The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is an intergovernmental international radio telescope project being built in Australia (low-frequency) and South Africa (mid-frequency). The combining infrastructure, the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO), and headquarters, are located at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in the United Kingdom. The SKA cores are being built in the southern hemisphere, where the view of the Milky Way galaxy is the best and radio interference at its least. Conceived in the 1990s, and further developed and designed by the late-2010s, when completed a total collecting area of approximately one square kilometre. It will operate over a wide range of frequencies and its size will make it 50 times more sensitive than any other radio instrument. If built as planned, it should be able to survey the sky more than ten thousand times faster than before. With receiving stations extending out to a distance of at least from a concentrated central core, it will exploit radio astronomy's ability to provide the highest-resolution images in all astronomy. The SKAO consortium was founded in Rome in March 2019 by seven initial member countries, with several others subsequently joining; there were 14 members of the consortium. This international organisation is tasked with building and operating the facility. The project has two phases of construction: the current SKA1, commonly just called SKA, and a possible later significantly enlarged phase sometimes called SKA2. The construction phase of the project began on 5 December 2022 in both South Africa and Australia. History The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) was originally conceived in 1991 with an international working group set up in 1993. This led to the signing of the first Memorandum of Agreement in 2000. In the early days of planning, China vied to host the SKA, proposing to build several large dishes in the natural limestone depressions (karst) that dimple its southwestern provinces; China called their proposal Kilometer-square Area Radio Synthesis Telescope (KARST). Australia's first radio quiet zone was established by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) on 11 April 2005 specifically to protect and maintain the current "radio-quietness" of the main Australian SKA site at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory. The project has two phases of construction: the current SKA1, commonly just called SKA, and a possible later significantly enlarged phase sometimes called SKA2. PrepSKA commenced in 2008, leading to a full SKA design in 2012. Construction of Phase 1 providing an operational array,