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Richard Mellon Scaffold paused, and nodded slightly without any trace.

Paul Mellon opened his mouth, wanting to tell him something more, but after thinking about it, he couldn't say anything, so he raised his hand and waved: "In this case, let's leave, from now on... Oh, I don't have much time, I can't care gone."

After the Mellons made their decision, things started to turn quickly.

After one-day emergency consultation on the second day, the Bank of New York publicly announced early on Sunday morning that in view of the sudden crisis of Mellon Financial Group, with the support of the regulatory authorities, the Bank of New York will carry out emergency measures against Mellon Financial Group. After taking over, Mellon Financial Group's board of directors announced its dissolution on the same day, and CEO Frank Court announced his resignation, but he will still assist the follow-up Bank of New York's merger of Mellon Financial.

The board of directors of Mellon Financial Group previously had a total of eight members, five of whom were representatives of the Mellon family, basically equating to absolute control over this established bank.

Now, the board of directors is disbanded, and the Bank of New York will take over and merge Mellon Financial, completely announcing the end of the Mellon era.

Not only that, apparently in order to alleviate the run on the bank, Westinghouse Electric, which just announced yesterday that it was parting ways with Mellon Financial, suddenly changed its attitude and took the initiative to clarify that its response to the authorities' investigation into Mellon Financial's internal problems was a bit excessive, so it retracted yesterday's agreement. Decided to continue to cooperate with this bank in the future.

Countless spectators were confused by such a roller coaster-like transfer, and even a well-known financial reporter from the "Wall Street Journal" shouted conspiracy on his Facebook.

The financial reporter also found a rumor about the rejection of Bank of New York's acquisition of Mellon Financial Group at the end of last year. Therefore, he judged that the series of events that occurred in the past few days were all for Bank of New York to annex Mellon Financial Group. Disgraceful means employed.

It's a pity that the overall situation has been decided, and these voices that did not explore the deeper insider did not cause any waves in the mainstream media.

As for the few top pyramids who roughly knew the cause and effect of all these events, they were once again shocked by the avalanche-like defeat of the Mellon family in front of the Westeros system, and inevitably a little more awe and fear.

Chapter 1103 Big Order

Cape Dume Manor, restaurant in the morning.

Janet came in last, ran to her aunt first, put her arms around Veronica's shoulders and kissed her on the cheek, then turned to Simon with a smile, kissed the man's head, and finally stood next to the man sit down.

The little guys at the dining table didn’t know why, and Jennifer, who had a full stomach and was looking after the two children beside her, couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Veronica lowered her head slightly and pretended not to see it, helping Melbourne share the meal.

Janet picked up the cutlery, drove away the maid who was helping, and then asked Simon, "How is the east coast?"

Knowing what the woman was asking, Simon shook his head regretfully: "I just received the news that Scave has turned off everything."

"It's really a retreat to the end. It's a pity that the Mellon family gave in so simply this time, and some of our follow-up plans cannot be implemented."

"Yes, there is an idiom in China called..."

"The rabbit dies and the fox is sad."

"Heh, you are at least level [-] in Chinese now," Simon praised, and continued: "Anyway, the Mellon family has suddenly retreated so completely, we can't do anything else, otherwise it will make other old money families in the Federation even more vigilant. You can’t offend everyone at once.”

Simon's original consideration was to use the opportunity of the Mellon Financial Group incident to attack the interests of the Mellon family in other industries and achieve the purpose of weakening the Mellon family to the greatest extent.

The Mellon family suddenly and completely abandoned Mellon Finance over the weekend, which caught Simon by surprise.

The other party did not forcefully resist the issue of Mellon's finances, and Simon could no longer be aggressive. After all, the Mellon family is not without foundation in Washington and Wall Street. If it is too hard for a while, it will inevitably make other old money families feel sad, and even share the same hatred.

I can only stop.

Simon gave up, and the Mellon family chose to give in. They just initiated an investigation into the Mellon family's loan fraud, and they will probably reconcile soon.

Not knowing what happened behind the scenes, Simon can only feel the decisiveness of the century-old Qian family.

Thinking of this, Simon said again: "Actually, the most regrettable thing is the stock market. Last week, Mellon Financial led Chevron, Alcoa and other companies to fall sharply for three consecutive days, but failed to pull the Nasdaq down. I thought it was at first. Not a bad opportunity."

Jennifer said on the opposite side: "Mellon Financial is on the New York Stock Exchange, not Nasdaq."

Simon shrugged: "Almost, it's the federal stock market after all."

Janet picked up the milk and took a sip. She probably felt that today's milk was not good, so she poured some for Seattle next to her and gave half to her man. She asked with a smile, "Are you in a hurry?"

"Of course, time is money." Simon also smiled and replied: "No matter how high the market value of Igret is, it is just a number that has no more meaning now. And the high level of the entire Nasdaq has already affected the Westeros system in the new era." The layout of the technology field has had a negative impact. At present, whether it is self-expansion or external mergers and acquisitions, the cost has increased significantly, so many of our plans can only be postponed."

Janet said: "If you are in a hurry, we might as well pierce it ourselves. We only need to sell a large amount of stocks, and we can cash out the funds."

"It is only the old money class that continues to put pressure on the Mellon family. If you reduce your holdings of technology stocks now, you will offend the whole world."

Janet waved the fork lightly: "It's really troublesome."

"We'd better do nothing anyway."

Listening to the conversation between the two, Jennifer asked, "When will Soros start?"

"About May," Simon said, nodding, and said, "This is another opportunity for Soros to short Southeast Asia, and the impact will definitely be transmitted to North America. If the Nasdaq can survive then, it will be a miracle."

In my memory, the Thai baht fell in July, but in fact, international speculators have been selling short since May.

On the other hand, in the first month of the circuit breaker after the establishment of the circuit breaker mechanism in the original time and space, the Dow Jones plummeted due to the impact of the Southeast Asian financial crisis.

The Nasdaq was not crazy in 1997.

This time, when the impact of the Southeast Asian financial crisis came, the first to be hit should not be the Dow Jones, but the Nasdaq, and the time may be much earlier, instead of October, when the Southeast Asian financial crisis was the worst.

In any case, Simon can only wait patiently.

However, according to the recent growth rate of the Nasdaq, even if it is calculated based on an average monthly increase of 5%, if it lasts for another three months, it is estimated that it will reach more than 7500 points. By then, Eaglet, the leader, will definitely break trillions. , Even if you can't get too much direct benefit from these market values ​​for a while, it's exciting to think about it.

After chatting casually and having breakfast, Veronica personally sent Melbourne to school, Jennifer continued to raise the baby at home, and Simon and his wife took a helicopter from Cape Dumay across the bay to Puerto Rico, south of Santa Monica. Rhea Vista, SpaceX headquarters.

There will be a public rocket engine test here today.

After a year of intensive research and development driven by Simon at any time, the SpaceX team officially launched the first rocket engine, named Merlin 1.

The name was an open solicitation by Simon from the SpaceX team, of course, cheated a bit by defaulting on a name provided by a guy named Elon Musk.

At first glance, the name 'Merlin' does not seem to match SpaceX's previous names like 'Falcon' and 'Raptor'. In fact, Merlin is a transliteration of 'Merlin', which is the English word for 'merlin'. I mean, they're all birds of prey.

However, the new Merlin engine is completely different from the original SpaceX Merlin engine.

The Merlin engine of SpaceX, in layman's terms, is actually a public engine architecture from NASA, which is similar to the ARM public version architecture concept used by many manufacturers in the chip field. After the improvement of the SpaceX team, it finally became the famous engine architecture. Merlin series.

This time, the new Merlin engine is based on the famous RD 170 rocket engine from the former Soviet Union.

The thrust of the first-generation Merlin was only more than 30 tons, but the RD 170 is a giant with a thrust of more than 700 tons. The difference between the two is the difference between the early ARM chip and the Pentium-class X86 processor. Even the "thrust-to-weight ratio" that can better reflect the balanced performance , the value of the original Merlin 45 is also much lower.

It's also fun to say.

In Simon's limited professional memory of this, the later Merlin series looked more and more like the RD 170, and what happened during this period is self-evident.

Simon is also considered 'one step in place' this time.

Speaking of which, from the establishment of the SpaceX team at the beginning of last year to now, a year has actually happened around this private aerospace company.

When the Simons disembarked from the helicopter at SpaceX headquarters in Playa Vista, they were greeted by a group of people that best exemplified everything that has happened around SpaceX in the past year.

Among these people, in addition to the SpaceX team, there are NASA officials, Lockheed Martin executives, representatives of the Ukrainian National Space Agency, and so on.

The matter still has to start with Simon privately obtaining a large amount of aerospace nuclear energy information from Ukraine.

In terms of aerospace, since SpaceX decided to adopt RD 170 technology, although it is difficult to have any patents in the aerospace field due to its particularity, it would be better to have some justification after all. Simon simply brought the Ukrainian authorities in.

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, although Ukraine retained a full set of RD 170 engine technical data, it has lost the ability to independently produce this engine without the assistance of the Russian industrial chain. Due to the close relationship and tangible benefits, Kiev readily agreed to the relevant cooperation.

Not just the RD 170, under the operation of the Westeros system, the Ukrainian side has almost taken out all the property that can be transferred.

The conditions for all these technology transfers are only a mere 2500 million US dollars in cash, and a 20% stake in a shell company jointly established by the two parties outside SpaceX for the external sales of rocket engines, which is equivalent to that Ukraine can only enjoy the sale of SpaceX 20% profit sharing on engine.

In addition, the Ukrainian side will no longer be able to participate in the profit sharing of SpaceX's production of engines for its own use and other businesses that will be developed in the future.

Whether it is the development goal of SpaceX or the bulk of its profits, it is actually its own business in the future. You must know that the profit of providing a full set of launch services and only selling engines is definitely not the same.

Moreover, while acquiring a large number of former Soviet space technology, Simon has once again received a large number of experts in related fields.

The brand-new Merlin 1 can be born within a year, thanks to the contributions of these former Soviet experts.

However, the biggest progress of Merlin 1 this time is not the improvement on the basis of RD 170, but the smooth use of 3D printing technology, which involves complex public relations and technology integration in the past year.

Simon acquired a printing company last year, and in the following year, began to conduct technical research on 3D printing of rocket engines.

Because it involves software, materials and other aspects, it is certainly not enough to rely solely on the 3D Miracle team.

In terms of software, 3D Miracle has cooperated with Autodesk, an industrial design software company with a heavy stake in the Westeros system.

In terms of materials, this is also one of the biggest difficulties in 3D printing rocket engines, because the printing alloy of engine materials needs to be ground into uniform particles less than 500 microns, and it must be carried out in an oxygen-free environment.Simon personally intervened, called and consulted the accumulation of several major national laboratories in the United States, and then successfully found the relevant technology and team.

Otherwise, although it is only a matter of time, it certainly cannot be done within a year.

In the end, the most direct result of the breakthrough of 3D printing technology for rocket engines is that the manufacturing cycle of rocket engines, which can only be completed in six months by traditional casting methods, is shortened to one month.Not only that, due to 1D printing, many parts of the engine that once required hundreds of parts to be spliced ​​and combined can be formed at one time, and the stability of the Merlin 3 engine has also been greatly improved.

The most critical, of course, is cost.

According to the estimates of the SpaceX team, with the further maturity of the technology, after entering mass production, the cost of the 3D printing engine will drop by more than 70% compared with the traditional engine.If SpaceX can realize rocket recovery and reuse in the future, the cost will be reduced to a terrible level.

Although Simon founded SpaceX, although he has his own ambitions, from the very beginning, the company's development goals have been very down-to-earth. SpaceX must achieve commercial self-reliance, rather than vainly working hard for the future of mankind.

Just like 3D printing, in the eyes of ordinary people in this era, this technology is a bit close to the level of science fiction, but in fact, there have been many years of technology accumulation in all aspects, just because of the lack of practical application of various research and development, even if it has achieved Technological advances at the sci-fi level are often eventually buried in the pile of old papers.

Human science and technology has exploded for decades, and this is what Simon regrets the most.Working behind closed doors and being self-sufficient leads to the failure of practical application of advanced technologies developed by wasting a lot of social resources.Without practical application, the opportunity to go further is actually lost.

Therefore, whether it is SpaceX or rCity, which is progressing quite smoothly, the initial development strategies of these companies are mainly based on 'integration'.

Whether it is using normal means or stealing and abducting, first integrate the breakthrough technologies achieved by the predecessors and achieve the greatest practical application, and then consider going further.

Of course, Simon is also standing and talking without back pain.

With the development of science and technology to the present, he must be far from the only one who thought of this, but there are very few people who have enough strength and background to do this.

Under the premise of the strong financial support of the Westeros system, Simon also happened to meet the best time when the world confrontation temporarily disappeared and the process of globalization accelerated to allow the smooth flow of technology and talents. The difficulty of this matter will increase greatly.

SpaceX headquarters.

After the Simon couple greeted everyone one by one, they came to a lobby on the upper floor of the newly completed SpaceX glass-steel structure headquarters building. From here, you can see a large open space along the Balona Creek all the way to the sea. The wasteland was purchased by Simon last year and is used as a testing ground for SpaceX's equipment.

Looking from the hall at this time, a two-story test bench was built on the flat ground by the Balona Creek 500 meters away.

The better-performing prototype of the first two Merlin 1 engines is already on the test bench.

In fact, today's public test is more of a cutscene, and the SpaceX team has conducted many tests in private.

The purpose of today's public beta involves a big deal.

Still have to start from the beginning.

Since last year, the new generation of Atlas launch vehicle under the auspices of NASA under the auspices of Lockheed Martin has been looking for a manufacturer of the first-stage engine.

In the past, Lockheed Martin finally signed a long-term supply agreement with Russia, and the relevant engine was the RD 170.

This time, since SpaceX is going to be commercialized, Simon will certainly not miss this opportunity. Through lobbying and even pressure on the White House, Congress, NASA, Lockheed Martin and other aspects, SpaceX is finally included in the candidate list, and will The bidding period has been delayed from last year to now.

Moreover, because the righteousness of "domestic production" comes first, and Merlin 1 is based on RD 170, and its parameters are better, today's test, as long as there are no accidents on the spot, SpaceX will basically win this big order.

It's a really big deal.

According to the agreement that has been drawn up in private, NASA and Lockheed Martin will sign supply agreements with suppliers for up to 20 years, with a total supply of 100 units.Moreover, compared to Russia’s quotation of 3 US dollars, under the premise that the blessing of 1000D printing technology leads to lower costs, because the data of the previous test is better, SpaceX’s quotation is still [-] million US dollars.

The total is a large order of 10 billion US dollars.

Even if it is divided into 20 years, it is only 5000 million per year. Considering the gross profit margin of SpaceX, it can be regarded as a big start for this company.

And, after all, it's just a SpaceX business.

Neither NASA nor Lockheed Martin has restricted SpaceX's self-use of the Merlin series, so in the future it will still focus on independent launches.

In the lobby of SpaceX's office building, everyone sat down. SpaceX President Gwen Shotwell confirmed that everyone was present, asked Simon for instructions, and then turned to the surrounding staff sitting behind the computers to start the test.

A moment later, with the flames and thick smoke coming from the test platform in the distance, the powerful power of Merlin No. 1 made everyone feel the tremors.

At the same time, a series of parameter reports from NASA supervisors came from the loudspeaker.

"Sea level thrust: 81773KN."

"Sea level specific impulse: 353s."

"Combustion chamber pressure, wow, are you sure? OK."

"Thrust-to-weight ratio...thrust-to-weight ratio...96, it's too strong."

"..."

In the hall, hearing the voices in the ears and the gradual commotion of the various staff who came to watch the test, even the NASA officials sitting next to Simon couldn't calm down, and turned their heads to look at Simon frequently.Although I have already obtained some data in advance, I heard on the spot that this equally professional NASA official was more or less skeptical.

Simon ignored it.

I have carefully read a lot of materials in advance, and I can probably expect the shock that these data will bring to representatives of NASA, Lockheed Martin, etc., only Janet next to me looks like she is listening to the scriptures.

Just as she was about to explain a few words to Janet, the plump, fair-skinned Ukrainian female representative sitting on the other side of her began to chat with the obviously confused Janet in standard English, probably to explain the meaning of the relevant data, but The woman's soft voice was obviously raised, as if she wanted to attract other people's attention.

The test lasted for more than half an hour. NASA and Lockheed Martin's team were a little skeptical for the first time, so they went to the test bench to check it, and then conducted a second test.

Naturally there is no problem.

There has been sufficient communication in private, and there have been two consecutive tests, and NASA has no objections. Then, under the witness of all parties, the executives of SpaceX and Lockheed Martin, who are both parties to the transaction, signed the agreement on the spot and opened the champagne celebration.

In the lively hall.