China Installs Core Pedestal on 110-Meter Qitai Radio Telescope in Xinjiang

Construction teams have completed the three-tier antenna pedestal closure for the 110-meter fully steerable radio telescope in Qitai County, Xinjiang. According to state media reports, the milestone marks the transition into the final construction phase of the facility's main structure. Once finished, the telescope will feature an arcsecond-level pointing precision, supporting China's deep-space missions and astronomical research. Begun in September 2022, the facility is scheduled to complete its main structure in 2027 and enter full operations in 2028.

The Qitai telescope is designed to be the world's highest-frequency and most accurate fully steerable radio telescope in the 100-meter-plus class. Its completion will address long-standing domestic hardware limitations by providing ultra-large-aperture tracking and receiving capabilities for deep-space communications and frontier astrophysics.

Engineers in northwestern China have completed the installation and closure of the three-tier antenna pedestal for the Qitai 110-meter radio telescope, advancing the facility into the final stages of its main structure construction, state media reported on August 18. Situated in Qitai County within Xinjiang's Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, the 110-meter-diameter aperture instrument is designed as a fully steerable dish. According to project engineers, the completion of the three-story steel pedestal provides the foundational support required to carry the telescope's rotating elevation assembly, which weighs more than 3,000 metric tons and must execute smooth 360-degree azimuth rotations. Ma Wengang, on-site project head from the 39th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC), described the pedestal closure as a pivotal engineering milestone that establishes the mechanical backbone for subsequent installations. Project officials indicated that teams will next begin assembling and hoisting the telescope's elevation frame onto the newly closed base structure. When completed, the Qitai telescope is slated to become the world's most precise and highest-frequency fully steerable radio telescope in the 100-meter aperture class. Xu Qian, chief engineer of the project's antenna system, noted that the telescope is designed to achieve pointing accuracy on the scale of arcseconds—an accuracy level comparable to resolving a table tennis ball from a distance of 3.3 kilometers. Construction on the facility originally commenced in September 2022. Under current project schedules, the main structural works are slated for completion in 2027, followed by comprehensive calibration and full operational deployment in 2028. Chinese officials project that the facility will play an essential role in bolstering the country's deep-space tracking capabilities for planetary missions while providing sensitive observational data for international and domestic cosmological research.