their lives, achieving a third of the mission. If the Flame Country team succeeded in completing their task next, the asteroid would be pushed off the collision course, averting the doomsday crisis from striking Blue Star.
At this moment, people worldwide had put everything aside, their eyes fixed on the television screens, watching those who were saving Blue Star from a distance of 380,000 kilometers away.
At this time, the Flame Country team, encouraged by the Federation team’s success, piloted their spacecraft towards the asteroid, taking advantage of the gap created by the nuclear explosion in the asteroid’s debris stream.
Perhaps due to the change in the asteroid’s size or the lack of EMP interference from the nuclear explosions, the Flame Country team maintained communication with Blue Star, despite weak signals as they approached the asteroid.
Thanks to this, six billion people worldwide could clearly watch through the camera installed on the Flame Country spacecraft as the team gradually approached the asteroid’s surface, witnessing the transformation of the asteroid from a giant mountain in space to land.
Chen Xin was also struck by the images captured, a sight not easily seen on Blue Star.
The wide-angle camera installed on the Flame Country spacecraft captured a wider image than typical cameras, making the visual impact even more astounding at such a time.
The asteroid’s surface was uneven, with craters formed by debris impacts, resembling a burnt cake.
Yet, no one in the world would have an appetite for this cake, for it was far too large.
Even after being blasted in half by the Federation, leaving two pieces, these two asteroid fragments still had diameters measuring several kilometers. As the spacecraft continuously approached, seeing them grow larger in view until they filled the entire sight, the visual impact was indescribable.
If a comparison had to be made, it would be like a rock the size of the Himalayas falling from the sky, directly aiming at your forehead.
Watching the gigantic asteroid, Chen Xin couldn’t help but wonder if such a massive impact hit Blue Star, would humanity truly survive?
He had dug a shelter, prepared food and water, and considered all aspects, but... there was a fatal flaw his preparations couldn’t address.
That would be whether, by sheer luck, he could survive the asteroid strike, or his fortune was so poor that it would hit him directly on the head.
Even though a kilometer-wide asteroid was less powerful than when it was over ten kilometers wide, if it struck within the Atlantic range, Chen Xin was certain his chances of survival were slim.
At this moment, watching the looming massive asteroid, he panicked and was afraid.
Initially, when facing the disaster of an asteroid impacting Blue Star, as a web novel writer whose mind usually felt like a void, such things didn’t even merit a mention in his stories, leading to Chen Xin having an insufficient sense of crisis regarding this event.
Though he had tirelessly prepared various disaster response measures, calmly digging shelters, storing supplies, and preparing for doomsday survival...
He lacked a concrete concept of the approaching asteroid.
It’s akin to everyone knowing that tigers are dangerous, but not realizing how dangerous until witnessing someone being eaten alive, causing many to view those barely moving, lazy zoo tigers as harmless oversized cats.
People only truly understand the terror of danger once they encounter it.
Chen Xin was the same; lacking a concept of the asteroid previously, he could calmly perform various responses before the life-and-death crisis, but now, upon seeing the true size of the asteroid, he was terrified.
Not only was he scared, but Chen Xin also genuinely feared for his life.
Just witnessing the intense impact and pressure of such an overwhelming scene via television broadcast on Blue Star, one could imagine the pressure that the astronauts currently facing the asteroid in space were enduring.
However, on the Flame Country spacecraft, the astronauts from the Flame Country, undaunted by difficulties, bore this pressure while shouldering the life and death of six billion people worldwide, piloting their spacecraft towards the asteroid.
Watching the Federation team forcefully landing on the asteroid’s surface by blowing away the debris stream with nuclear explosions, it seemed easy, but once the Flame Country astronauts piloted their spacecraft towards the asteroid, they realized how difficult it really was.
Even though the nuclear explosion had blown away the debris stream, it did not mean that landing on the asteroid’s surface was without risks.
For there were still fragments that hadn’t been cleared or scattered wide enough; any collision would mildly damage the vessel, and severely destroy it.
Fortunately, the spacecraft produced by the Flame Country was more flexible than the Federation’s space shuttles, and the astronauts had undergone simulated training prior to departure, so under the astronauts’ superb piloting skills, the Flame Country spacecraft successfully landed on the asteroid’s surface, only getting its paint scraped by debris, breaking a few antennas, without severe damage.
Landing on the asteroid surface was just the first step; next, the Flame Country astronauts had to conduct extravehicular activities, anchoring the spacecraft’s main part—a specially designed heavy propulsion unit and fuel tank—to the asteroid’s surface, allowing it to work against the asteroid and alter its trajectory.
As the asteroid needed to be pushed, the spacecraft’s landing site was precisely calculated, ensuring the propulsion installation point was at the optimal force application point; otherwise, if the propulsion pushed the asteroid but in an undesired direction, all efforts would be in vain.
Fortunately, as if fortune truly favored the mission, even though the Federation lost one space shuttle, every step of the rescue operation proceeded as planned up to now, including the perfect landing of the Flame Country spacecraft.
As long as the astronauts secure it to the asteroid’s surface, they could harness the propulsion thrust, combined with the Moon’s gravity, to push the asteroid off its collision course, thereby averting the doomsday crisis for Blue Star.