Space mission · Chile

What construction cost did ESO report for the ALMA observatory in 2013?

ALMA is a radio telescope array on the Chajnantor Plateau in Chile, built by partners in Europe, North America and East Asia with Chile as host. At its March 2013 inauguration, the European Southern Observatory put total construction at approximately US$1.4 billion. This is construction of the shared observatory, not its annual running cost.

Reported project cost

$1.4 billion

Cost basis: 2013

Two of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) 12-metre antennas gaze at the sky at the observatory’s Array Operations Site (AOS), high on the Chajnantor plateau at an altitude of 5000 metres in the Chilean Andes. Eight antennas have been installed at the AOS since November 2009. More antennas will be installed on the Chajnantor plateau during the next months and beyond, allowing astronomers to start producing early scientific results with the ALMA system around late 2011. After
Iztok Bončina/ESOCC BY 4.0

Cost evidence

Basis of the published figure

Reported project cost2013
eso.org

Project record

13 March 2013

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