Puerto Rico – Spaceflight Now

Arecibo Observatory collapses as scientists lament loss of deep space radar

December 1, 2020 Stephen Clark

The 900-ton suspended platform of Puerto Rico’s famed Arecibo Observatory collapsed Tuesday after cable failures, crashing into the radio telescope’s iconic dish and shattering a research instrument used to study pulsars, galaxies, planets, and asteroids that might threaten Earth.

Arecibo Observatory faces demolition after cable failures

November 19, 2020 William Harwood

After withstanding hurricanes and earthquakes, playing central roles in movies like “GoldenEye” and “Contact,” Puerto Rico’s famed Arecibo Observatory, once the largest radio telescope in the world, will be demolished because of cable failures that left its huge detector platform too unstable to attempt repairs.

Suomi NPP sees Hurricane Maria’s startling effect on Puerto Rico power grid

September 26, 2017 Stephen Clark

A light scanner aboard NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite sensitive to city lights, wildfires and volcanic eruptions has returned views of Puerto Rico before and after the passage of Hurricane Maria, showing the island’s electrical grid ravaged in the aftermath of the storm.