Astronomical Observatory of Arizona, North America.

As a major astronomical observatory built after 2020, the facility has the most sensitive radio telescope array in North America, with the accuracy of tracking even meteorite fragments as small as half a meter in diameter and space junk — as long as it's within the Earth-Moon system.

The Arizona Astronomical Observatory is the newest and most advanced astronomical observatory in North America, nominally a civilian public research facility belonging to the American Astronomical Society, but it is actually funded by the Pentagon's defense budget and is under the direct jurisdiction of Space Command.

Since they have received funding from the military, the mission of this astronomical observatory is naturally not as simple as it was when it was first established.

According to an internal Pentagon document, only 30 percent of the astronomical observatory's mission is to find habitable planets outside the solar system.

As for the remaining 70 percent of the observation missions, most of them are concentrated in the Earth-Moon transfer orbit and the orbit around the Moon, and their purpose is needless to say, it is obvious that they are monitoring China's space activities within the Earth-Moon system for the Pentagon.

Standing quietly beside the coffee machine and waiting for the coffee to be ready, Professor Reston rubbed his sour brow with some headache, trying to relax his overheated brain.

About a week ago, China launched the first components of the manned launch program in accordance with a schedule open to the international community.

It was also from that day that he and the observation team he led did not take a day off, and were on call for almost 24 hours, not daring to relax even for an hour.

After all, there is no guarantee that China will arrange each launch plan according to the timetable of its launch plan that it has made public to the international community.

Such a thing is not without precedent.

Even they themselves have done it countless times.

As the head of the astronomical observatory and a researcher employed by the Pentagon, he was tasked with observing and tracking down every detail of Huaguo's plans to launch and gather as much intelligence as possible from their launches.

This task was personally given to him by the US Secretary of Defense at a working meeting.

It is precisely because of this that from the moment he received the task, he felt the incomparable pressure on his shoulders.

But fortunately, this time is finally about to be survived by him.

The latest launch mission is already the third launch in the Huaguo Denghuo program. And according to their announced launch plan, if nothing else, only one last one remains.

By the end of the last time, their work would be over.

"Xiaguang has successfully entered the synchronous orbit."

"The third batch of components was released from the cargo hold......"

"The recovery has been successful, and the Queqiao is accelerating the change of track."

"The orbit switch has been successful, and the Queqiao has successfully entered the orbit of the Earth-Moon transfer orbit!"

A series of reports were heard.

Professor Reston, who was standing in the control room, listened with a blank face.

Although there was no good news for them, for some reason, there was a faint feeling of relief in his heart.

It's finally coming to an end......

Just as he was thinking this, his assistant walked in from outside the control room.

"Professor Reston."

Turning to look at his assistant, Professor Reston asked.

"What's the matter?"

"Professor Phil Goethe has submitted a request to NASA to visit our astronomical observatory the day after tomorrow."

Hearing the unfamiliar name, Professor Reston frowned.

"Professor Philgoethe?"

Reading the confusion in his boss's eyes, the assistant immediately spoke.

He is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a NASA Distinguished Engineer, and the director of the Deep Space Gate program. It was not long ago that he announced in a high-profile interview with the media that the launch of the landing plan on the other side of the Pacific Ocean was doomed to failure, and that they did not make any adequate preparations for landing on Mars......

After a pause, his assistant shrugged his shoulders a little helplessly.

"Maybe it's because he saw that the plan of the Chinese people has gone so smoothly so far, he may be a little unable to sit still."

What if you can't sit still?

Hearing this, Professor Reston couldn't help but feel a little funny in his heart.

Although there is a lot of helplessness in this smile.

The corners of his mouth twitched expressionlessly, and he spoke in a lukewarm tone.

"If he's interested, he'll be there."

"Although I don't think it makes any sense."

With that, he placed the empty coffee cup in his hand on the table next to the console, and then walked around his assistant and towards the outside of the control room......

……

On the third day after the Queqiao successfully took over the components of the third manned landing program, Professor Philgoethe arrived at the astronomical observatory in Arizona as scheduled.

As soon as the old professor, who was over 60 years old, stepped into this astronomical observatory and saw Professor Reston walking towards him, he didn't even have time to say hello, so he asked straight to the point.

"How's it going?"

"Where are they in their launch plans?"

"Is there anything out of the ordinary?"

"It seems to me that the whole Ascending Fire program is full of unusual places from start to finish, which one do you mean?" Professor Reston shrugged his shoulders at the barrage of questions, "As for where their plan is far, I think it's time for the final stages of preparation. ”

Looking at the slightly younger researcher in front of him with a stiff expression, Professor Philgoethe said in a difficult tone.

“…… The final stage? ”

"That's right." Professor Reston nodded, "About half an hour ago, those Chinese people had already managed to ship the last batch of components to the Moonhouse, just as they had revealed in the schedule of the Landing Plan. Originally, we all thought that they might be able to circumvent our detection of them by temporarily adjusting the launch time. But now it seems as if they didn't pay any attention to our snooping on them, and not only did they not make any changes to the launch plan, but even ......"

Professor Philgoethe: "Even? ”

A smile of bitterness and helplessness appeared on Professor Reston's face.

“…… It's even like it's deliberately placed there for us to see. ”

Professor Phil Goethe fell silent, not knowing what to say.

Just over half a month ago, he was optimistic that Huaguo's announcement of the launch of the launch plan at this time was most likely a provocation to NASA and to provoke a new round of space race to achieve some ulterior political goals. And if they really launched the fire plan according to such a "rushed" schedule, this immature plan was doomed to become a failed tragedy.

But now it seems that all this is pure imagination.

Not to mention whether they failed or not, they didn't even have the intention to hide it, as if they didn't take their nominal opponents in their eyes at all.

Looking at the old professor who was silent, Professor Reston was silent for a while, and then suddenly opened his mouth to continue.

"Let's stop standing at the door and talking, since we're here, let's come in and have a look."

"If I'm not mistaken, they're probably trying to figure out how to put those parts together into an entire colony ship and shoot it to Mars with the astronauts."

The second half of the sentence was said in a joking tone, although it was not comforting, but the solemn atmosphere around him was somewhat lighter because of his joke.

How difficult it is to assemble a hundred-ton spacecraft in lunar orbit does not need to be said much at all, this is something that anyone who knows a little about astronautics knows.

Assembling three parts into a spaceship on the Tsukinomiya sounds like holding an AK47 and strafing a target a few hundred meters away, with all the bullets going into the same bullseye end to end.

Without a separate power system, and constantly adjusting its orbit according to the spacecraft's CCD camera and dynamic vision measurement system, the slightest mistake can turn these parts into a ball and become deadly space junk.

In contrast, he was more inclined to believe that the Huaguo-designed spacecraft was actually a spacecraft slightly smaller than the Xiaguang, which had already been sent to the Moon Palace for refueling during the first launch plan.

The next two launch missions are to send some simple ground-based life-sustaining devices to the Lunar Palace space station, ready to be carried by other spacecraft, and launched in batches to Mars orbit for deployment.

However, just as he was thinking so, on the radar screen in the command room, the three white dots floating around the Moon Palace gradually approached each other under the traction of some force.

Professor Reston, who had just walked into the control room with Professor Philgoethe, was furrowed by noticing the unusual situation on the radar screen.

At first, he thought there was a problem with the radio telescope array.

However, he soon realized that this was not possible, and this morning the engineer in charge of overhauling the equipment carried out maintenance on the radio telescope array at the astronomical observatory.

Professor Felgoethe, who was standing next to him, had apparently noticed the anomaly on the radar as well, and muttered something to himself.

“…… What the hell are they up to? ”

"I don't know...... "I don't know" gradually realized the seriousness of the problem, and Professor Reston immediately looked at his assistant and asked, "Can I apply for the permission to use the Universe-2 optical observation satellite?" ”

The Universe-2 optical observation satellite is a space observation satellite commissioned by NASA to be launched by the Space-X group after 2022, mainly photographing planets in the solar system through high-resolution lenses.

Of course, so far, 70 percent of the satellite's missions, like the Arizona Astronomical Observatory, have been focused on the moon.

Or to be precise, 70 percent of the missions are focused on the Chinese astronauts who are active on the moon.

"It should be fine...... I'll ask. ”

With that sentence dropped, the assistant trotted quickly to the outside of the control room.

Without letting his boss wait long, he quickly ran back from outside.

"NASA approved our application!"

Hearing this, Professor Reston immediately ordered without hesitation, "Access the Universe-2 optical observation satellite!" Focus on the Moon Palace! ”

Hundreds of kilometers away, a cylindrical satellite fine-tuned its orbit and pointing angle, locking the lens on the Lunar Palace.

When the camera focused on the Moon Palace and finished focusing, everyone in the control room was stunned by the scene in front of them.

Are you really assembling a spaceship?!

WTF？！