A coalition of New Mexico residents are pushing to save the nearly 80-year-old Sunspot Solar Observatory in the Sacramento Mountains near Alamogordo, after the National Science Foundation announced its plans to demolish the site.

The U.S. Air Force in 1947 announced it would fund a solar observatory dedicated to researching solar flares and sunspots — within eyesight of the White Sands Missile Range. The National Science Foundation took over operations in the mid-1970s and a consortium including New Mexico State University has overseen operations of the visitor’s center and Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope since 2017.