In the pitch-black expanse of starry space.
The Tiangong space station, like a silver dragon soaring with its wings spread, floated steadily in lunar orbit.
From the distant horizon, an elongated spacecraft approached slowly, like a little boat drifting toward them.
The number "002," painted in white on its side, identified it as the second newly "launched" Queqiao spacecraft.
At that moment, the passengers aboard this Queqiao spacecraft were researchers from countries around the world, working in a wide range of fields.
With its landing gear extending forward, the Queqiao spacecraft traveled below lunar orbit, slowly drawing closer to the Moon Palace space station.
Standing beside a viewport in his cabin spacesuit, Professor Stephen had been silently gazing at the silvery-white celestial body nearby. Suddenly, he could not help voicing his amazement.
"Unbelievable."
Professor Ian Crawford of Birkbeck, University of London, who was also admiring the view outside, gave him an interested glance and asked curiously, "What's unbelievable?"
"...I never thought the people of Hua Nation would actually do it-build a research base on the lunar surface." His Adam's apple bobbed slowly as he stared at the silver landscape outside the viewport. With a complicated expression, Professor Stephen continued, "I always thought they were just trying to swindle funding out of the United Nations."
Just a few months earlier, building a semipermanent experimental facility on the lunar surface had still sounded like a dream. A project on such a scale was something Europeans had not even dared to imagine.
Professor Stephen had never believed Hua Nation could actually pull it off, either.
Yet the reality before him had once again opened his eyes and reshaped his understanding.
Manufactured on Earth, transported by the Queqiao spacecraft, and dropped onto the lunar surface-the entire construction process had been astonishingly easy, like stacking