u/tails618

...Taiyang Shen? This is mostly based on the movie, because I remember it better than the book, but I also remember the two being very similar; however, small details may be different. One of the reasons given for using the Taiyang Shen is in the first scene in the CNSA: "it has enough fuel for a Mars injection orbit." So maybe NASA didn't have any other boosters that had enough power. But once they have the plan for the Hermes to slingshot around the Earth and intercept with a supply probe, surely that requires much less power (akin to launching to the ISS, in real life)? Would NASA simply not have had *any* rockets available?