Ukraine destroys giant radio telescope used by Russian military

A giant radio telescope in Crimea used in the past to support missions to Mars and Venus and attempt to contact alien civilizations has been destroyed in a drone attack.

Ukrainian defense forces took down the 230-foot (70 meters) antenna dish to prevent Russian forces from using it to guide attacks on its territory. The RT-70 radio telescope has been under Russian control since the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014. According to Defense Express, Russians carried out major upgrades to the 5,000 metric ton structure to use it for military communications.

The telescope reportedly served as an antenna for the GLONASS satellite navigation system, Russia's alternative to the American GPS. Reportedly, the use of the RT-70 radio antenna increased the accuracy of GLONASS by around 30%.

In late August, footage emerged captured by a drone slamming into the 50-year-old radio telescope. The drone, according to Defense Express, aimed at the 200-kilowatt radio receiver at the heart of the telescope. The custom-made receiver produced in 2011 in Moscow during the last major upgrade of the telescope will be hard to replace, Defense Express said, meaning Russia will not likely be able to repair the antenna any time soon.

The destroyed dish was one of three RT-70 radio telescopes built across the former USSR in the mid-1970 to form the Soviet Deep Space Network. Soviet satellite controllers used the radio telescope, near the city of Yevpatoria on the Black Sea coast, to communicate with several missions of the Venus exploration program Venera in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

In the 2000s, the telescope featured prominently in several initiatives intended to contact alien life. Over 20 message packages were sent from the telescope in four messaging campaigns targeting potentially habitable planets orbiting stars outside the solar system. Most of these messages have not yet reached their destinations. The earliest to arrive at its target is heading to an Earth-like planet orbiting the star Gliese 581 some 20.5 light years from Earth, which it is expected to reach in 2029.

The Yevpatoria RT-70 radio antenna also carried out astronomical research, detecting signals from planets, asteroids and distant galactic centers. In the 2000s the telescope supported the European Space Agency's missions Mars Express and Rosetta, destined for Mars and Comet 67/P respectively.

The RT-70 radio telescope was one of multiple astronomical facilities that fell into Russia's hands after the annexation of Crimea. The mountainous Crimea used to be a popular holiday destination in the former USSR, known for its sunny climate and sandy beaches. The peninsula's cloudless weather and peaky landscape also made it a hub for astronomy.

According to Orbital Today, the Shain mirror telescope, the largest optical sky-watching machine in Ukraine featuring a 7.8-foot mirror (2.6), is now under the control of the Russian Academy of Sciences and so are the optical telescopes, radio telescope and laser rangefinders at the Simez Observatory located at Crimea's southernmost tip.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, the Giant Ukrainian Radio Telescope in Kharkiv sustained significant damage in 2022 when the region was under Russian occupation. Orbital Today reported that Russian troops stole instruments and computers from the observatory and lay landmines across the 1.6 million square foot (150,000 square meters) site covered with more than 2,000 dipole radio antennas.

A 2024 UNESCO report estimates the overall damage to Ukrainian science infrastructure from the Russian war at $1.26 billion.