“The Lovell Telescope is a radio telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Goostrey, Cheshire in the north-west of England. When it was constructed in 1955, the telescope was the largest steerable dish radio telescope in the world at 76.2 m (250 ft) in diameter; it is now the third largest, after the Green Bank telescope in West Virginia, USA, and the Effelsberg telescope in Germany. It was originally known as the 250 ft (76 m) telescope or the Radio Telescope at Jodrell Bank, before becoming the Mark I telescope around 1961 when future telescopes (the Mark II, III, and IV) were being discussed. It was renamed to the Lovell Telescope in 1987 after Bernard Lovell, and became a Grade I listed building in 1988. The telescope forms part of the MERLIN and European VLBI Network arrays of radio telescopes”. – Wikipedia

Photo: The Lovell Telescope listens to the night sky for radio signals from space at Jodrell Bank on June 22, 2011 in Holmes Chapel, England. Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics and it's world famous Lovell Telescope is on the shortlist of Britain's submission for Unesco World Heritage Site status. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

The 26th annual Visa Pour l’Image, the “Cannes Film Festival” of photojournalism kicks off, filling the French city of Perpignan with more than 3,000 of the world’s best photojournalists and photo editors, along with agencies from around the world. This year’s Visa Pour l’Image showcases 26 exhibitions around the city. Photo: Christians looting a Muslim shop in the “Combattants” district of Bangui. (Photo by Pierre Terdjman/Paris Match)

A suspected Vietcong is kicked by a Vietnamese soldier holding a rifle as another soldier attempts to tie his hands on October 22, 1965. The prisoner was one of 15 captured October 21 near Xom Chua when government troops raided in the plain of reeds area. Troops killed 43 suspected Vietcong and seized some arms. (Photo by Richard Merron/AP Photo)

John McEnroe kicks back a television camera that he felt was crowding him on the court during the finals of the U.S. Pro Indoor Tennis Championships in Philadelphia January 27, 1985. McEnroe defeated Czech Miroslav Mecir to win the tournament. (Photo by Amy Sancetta/AP Photo)

A US Marine leads two Viet Cong suspects in restraints during the Tet Offensive on February 20, 1967. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

Model Elise Daniels dons a Balenciaga suit while surrounded by street performers in Paris, France in 1948. (Photo by Richard Avedon/Victoria and Albert Museum London/The Guardian)

A dog dressed like of a bee is seen during the “Blocao” dog carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, February 16, 2014. About 100 dogs have had their day at a pre-Carnival bash in Rio de Janeiro. A 10-man brass band and a singer belting out Rio's anthem song “Cidade Maravilhosa” (Marvelous City) kicked off the four-footed fest as dog owners gathered to party down with pooches on Copacabana beach Sunay. (Photo by Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo)

In the spring of 1965, within weeks of 3,500 American Marines arriving in Vietnam, a 39-year-old Briton named Larry Burrows began work on a feature for LIFE magazine, chronicling the day-to-day experience of U.S. troops on the ground – and in the air – in the midst of the rapidly widening war. The photographs in this gallery focus on a calamitous March 31, 1965, helicopter mission; Burrows’ “report from Da Nang”, featuring his pictures and his personal account of the harrowing operation, was published two weeks later as a now-famous cover story in the April 16, 1965, issue of LIFE.

Photo: Man your battle stations: The crew chief of helicopter Yankee Papa 13, lance corporal James C. Farley, mans an M-60 machine gun during a mission near Da Nang, Vietnam on March 31, 1965. (Photo by Larry Burrows/Time & Life Pictures)