00:03China now launches dozens of rockets every year, each one a testament to precision engineering.
00:10But in March 2024, a routine mission went off script.
00:15Though the rockets soar perfectly from the launch pad,
00:19its precious cargo, two satellites named DROA and DROB, didn't reach their intended orbit.
00:29Tumbling uncontrollably, the satellites were over 100,000 kilometers away from their flooded destination,
00:36in a dangerously low orbit, and almost out of juice.
00:40In other words, they were stuck.
00:44Perhaps other teams would write it off a bust and go back to the drawing board,
00:49but for the team at China's Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization, or CSU,
00:55this wasn't just about hardware.
00:58It was years of work, millions investment, and dreams of a crew who refused to give up.
01:07Their first challenge was stabilizing the satellites before they ran out of power completely.
01:15We split into two teams.
01:17One focused on firing thrusters in short bursts to slow the spin.
01:22My team, we had to calculate a new path to orbit.
01:25For two sleepless nights, Johnstein crunched the numbers, testing every possible route.
01:34The satellites were too damaged for a direct fix.
01:38They needed a miracle.
01:40And then, they found it.
01:44With their solar panels damaged, the satellites couldn't generate enough power for a traditional course correction.
01:52So the engineers turned to nature's oldest force.
01:57Gravity.
01:59We used the moon's gravity like a slingshot.
02:02When we got close to the moon, its pull was strongest.
02:06It basically flung our satellite toward the next destination.
02:10Then Earth became another slingshot.
02:12And the sun, with its enormous mass, acted like a third slingshot even further away.
02:17That's how we completed the entire orbital transfer.
02:218.6 million kilometers over 123 days.
02:26After four grueling months, the impossible became reality.
02:32The satellites not only survived, they reached their target.
02:36A distance retrograde orbit, or DRO.
02:40A cosmic sweet spot between Earth and the moon.
02:46It's the crossroads to deep space and a transport hub to even further.
02:54The low Earth orbit is a full of satellites because of those large constellations.
03:00But the Earth-moon space is about 10,000 times larger.
03:04We see it as a new unknown frontier.
03:09This rescue wasn't just a victory for engineering.
03:12It secured China's next leap into deep space.
03:15The two DRO satellites, together with the previously launched DRO-L, form a navigation network that enables autonomous spacecraft, turning
03:26the DRO into humanity's first space harbor.
03:32You can see it as an outer piloting space.
03:35We only need to specify the destination, and the spacecraft will automatically find a path to go there.
03:41Just like when we use car hailing apps.
03:45Ultimately, the story isn't just about math, gravity, or even satellites.
03:50It's about the people who refuse to accept failure, who turn desperation into one of the space history's greatest rescues.
03:59It's still gonna be a little bit more, the second episode.
03:59That's the length of the project is the first time of the project.
03:59This will be a little bit bigger.
03:59The first time if you want to do a new project, the second time at the beginning of the project.
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