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The plans for the project on Haleakala’s summit drew significant opposition last week during public scoping meetings that are part of the environmental review process. The U.S.

Air Force is working in conjunction with the U.S. Space Force and the Air Force Research Laboratory to mount up to seven telescopes in a state conservation district atop Haleakala.



The agency, which is taking public comment on the project until June 7, is in the process of developing a draft environmental impact statement as required by Hawaii law. The telescopes would be used to track satellites and other objects in space over the Pacific, the agencies say. An optics lab would also be built.

The volcano’s summit at 10,000 feet already houses six academic and four space surveillance telescopes. Last week, the Air Force held scoping meetings in Kahului, Pukalani and Kihei that drew hundreds of people, many of them Native Hawaiians who consider Haleakala sacred and oppose any further installation of telescopes. They made their voices loud and clear in many hours of testimony.

“The American military is like a sick old man who won’t take no for an answer,” said Sesame Shim. Shim described the installation of telescopes on Haleakala as a violent desecration of a family member, an analogy several other women echoed in testimony, eliciting loud applause. Dozens of people were arrested in 2019 on Hawaii island during a demonstration against the Thirty Meter Telescope project atop Mauna Kea, also cons.

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