On Monday 18th July 2011, a radio telescope launched into space that will travel most of the way to the moon.
Although the RadioAstron telescope is fairly small at 10 metres wide, astronomers plan to sync it up with antennas back on Earth to effectively create a single receiver that will be up to 30 times as wide as the planet. At its best, the entire system will have about 10,000 times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope!
RadionAstron mission description
(Image: Russian Space Agency)