, the SKA was a global project with eleven member countries that had the objective to answer fundamental questions about the origin and evolution of the Universe. In the early days of planning, China vied to host the SKA, proposing to build several large dishes in the natural limestone depressions (karst) that dimple its southwestern provinces; China called their proposal Kilometer-square Area Radio Synthesis Telescope (KARST). In April 2011, Jodrell Bank Observatory of the University of Manchester, in Cheshire, England was announced as the location for the project headquarters.