The Very Large Array

Abstract

Starting in 1961, NRAO scientists began the process of designing a radio telescope that could make images with an angular resolution comparable to the best optical telescopes operating from a good mountain site. In 1967, the Observatory submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the construction of the Very Large Array (VLA). The VLA proposal was for 36, later reduced to 27, fully steerable 25 meter diameter antennas spread over an area some 35 km in diameter. However, there was a competing, much simpler and much cheaper proposal from Caltech for an 8 element array of 130 foot dishes. Several NSF review committees praised the VLA concept but indicated that it was too ambitious, and recommended that NRAO further study the VLA design, and that construction of the Caltech array should begin immediately. Following a confrontational battle among proponents of the NRAO and Caltech arrays, as well as a competing proposal for a 440 foot radome-enclosed antenna proposed by an MIT-Harvard led consortium, support of the VLA by the 1970 National Academy decadal review of astronomy led to approval of its construction.