The group soon arrived at the Space Shuttle Assembly Center.
The factory building at the very heart of the assembly center was the birthplace of the Auspicious, as well as the cradle of a whole series of spacecraft produced by Starry Sky Technology.
At that moment, a long metal hull lay inside the enormous factory building. It could only be called a hull because its sheer size made it look far more like a nuclear submarine than a spacecraft meant to travel through outer space.
Because the long, narrow hull could hardly support its own weight, it had been divided into three sections, suspended in sturdy mechanical frames.
From the moment they stepped into the factory building, the Russian delegation looked around in wonder, like country folk visiting a grand estate for the first time.
Mr. Grudjev and the officials from the Ministry of Economic Development were relatively composed. But the aerospace experts accompanying the ministry's delegation on its visit to France could barely tear their eyes away after seeing the Queqiao spacecraft.
Professor Kaufmann in particular, an expert from the Russian Space Corporation and a member of the Russian Academy of Engineering who had been following Grudjev, looked so astonished that his jaw practically hit the floor.
The Russian delegation stood beside the enormous vessel for a full five minutes before Grudjev spoke in amazement.
"Incredible... Is this your spacecraft?"
"Magpie Bridge," Lu Zhou said with a smile. "Though calling it a spaceship isn't wrong either. Sometimes, when I look at this thing, I also feel it looks more like a ship than a spacecraft."
At that point, Academician Kaufmann, who had remained silent beside Grudjev, finally could not resist speaking.
"A spacecraft this large... How do you plan to get it into space?"
The question immediately put quite