LocationLocation
Very Large Array
Old Highway 60, Socorro County, NM 87801
4 productions
Access notes
A working radio observatory on the Plains of San Agustin, with a visitor centre and self-guided walking tour. Open daily; the antennas move along rail tracks between configurations.
Parking
Free visitor lot at the centre.
Filmed Here
What Was Filmed Here
LocationNo approved image yetThen
NowWhat happened here
The Very Large Array plays itself, the dish field where Ellie Arroway listens. The visitor centre and self-guided walk cover the same ground the film does.
Trivia
The antennas move along railway tracks between four configurations, so the array's shape genuinely changes through the year.
Independence Day
Independence Day· 1996
Very Large Array detects the alien signal in the opening sequence
Location2010: The Year We Make Contact
2010: The Year We Make Contact· 1984
Listening for Jupiter
No approved image yetThen
NowWhat happened here
The array appears as the radio observatory tracking the Discovery mission, filmed among the same dishes on the Plains of San Agustin that Contact would use a decade later.
Trivia
Two of the best-known films shot at the VLA bracket the site's public profile: 2010 in 1984 and Contact in 1997.