But they soon discovered that high-velocity warheads ionize regions of the atmosphere that reflect radio waves, so sensitive radar detectors can adequately track them. The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) recognized that radar decoys would make it difficult to spot long-range weapons, much less repel them. As both superpowers built arsenals of city-flattening ballistic missiles, the Department of Defense sought new ways to intercept incoming Soviet warheads should they near American shores. In the 1950s, tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union chilled into the Cold War. Twelve miles (19 km) to the north of the facility lies the city of Arecibo, whose 88,000 residents call this four-century-old colonial patch of Puerto Rico home.īut Arecibo’s legacy in radio and radar astronomy and atmospheric physics, as well as its searches for extraterrestrial intelligence and harmful near-Earth objects, had darker origins. The site also features a suite of sky-scouring radar and lidar hardware, which remain operational today. National Register of Historic Places in 2008. The facility has also won awards in mechanical, computer, and electrical engineering. The Arecibo site lies in a natural concave sinkhole nestled in the karst mountains of Puerto Rico.Īrecibo owes its name not just to the jaw-droppingly spectacular telescope that found silver-screen fame in both GoldenEye and Jodie Foster’s Contact.
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