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A medium-range air-to-air missile was launched.

The target wasn’t locked on.

From halfway around the Earth’s orbit, the onboard radar couldn’t lock on.

But that wasn’t a problem.

Red Lotus would remotely guide the missile through the data link, even more accurately than the onboard fire control system.

As the missile was launched, people on the ground who were monitoring the situation noticed it immediately. To be honest, whether it was the domestic aerospace command center or somewhere abroad, when they saw Tang Rui launch the missile at this moment, they were all a bit bewildered.

It was too far away.

Even though it was in outer space and not within the atmosphere, a missile could easily orbit the Earth several times. But how could you lock on to a target halfway around the Earth?

Everyone was puzzled.

However, no one raised this question at this moment; instead, they all stared intently at the missile’s flight path.

Under everyone’s watchful eyes, the medium-range air-to-air missile rapidly accelerated, going from an initial Mach 17 Mach to Mach 40.

Such speed was simply frightening to watch.

This was probably the first air-to-air missile in human history to exceed Mach 40, a historic achievement.

Beep beep beep…

The missile’s orbit overlapped with that of the satellite.

Both were traveling at astonishing speeds and closing in on each other.

3… 2… 1…

Their signals overlapped.

In the next moment, both the satellite signal and the missile signal disappeared simultaneously.

Seeing this scene, everyone fell silent.

Those who didn’t understand just felt that the missile must’ve been very accurate and impressive. They didn’t know how technologically advanced this operation was.

In space, the missile precisely struck the maneuvering satellite and detonated.

There was no explosion, only a flickering fireball.

Then, countless tiny fragments sprayed in all directions, becoming new space debris.

But none of this had any impact on Tang Rui.

The White Emperor followed its planned trajectory, re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere, and returning to the satellite launch center.

After dropping off Sun Lihai, he flew the aircraft back home.

It was already past 8 and he was a little hungry.

He rushed back home for a meal.

While Tang Rui had returned home to eat, the rest of the world was becoming quite busy, especially the space agencies of various countries.

The satellite that Tang Rui had destroyed had become a new space catastrophe. The scattered debris was seriously affecting the satellites in low Earth orbit.

To avoid this debris, satellites needed to urgently change their orbits.

If all satellites could change their orbits, it wouldn’t be much of a problem.

However, there were many decommissioned satellites in low Earth orbit. These were old satellites from decades ago that still occupied valuable orbits.

But they had been decomissioned for a long time.

They were essentially space junk floating in orbit.

These satellites couldn’t change their orbits. When the debris horizontally impacted these defunct satellites, even more debris would be created.

This chain reaction would severely impact the entire low-Earth orbit area.

Space command centers had to constantly monitor and adjust the orbits of these satellites.

This issue might sound serious, but, in reality, it wasn’t a primary concern for high-ranking officials. What they were more interested in was space dominance.

This was the ticket to the stars in the future.

Whoever obtained space dominance would essentially control access to the stars.

In modern warfare, it was a known fact that achieving air superiority was crucial. With air superiority, the aerial advantage could be used to crush ground forces, leaving them no room for a counteroffensive.

Future wars would follow a similar principle.

Whoever gained space dominance would leave the Earth’s surface helpless and at the mercy of those who held the key to space.

There was no way around it. Missile attacks could be intercepted, but what would one do when a metal rod was dropped 500 kilometers from space? How do you intercept that?

Moreover, after gaining space dominance, any future space endeavors would depend on the consent of those who held this dominance.

Small countries didn’t mind. After all, they had no capability to compete in space. But for major countries like the Five Great Powers, it was something they couldn’t accept.

During the previous space race, the Americans and the Soviets had gone to great lengths to gain space dominance and expand their influence.

Constrained by the technological limitations of the era, one emerged triumphant, while the other nearly went bankrupt.

Now heralded a new dawn for a new space race.

So, what could they do?

After all, the current China wasn’t the Soviet Union. They’d been fooled by the Soviets back then, and it had led to their financial ruin.

But if they fooled China now, and if it actually delivered the goods, they would be in deep trouble, right?

So, they were all convening meetings, gathering their think tanks, and brainstorming countermeasures.

The next day, just after Tang Rui woke up, he received a call from Lin Chao.

“What? They want to borrow the White Emperor?”

After picking up the phone, Tang Rui was baffled.

What’s going on?

“Are they planning to dismantle the White Emperor up there?” That was Tang Rui’s initial thought.

It wasn’t necessary. It was his own thing, and all the blueprints were in the database. They could do their own research.

“What’s going on? Putting a satellite in orbit? Hold on for a moment, 1’11 be there right away.”

Tang Rui changed into fresh clothes, went to the company, and found Lin Chao.

“What’s the situation?” Tang Rui asked, utterly puzzled.

“Last night, you took down a satellite; you haven’t forgotten, have you?”

“Right, what about it?”

“The debris from that satellite has damaged many other satellites in low Earth orbit. Those were all decommissioned units. Now, there’s a lot of space debris in low Earth orbit, but it has also opened up many new orbits, which are a resource on their own.”

Lin Chao explained, and Tang Rui understood.

They were trying to seize satellite orbits.

The American Starlink project was aimed at deploying a satellite network and seizing satellite orbits. With current human technological capabilities, satellite retrieval wasn’t feasible, or even if it were, it would be too costly and inefficient.

However, these satellites, even in their defunct state, would remain in orbit.

Others couldn’t move them out of the way.

China had entered the space race late, and the earliest orbits were already taken.

Now, with Tang Rui’s missile, he had effectively cleaned up a lot of debris from low Earth orbit, and many new paths had opened up.

Others couldn’t seize them at this time.

Even if they tried to seize them, they could only take a few slots. China, however, was different. With the White Emperor space fighter, they could occupy all those slots. After all, in the realm of orbits, it was first come, first served. If you didn’t grab it, it simply meant you lacked that capability.

“By the way, which country’s satellite was it that you took down last night, and who’s responsible for the mess in low Earth orbit?” Tang Rui asked.

“That communications satellite belonged to Japan, purchased from the Americans. This incident has been directly attributed to a company owned by Japan. All compensation will be borne by that company..”