Bernard Lovell dies at 98; conceived Jodrell Bank radio telescope
Sunday, August 12, 2012 - 02:30
in Astronomy & Space
The radio telescope he got built in England has played a crucial role in tracking satellites, searching for missing lunar probes and revealing the wonders of space.When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into orbit in 1957, its tiny radio transmitter allowed it to be tracked in space. There was only one instrument in the West that could track the intercontinental ballistic missile that launched it, however: the newly opened 250-foot radio telescope at Jodrell Bank in England.