The VLTI: A status report

The Very Large Telescope (VLT) Observatory on Cerro Paranal (2635 m) in Northern Chile is approaching completion. After the four 8-m Unit Telescopes (UT) individually saw first light in the last years, two of them were combined for the first time on October 30, 2001 to form a stellar interferometer, the VLT Interferometer. The combination in pairs of all four UTs was completed in September 2002. In this article, we will describe the subsystems of the VLTI and the planning for the following years.