Chile's Atacama Site Advances: ELT Mirror Installation and SpaceX Lunar Impact Observed

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has installed the first set of primary mirrors for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) on Cerro Armazones in Chile's Atacama Desert. The ELT, slated to become the world’s largest optical‑infrared telescope with a 39‑metre segmented primary mirror made of 798 hexagonal pieces and a 4.25‑metre secondary, marks a major construction milestone for the project.

Separately, a spent upper‑stage booster from a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch on 15 January 2025, after more than a year drifting in space, struck the Moon on 5 August 2026. The impact was captured by the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in northern Chile, which recorded sodium and lithium spectral lines in the plume. South Korea’s Danuri satellite also filmed the event, confirming surface changes around the impact site. The observation has revived discussion about space‑debris management and lunar contamination.