China’s $40 Billion ‘Impossible’ Space Project Takes Off—Now NASA’s Racing to Catch Up

Only in China could a $40 billion space mission unfold in near silence—until the moment it rewrote the rules of cosmic exploration. While the world watches the Moon and frets about asteroid collisions, China quietly sends a robotic probe to a mysterious asteroid emitting unnatural signals. Scientists suspect more than rock and dust lies within. Secrets? Ancient data? Something alien? Only in China does curiosity outweigh caution, and ambition reach this far into the void. As the probe returns with sealed samples, the world holds its breath. What did they find out there—and why is NASA suddenly playing catch-up?