What is the LSST now? Where does LSST end and Vera C. Rubin Observatory begin? Space.com's It's Official: Vera Rubin Observatory Named to Honor Dark Matter Scientist says:

&quot;We're here today to focus on the major renaming of the facility after a pioneering astronomer, that is intimately tied to one of the key focus science areas for this project,&quot; Ralph Gaume, Director of the National Science Foundation's Division of Astronomical Sciences, said during the event (the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society). &quot;I'm pleased, very pleased, beyond how much you all know and may recognize, to today officially rename the LSST observatory as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.&quot;
Gaume's comments were met by applause from the gathered astronomers. Observatory director Steve Kahn and other team members soon donned T-shirts sporting the new name.
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is a federal project run by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy. Its first 10 years of work will be dedicated entirely to a project now known as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time. &quot;Because we know you're all in love with the four letters LSST, we figured out a way to preserve that,&quot; Gaume said.


If I understand correctly, the telescope formerly known as LSST is now the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, but the acronym has been reincarnated.
What exactly is the LSST then? The article says that it is a project known as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, but what exactly is a &quot;project&quot;? Is it the title of a proposal, or a financial instrument for assigning research funds, or something for business cards and letterhead?


A photo of astronomer Vera Rubin. (Image credit: NOAO/AURA/NSF)
The LSST Project is in charge of the construction project; building the telescope, camera and observatory and data pipelines and act as the "prime contractor". This includes designing and setting up the data processing and data distribution but the Project's job is essentially "done" once things start operating and the observatory transitions into regular operations. Once the Project delivers the observatory and it's signed off as complete, then the day-to-day operations transitions over to the NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory. They will manage LSST along with other ground-based assets such as the (former) NOAO telescopes and the two Gemini telescopes. They will be the ones in charge of making the survey actually happen and keep functioning.

The Project was setup by the LSST Corporation LSSTC website which represents the institution and international partners, works with the Science Collaborations and is generally in charge/supports getting the science out of the observatory.

So as per the press release, the now named Vera C. Rubin Observatory consists of the mountain top facility in Chile which contains the 8.4-m telescope, now named Simonyi Survey Telescope after an early donor who got the primary work started, the commissioning camera (ComCam) and the main 3.2 Gpix DOE LSST Camera, along with Auxiliary Telescope and its dome and the headquarters in Tucson, AZ. This will be carrying out the 10yr sky survey, now backronymed to be Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) to keep the same acronym.