The telescope's 900-ton receiver platform and the Gregorian dome -- a structure as tall as a four-story building that houses secondary reflectors -- fell onto the northern portion of the vast reflector dish more than 400 feet below.
"It sounded like a rumble. I knew exactly what it was," said Jonathan Friedman, who worked for 26 years as a senior research associate at the observatory and still lives near it. "I was screaming. Personally, I was out of control.... I don't have words to express it. It's a very deep, terrible feeling."
"It was a snowball effect," he said. "There was no way to stop it.... It was too much for the old girl to take." However, observatory director Francisco Cordova, said that while the NSF decided it was too risky to repair the damaged cables before Tuesday's collapse, he believes there had been options, such as relieving tension in certain cables or using helicopters to help redistribute weight.
Scientists worldwide had been petitioning U.S. officials and others to reverse the NSF's decision to close the observatory. The NSF said at the time that it intended to eventually reopen the visitor centre and restore operations at the observatory's remaining assets, including its two LIDAR facilities used for upper atmospheric and ionospheric research, including analyzing cloud cover and precipitation data.
Was this not a planed demolition?
China
Goldeneye predicted this.
Signs of first contact ! 😨
my god. i've been near there.
😳😱
just (1) cablewtf could possibly go wrong?
Isn’t this how 006 died?
Wow
Sad 😞
They knew this was going to happen and they didn't try to stop it?
Call Justin TRUDOPE he is giving money to every country but CANADA.. it's worth a try. 😉
Not the signal they were expecting huh?
Wonder if it is the same culprits who did the Sea-to-Sky Gondola
GOLDENEYE
ImpairedCRONIC
very sad!
The island can’t catch a break.
Does anyone else find it strange the a drone was right there pointing at the cable as it snapped? Or did they know this was going to happen?
Puerto Ric-hole
Sad. Used by thousands of scientists. Endured hurricanes and earthquakes. Couldn’t survive the Trump administrations disdain for both Puerto Rico amd science. Symbolic of what the GOP has let happen to America. Just a pile of trash now.
Does anything last in Puerto Rico?
was it due to Climate Change or COVID?
And you guys making fun of Made In China products.
Paper towels don’t help save infrastructure. Awful. 😞
Its been falling apart for some time now.
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