Installation of antenna system a milestone

The main reflector of a 40-meter-aperture radio telescope's antenna system was hoisted on Oct 8 in Shigatse city, Xizang autonomous region, marking a milestone in the construction of the device that will provide stronger support for the country's lunar and deep-space probe missions as well as manned moon landing.

The Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, one of the institutions that developed the telescope, said that the device is part of the fourth phase of the nation's lunar exploration project.

Together with the radio telescope on the Changbai Mountains, Jilin province, which completed the hoisting of its main reflector of the antenna system in August, the Shigatse station, at an elevation of about 4,100 meters, will join China's Very Long Baseline Interferometry network upon its completion.