Science · 29 July 2026
Why would losing a 1957 telescope matter?
Losing it would end Cold War missile tracking and Sputnik history, after UK Research and Innovation confirmed the Lovell Telescope's funding ends in March 2028. The Manchester dish tracked Sputnik in 1957, returned humanity's first moon-surface images in 1966, and studies pulsars and quasars. Physicist Brian Cox called the cuts 'devastating and irreversible', as the university seeks alternative funding from business and charities.
Reported by Associated Press · How we write briefs