The ITEK 48-inch telescope was most recently housed at the Starfire Optical Range, Kirtland AFB in New Mexico and was originally employed to track ballistic missiles in Florida. In this capacity, this 25,000 pound fully steerable instrument was able to slew from horizon to horizon in 3 seconds.. The telescope can be configured to operate at focal ratios of f/2.5 or f/10. A camera, eyepiece, or other instrumentation can be mounted at the hot-swappable Coude focus point. The ITEK is valued at $1.1 million. It will serve as the receiver for an ultraviolet LIDAR system employed in gravity wave detection.
