The Giant Magellan Telescope's enclosure has passed its final design review and is ready for construction in Chile. The enclosure, designed by IDOM, will be one of the largest mechanized buildings ever constructed. It is 65 meters tall and will be able to complete a full rotation in four minutes. The enclosure will house the 25.4-meter telescope for unobstructed scientific observations. The telescope is being built by an American-led international consortium of 14 universities and research institutions and is expected to be operational by the early 2030s. The enclosure design milestone is complete, and the project is now preparing to solicit proposals for construction. [97c6a11d]
In other news, the final components of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) have been removed from the summit of Maunakea, Hawaii, officially ending its decommissioning. The CSO operated between 1987 and 2015, studying submillimeter wavelengths of light. The telescope is now packed into shipping containers at a port in Hawaii, awaiting transportation to Chile where it will be reassembled as the Leyton Sagenanter telescope. The first observations with the reassembled telescope are expected to be made in 2027. [8096fb02]