My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

The schedule was unexpectedly delayed. Two more thruster engines and a fuel pump failed quality inspection and must be replaced. Insufficient inventory of the monopropellant supplier for the upper-stage aircraft was a hindrance, delaying the crucial refueling process of the aircraft for a full thirty-six hours. The technician installed the parts backwards in a half-asleep state, and ended up having to use up the next unlucky guy's sleep time to dismantle the incorrectly installed components and start over again.

However, the technicians, aircraft assembly team, and JPL engineers ultimately withstood the tremendous pressure and persisted in advancing the project. The job shift first covered a full day, 24 hours a day. Afterwards, everyone realized that it was impossible to achieve the original plan on time, and the changing of the guard was thrown aside. The staff who stuck to their posts almost fainted due to exhaustion. Whether it is a restaurant, conference room or office, as long as there is enough horizontal space and the ambient light is not bright enough to disturb sleep, it will be full of people.

Local industrial and commercial companies that often deal with JPL employees understand the reasons for this phenomenon and have spontaneously responded. The operators of popular restaurants have organized special catering services to ensure a continuous and stable supply of food and drinks around the clock, and the expenses are paid by the generous owners. In order to take care of the needs of the staff, the laundry room coordinates with them one-on-one to provide a one-stop service of door-to-door laundry and delivery for free. There is also a supermarket manager who once studied at Caltech but dropped out a year before graduation. He found a way to "accidentally" unload half a pallet of liquid soap and air freshener near the JPL cargo loading area early one morning.

Today, four days later than planned, the clock passed four in the morning, and the mission was finally declared complete - barely meeting the deadline, with only six days left before launch.

Wearing a stained and slightly torn polo shirt, Bruce Wu held a ratchet wrench in his hand and was so exhausted that he could barely open his eyes. There are two special containers behind him. One has been tagged and is ready to take a special flight to the Cape Canaveral base in Florida, and the other is about to go to the China Space Launch Center in Inner Mongolia. Next are the two giant doors of the spacecraft assembly building. Cargo staff on standby outside are preparing to load the containers onto trucks and take them to the airport, where they will be loaded into two NASA cargo planes for rapid transfer to their destinations.

Hundreds of staff stood in front of and behind him—every temporary or regular JPL employee, whether they were turning wrenches, wielding welding guns, or tracing blueprints, all workers came to the scene. There were even people present from the accounting department. Although they didn't need to work overtime, they still wanted to have the opportunity to witness this last moment with their own eyes.

Only about half of the people were present at the delivery site of Sleipnir aircraft No. 1, 23. Now marks the historic moment of the final assembly of Sleipnir 4 and 5. Everyone has made every effort to come to the scene, eagerly waiting to witness the final touch of this highest achievement.

"Everyone," Bruce announced to the nearly silent crowd, "over the past few months, you have made history. You have broken the speed record for building a spacecraft. At the same time, we have made mistakes, and then However, we have been discovered and corrected; we have also encountered various obstacles, and we have been able to do our best to overcome them. These hard efforts have resulted in the reliable and stable operation of the aircraft we have delivered."

"And you can all understand why we're doing our best. It's not about profit, it's not about adding another great experience to our resume, and it's not about getting a few more months of paid vacation. Our effort is about saving lives, it's about saving lives. In order for those eleven special people to be able to embark on their journey home, it is because of your efforts day and night that they have a chance of survival. Although they cannot be here at this moment, I still want to pay tribute to you on their behalf here. You Thanks for your hard work."

There was some chaotic applause that was much duller than expected. The workers indeed felt very happy and proud, but at the same time another feeling that was even stronger was that of extreme exhaustion.

Then Bruce raised the wrench and symbolically tightened the last bolt on each container door. At least for JPL workers, after this move, Project Sleipnir was officially completed. Everything that happens after that depends on NASA's performance.

Bruce turned to the crowd and said calmly, "Everyone, go home."

So they did. Later that day, Pasadena police pulled over three vehicles for dangerous driving; the officer glanced at the employee parking passes on the cars and told them the same thing.

For the next two days, JPL was deserted. From a practical point of view, at least as an organization composed of conscious upright humans, it can be regarded as evaporating.

Meanwhile, Hermes is getting closer.