The Defford dish forms part of e-MERLIN, a network of seven radio telescopes spread across England and centred on Jodrell Bank Observatory.
The network is used by scientists to study the universe, but its future has been thrown into doubt by a decision to end government funding.
Dame Harriett has written to the Government calling for the funding to continue, accusing ministers of putting the UK’s scientific reputation at risk.
ECLIPSE: MP Harriett Baldwin is fighting to keep funding in place for the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire (Image: Peter Byrne/Press Association)
She said the decision was particularly difficult to understand after the Prime Minister indicated his opposition to ending the programme.
Dame Harriett said: “Our nation is immensely proud of our scientific heritage and the dish standing proudly on the former RAF Defford runway forming part of a vital international research effort.
“It’s not just scientific vandalism but it is proof that the Prime Minister says one thing while allowing his Ministers to do another.
“It seems madness to me that the Government is blowing our money on a South African telescope array when we have a perfectly good system operating at a fraction of the cost, for the benefit of the whole world, in the heart of our country.
“It has important science benefits and can even support our national defence programme.
“I’m writing to the Government again to ask Ministers to review the funding cancellation and I hope that we’ll have a continuing operating radio telescope in West Worcestershire for many years to come.”
The Defford telescope stands on the site of the former RAF Defford airfield, which played an important role in Britain’s wartime development of radar and later became associated with radio astronomy.
Today the dish is one of the telescopes making up e-MERLIN, which combines observations from dishes at different sites to allow astronomers to study distant objects in space in greater detail.
The wider Jodrell Bank site has played a pioneering role in radio astronomy since the 1940s, including work tracking spacecraft during the early space race and research into quasars, pulsars and gravitational lenses.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has insisted Jodrell Bank has a “secure future” and said he had met representatives from the University of Manchester in an attempt to find a solution.
He said there had been a “science-based decision” to move from e-MERLIN towards the Square Kilometre Array, an international radio astronomy project headquartered at Jodrell Bank with telescopes being constructed in Australia and South Africa.
The dispute centres on the future of e-MERLIN rather than Jodrell Bank as a whole, with Dame Harriett calling for ministers to reverse the funding decision and keep the Defford telescope operating.