Protests at the building site halted construction starting in April of this year, cyberattacks targeted the TMT’s website, and activist groups challenged the project in Hawaiian courts. Now those courts have reached a decision. In a decision announced yesterday, the court determined that the board issuing the construction permit had done so improperly, issuing the permit before opponents could bring forth their side of the case. In a concurring opinion Justice Richard Pollack wrote: The court’s ruling revokes the construction permit, halting the building process. Henry Yang, chair of the board of theThirty-Meter Telescope issued this statement: “We thank the Hawaii Supreme Court for the timely ruling and we respect their decision. TMT will follow the process set forth by the state, as we always have. We are assessing our next steps on the way forward. We appreciate and thank the people of Hawaii and our supporters from these last eight-plus years.” With a 98-foot-wide mirror, TMT would have been the largest telescope in the world upon its completion, but only for a time. Other huge projects like the Giant Magellan Telescope with an 85-foot-wide mirror, and the European Extremely Large Telescope, with a 129-foot-wide mirror, are still on track in less contentious settings.
