Laboratories before the station

Tiangong 1 and Tiangong 2 were precursor spacecraft, not the core and side modules of the later station. They offered ways to test docking, crew visits and research before constructing a larger orbital workplace. Reusing a program name does not make successive vehicles physically identical.

Tiangong 2 hosted the Shenzhou 11 crew and later worked with Tianzhou-1 on propellant-transfer demonstrations. It ended its flight through a controlled reentry in 2019. Its legacy was evidence and operational experience, rather than an assumption that the laboratory remained attached to the new station.

The photograph shows a physical model of an early laboratory and Shenzhou. It helps explain the transport-to-habitat connection. It does not depict Tianhe, Wentian and Mengtian. In a fictional exhibit review, the correct repair is to relabel the model and supply a separate later-station diagram, not to hide the date.