Site Selection Story, 2006–2012: Decision

The previous chapter described the first three stages of site selection from 1994 to 2006. This took the reader from early national initiatives in China and Australia, to centrally coordinated activity to identify and characterise these and two other potential sites in Southern Africa and South America (Argentina together with Brazil), to the creation of a shortlist of two potential hosts, Australia and Southern Africa, in 2006. This chapter continues the story to its culmination in 2012 when the SKA governing body decided to locate the mid-frequency dish array in Southern Africa and the low-frequency array in Australia. The complex site decision process is described and analysed in detail, as is the evaluation of the hosting proposals by expert consultants and panels and by an external SKA Site Advisory Committee. The final stage leading to the site decision in 2012 was a time of considerable tension in the project, not least due to the site selection process having become highly political.