Construction
The construction of the VST suffered several mishaps. The first primary mirror was destroyed in 2002 while being transported from Europe to Chile. M2 was also damaged slightly during shipping, and had to be returned for repairs. Although a series of emergency actions was enforced to resolve these problems with minimum impact on the VST schedule, the telescope suffered delays. M2 was repaired and a replica M1 was constructed. Testing was finished in Italy and the telescope was dismounted, painted and packed, then shipped and mounted at Paranal. The first parts arrived in June 2007, and the first phase of integration at Paranal was completed in April, 2008. The first images from the VST were released on June 8, 2011.
Read more about this topic: VLT Survey Telescope
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