Its 100-meter diameter collecting area, unblocked aperture, and good surface accuracy provide superb sensitivity across the telescope's full 0.1–116 GHz operating range.

Facilities of the Green Bank Observatory are also used for other scientific research, for many programs in education and public outreach, and for training students and teachers.

[5][6] The telescope sits near the heart of the United States National Radio Quiet Zone, a unique area located in the town of Green Bank, West Virginia, where authorities limit all radio transmissions to avoid emissions toward the GBT and the Sugar Grove Station.

The observatory borders National Forest land, and the Allegheny Mountains shield it from some radio interference.

[11] The actuators adjust the panel positions to compensate for sagging, or bending under its own weight, which changes as the telescope moves.

The subreflector, positioned by a Stewart platform with 6 degrees of freedom, reflects incoming radio waves toward eight higher-frequency feeds on a rotating turret located on top of the receiver room.

[16][17] Because of its height (at 148 meters or 485 feet tall, it is 60% taller than the Statue of Liberty) and bulk (16 million pounds), locals sometimes refer to the GBT as the “Great Big Thing”.

[31][32][33] The committee, which reviewed all AST-supported facilities and activities, was composed of 17 external scientists and chaired by Daniel Eisenstein of Harvard University.

[31][32][33][34] As part of the committee's August 2012 recommendation for the closure of six facilities, was that the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) should be defunded over a five-year period.

[37] The telescope is a key facility of the Breakthrough Listen project,[38] in which it is used to scan for radio signals possibly emitted by extraterrestrial technologies.

In late 2017, the telescope was used to scan the interstellar object ʻOumuamua for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence as it passed through the solar system.