ALMA Construction

Al Wootten

Figure 1. Antenna transporter Lore moves a Vertex antenna past the OSF Technical Buildings to a testing site.

Figure 1. Antenna transporter Lore moves a Vertex antenna past the OSF Technical Buildings to a testing site.

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Eight Vertex antennas and four Mitsubishi Electric Company (Melco) antennas are now at the Operations Support Facility (OSF) in Chile; major parts of the eighth Vertex antenna arrived on Thanksgiving Day. Tests continue on the antennas, with the first acceptance of an antenna, a Melco antenna, expected within days. Acceptance of the first Vertex antenna should follow shortly thereafter. On November 20, Lore, one of the two mammoth antenna transporters, moved an assembled Vertex antenna from the Site Erection Facility building to an antenna foundation above the Operations Support Facility to await testing.

The annual ALMA External Review will be held in early December. An external panel will examine ALMA’s progress during the preceding year and the project’s plans for the coming year.

ALMA personnel have moved into offices in the new OSF Technical Building complex, and its tele-conferencing facilities have been inaugurated.

Figure 2. Work continues past sunset in the new OSF Technical Building, seen here just before drawing of the nightshades.

Figure 2. Work continues past sunset in the new OSF Technical Building, seen here just before drawing of the nightshades

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