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bell-cot • today at 12:17 PM • 1 reply • view on HN

Yes-ish? Funding was far more plentiful when the telescope was being designed and built, and in its early decades. I know zero details about that era - but I strongly suspect it suffered from "just focus on the cool parts" syndrome. And if it'd been designed and built correctly, or the problem caught and corrected back then, it would very likely still be standing.

Which is not to say it'd still be receiving operational funding, nor that its potential scientific contributions would be particularly worthwhile.


Replies

close04 • today at 1:26 PM

It was built in the ‘60s and started losing its relevance and funding in the 2-3 decades before the collapse. A lot of time for issues to develop, be noticed, but not have enough money to fix.