A few months ago, the European Southern Observatory (ESO), which is building the $1.5 billion [Extremely Large Telescope], declared that construction had passed the halfway mark. Next month, the first batch of polished mirror segments should set off from France by ship in a temperature-controlled container.
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As ELT marches toward completion in 2028 or 2029, U.S. astronomers can only look on in envy. A pair of similarly ambitious U.S.-led projects—the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) and the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT)—once vied with ELT to be first on the sky. Although the projects are also polishing mirrors, they have not begun on-site construction—and success is not assured. Unable to find enough funding from private and international sources, they are waiting for the National Science Foundation (NSF) to bail them out by paying at least 25% of their combined cost of about $5 billion. Earlier this month, NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan, speaking to a Senate committee, said the agency was looking to make a budget request for construction funding— but not until fiscal years 2025 or 2026. “There is some urgency,” says John O’Meara, chief scientist of the W. M. Keck Observatory. “They need investment by NSF to move forward or the projects are in serious jeopardy.”
From the article:
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