Feb 26 1985
From The Space Library
NASA announced it was donating a 26-m antenna located at the Orroral Valley Tracking Station, Australia, which had ceased operations in December 1984, to the Australian University of Tasmania. NASA, which had used the antenna in programs such as Skylab, the [[Apollo Soyuz Test Project]], and the Space Shuttle, had offered to assist in antenna dismantling and transfer to Hobart, Tasmania.
The University of Tasmania's physics department, one of Australia's major centers for astronomy and astrophysics, would use the antenna as part of its teaching and research activities, including operation with the Australian telescope under construction in New South Wales to improve telescope performance.
Researchers would also use the antenna in conjunction with other instruments for very-long baseline interferometry, a system employing a number of separate antennas to construct a radio telescope with a high-resolution capability, to obtain more accurate measurements of earth's surface. Researchers would also make the antenna available to NASA for its future geodesy, geodynamics, and astronomy projects. (NASA Release 85-28)
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