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Constructed in 1955, the Mark 1 telescope at Jodrell Bank become operational in the summer of 1957. At the time, it was the only telescope in the Western world able to track the carrier rocket of Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite. On its 30th anniversary, in 1987, it was renamed in honour of Sir Bernard Lovell, who established the Jodrell Bank Observatory in the late 1940s.

When built, the telescope was the largest steerable dish radio telescope in the world at 76 metres (250 ft) in diameter; even today it is still the third largest.

Link University of Manchester Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics