tagged with United States Fish and Wildlife Service telemetry transmitters. Electric fences, electric blankets, faulty automobile electronics, and other radio wave emitters have caused great trouble for the astronomers in Green Bank. All vehicles on the premises are powered by diesel motors to minimize interference by ignition systems. Until its collapse on November 15th, 1988, a 300ft radio telescope stood at the Green Bank Observatory's unique site. It was the largest radio telescope on Earth when it was brought online for its first observation at 12:42am on September 21st, 1962. The telescope's first observation was of the remnants of Tycho's supernova that had exploded 11th November, 1572. Two major overhauls installed a new surface in 1970 to correct for maintenance, snow damage, and warping from its sheer size; then a new, bigger project-building was constructed in 1972 that incorporated a Farady-cage around the control room itself. The telescope stood at 240ft in height, wieghed 600-tons, had a 2-min arc accuracy, and had a surface accuracy of ~1 inch. The collapse in 1988 was found to be due to unanticipated stresses which cracked a hidden, yet weight and stress-supporting steel connector plate, in the support structure of the massive telescope. A cascade failure of the structure occurred at 9:43pm causing the entire telescope to implode. The debris from the collapse was cleared by June 1989, and West Virginia Senator Robert C. Byrd would pioneer a campaign in Congress to replace it with the Green Bank Telescope, construction for which began in 1990. Socorro, New Mexico The NRAO's facility in Socorro is the Pete Domenici Array Operations Center (AOC). Located on the New Mexico Tech university campus, the AOC serves as the headquarters for the Very Large Array (VLA), which was the setting for the 1997 movie Contact, and is also the control center for the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). The ten VLBA telescopes are in Hawaii, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and eight other sites across the continental United States. Tucson, Arizona Offices were located on the University of Arizona campus. NRAO formerly operated the 12-Meter Telescope on Kitt Peak. NRAO suspended operations at this telescope and funding was rerouted to the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) instead. The Arizona Radio Observatory now operates the 12-Meter Telescope. San Pedro de Atacama, Chile The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) site in Chile is at ~ altitude near Cerro Chajnantor in northern Chile.