News : First ALMA telescope installed

This month the first US NRAO telescope is successfully installed at the ALMA Operations Support Facility (OSF) in Chili. This site at 2.900 meters height near San Pedro de Atacama is the assembly site where the telescope dish will be mounted on the antenna pedestal assembly and INVAR cone. Within a year from now the telescopes will be driven along a 40 kilometers road to the 5.000 meter Llano de Chajnantor high site. This will be the end location where 25 NRAO-, 25 ESO- and 16 Japanese telescopes will be working together in one system. Airborne is currently starting with the manufacturing of composite back up structure number four as a contract for Vertex Antennentechnik in Germany, part of the General Dynamics group of companies.