Construction has gotten underway on the Square Kilometer Array, an intergovernmental radio telescope project being built in Australia (low-frequency) and South Africa (mid-frequency). The Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) combining infrastructure is located in the United Kingdom. With receiving stations extending out to a distance of at least 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) from a concentrated central core, it will exploit radio astronomy’s ability to provide the highest resolution images in all astronomy.

Construction begins on world’s largest radio telescope after decades of preparations

Ground has finally been broken today at two sites in Africa and Australia that will host the Square Kilometer Array Observatory (SKAO), the largest radio telescope in the world.

Construction of the SKA-Mid array, to be located in the Karoo desert in South Africa, and the The SKA-Low array, in Western Australia north of Perth, has begun after 30 years of preparations and a year and a half of preconstruction work that involved selecting the right companies for the job.