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( Thanks to a special $75 million appropriation from Congress, the National Science Foundation is moving ahead quickly with an updated replacement for its radio telescope in Green Bank, W. Va., which collapsed in November 1988. Last month NSF awarded a $55 million construction contract to Radiation Systems Inc. of Sterling, Va., for a state-of-the-art, 100 meter telescope to be ready by 1995. NSF will spend another $10 million on software and equipment for the telescope. But its existing radio telescope facilities aren't so lucky. NSF is unable to care properly for them, says astronomy division director Julie Lutz. "[Funding] the base program gets worse every year," says Lutz. "We keep trying to get a special allocation for everything we need, but so ...
