\n Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex (Image: Nick Macneill)\n<\/p>\n
\n The site was once the home of the Royal Greenwich Observatory, which operated the facility from 1947 until 1990 and constructed several telescope domes on the grounds.\n<\/p>\n
\n These include the Solar Dome to the southwest, the Isaac Newton Telescope dome to the southeast, and the Equatorial Group of six domes now run by the Observatory Science Centre.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Solar Dome building is currently home to the Space Geodesy Facility (SGF), which is operated by NERC and BGS.\n<\/p>\n
\n The domes of the Observatory Science Centre at Herstmonceux (Image: Science Projects Ltd)\n<\/p>\n
\n According to the SGF website, the facility uses advanced observational techniques to help create a highly accurate global geodetic reference frame and support satellite missions studying Earth.\n<\/p>\n
\n The new planning application seeks permission to build an additional 3.5-metre telescope dome at the facility.\n<\/p>\n
\n The new dome forms part of a global strategy by the UK Space Agency to install optical telescopes at multiple locations worldwide.\n<\/p>\n
\n How the new telescope would appear (Image: UK Space Agency\/Natural Environment Research Council)\n<\/p>\n
\n Data collected from these telescopes will be used to track both active satellites and orbital debris, helping to prevent potential collisions in space and limit the growth of hazardous debris.\n<\/p>\n
\n The application explains: \u201cThis is a global issue of enormous significance to wider society, given our increasing reliance on space systems for navigation, timing, and weather, amongst other issues.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis important UK asset will belong to a larger, global effort.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Existing telescopes at the site (Image: UK Space Agency\/Natural Environment Research Council)\n<\/p>\n
\n The dome would measure 3.5 metres in diameter and 3.39 metres in height. It would sit on a plinth raised 100mm above ground level, bringing the total height to 3.49 metres.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Royal Greenwich Observatory vacated the site in 1990, after which it was acquired by Queen\u2019s University, Ontario, Canada.\n<\/p>\n
\n The plans have been submitted to Wealden District Council, and can be viewed using reference number WD\/2026\/0161\/F.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The proposed addition, intended for the Space Geodesy Facility at Herstmonceux Castle, would support ongoing scientific work at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-419785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}