China has installed the last panel of a radio telescope designed to study the universe and explore extraterrestrial life, Reuters reported Sunday.Zheng Xiaonian, deputy head of the national astronomical observation within the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Xinhua news agency that scientists will subject the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope through debugging and testing phases, Ben Blanchard writes.
The $180 million FAST radio telescope, which took five years to develop, is scheduled to be operational in September, Blanchard reports.
The report said the telescope is part of China’s efforts to advance its space program, which aims to establish a space station and launch a manned space flight to the moon by 2036.
