Dr Rita Colwell, director of the U.S. National Science Foundation, and Dr Catherine Cesarsky, director general of the European Southern Observatory, today signed a historic agreement jointly to construct and operate ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, the world’s largest and most powerful radio telescope operating at millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelengths.

Grote Reber, one of the earliest pioneers of radio astronomy, died in Tasmania on December 20, just two days shy of his 91st birthday.

Six Socorro High School students are spending their summer working at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory on a unique project that gives them experience in language translation, World Wide Web design, and technical communication.

The National Science Board, the governing body for the National Science Foundation (NSF), has approved an expansion project for the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope in New Mexico.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) has named Jim Ulvestad the new Assistant Director for New Mexico Operations in Socorro, New Mexico, effective December 15.

The last of 2,004 aluminum surface panels was recently installed on the GBT’s two-acre (100 m x 110 m) collecting dish. The telescope is located at NRAO’s Green Bank site, in rural Pocahontas County, West Virginia.

In Socorro, New Mexico, the observatory will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its famed Very Large Array (VLA), and in Green Bank, West Virginia, officials will formally dedicate the new Green Bank Telescope (GBT), the world’s largest fully-steerable dish antenna.

A project to expand the National Science Foundation’s famed Very Large Array radio telescope has received strong endorsement from a prestigious national panel of astronomers given the task of setting priorities for astronomical projects in the next decade.

A distinguished panel of scientists today announced their support for the continued funding of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array Project at a press conference given by the National Academy of Sciences.

The US and European partners in the Atacama Large Millimeter Array project have awarded contracts to US and Italian firms, respectively, for two prototype antennas.