Keith’s note: According to this press release from Spain: Spain is willing to offer up to €400 million to attract the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) to the Canary Islands island of La Palma. — Uh oh. If you are in a ‘Make America Great in Space Again’ mood then this a huge loss for American scientific prestige – an international astronomy instrument leaving the U.S. But wait: according to Science magazine “China is quietly preparing to build a gigantic telescope“.
Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member... More by Keith Cowing
Construction was scheduled to start in 2014, but ongoing protests by native Hawaiians have delayed the project for over a decade.