The SKA Observatory has reached its first construction milestone, with the first Array Assembly, AA0.5, of the SKA-Low telescope officially delivered. The four-station array, each made up of 256 log-dipole antennas, completed a final phase of verification testing, demonstrating the necessary architecture and supply chain is in place and working. SKA-Low Assembly, Integration and Verification Lead Engineer Lucio Tirone said, “We now have an operational interferometer array formed by four stations, a synchronisation and timing system, a correlator and beamformer, a science and non-science data network and a computing cluster at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre. We have established integration, verification and commissioning procedures and operational procedures are now being formed.” And just as AA0.5 was formally completed, the 10,000th antenna was installed at the SKA-Low site on Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory. The next construction milestone is AA1, an 18-station array, which is scheduled for 2026. The image above shows a cluster of six SKA-Low stations, with the installation of antennas on the last station underway.

We acknowledge the Wajarri Yamaji as the Traditional Owners and Native Title Holders of the observatory site.