* Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory radio telescope collapsed early Tuesday
* Drones were investigating cables on the telescope when the event happened
* One clip shows the platform swaying and then falling out of frame
* The other is a view of the cable attached to Tower 4 that appears to be frayed
* It fails, breaks away from the tower and releases the platform onto a dish below
* The catwalk, supporting towers, azimuth arm and Gregorian dome also fell
New footage of Arecibo Observatory collapsing in the jungle of Puerto Rico shows the moment its main cables snapped and sent a massive platform hurling to the ground - triggering a reaction that led to its destruction.
Drones were investigating cables around the telescope when the restraints failed and dropped the 900-ton platform onto to the reflector dish 400 feet below.
In one of the videos, the platform begins swaying in the air before letting out a loud roar as it dislodged from the supporting cable and snapping into pieces as it dropped.
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WNU Editor: :(
/I guess we'll never see them coming now.
ReplyDeleteIts been run down for quite awhile. Remember the movie, "Contact". Filmed 24 years ago. A few wide shot scenes and a sub plot around the thing. Looked pristine in the film, but the good condition was all CG. Chock full of holes and disrepair then. Can only imagine its recent state. With all the hurricanes and TLC its been subject to.
Looks like the cable/bolt assembly at the catwalk junction to main instrument failed. And them crash!
HORS,
DE,
COMBAT,
R,
Puerto Rico is incapable of maintaining a high tech facility such as this on their own. They are a corrupt, indolent people incapable of anything but bare substance living.
ReplyDelete