Dryden Home > Collections > Photo Home > SOFIA > Photo # ED07-0237-03 |
Tiny two-inch string tufts blanket the telescope cavity door and related fairings to aid visual monitoring of airflow patterns during SOFIA 747SP flight tests. |
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Photo Number: | ED07-0237-03 |
Photo Date: | October 11, 2007 |
Formats: |
640x593 JPEG Image (195 KBytes) 1280x1185 JPEG Image (528 KBytes) 3000x2777 JPEG Image (2348 KBytes) |
Photo Description: |
NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, arrived at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. on May 31, 2007. The heavily modified Boeing 747SP was ferried to Dryden from Waco, Texas, where L-3 Communications Integrated Systems installed a German-built 2.5-meter infrared telescope and made other major modifications over the past several years. SOFIA is scheduled to undergo installation and integration of mission systems and a multi-phase flight test program at Dryden over the next three years that is expected to lead to a full operational capability to conduct astronomy missions in about 2010. During its expected 20-year lifetime, SOFIA will be capable of "Great Observatory" class astronomical science, providing astronomers with access to the visible, infrared and sub-millimeter spectrum with optimized performance in the mid-infrared to sub-millimeter range. |
Project Description: |
NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is being developed as a world-class observatory complementing the Hubble Space Telescope. The observatory, which features a German-built 98.4-inch (2.5 meter) diameter infrared telescope weighing 20 metric tons mounted in a highly-modified Boeing 747SP aircraft, has begun its flight test phase in a joint program by NASA and DLR Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft und Raumfahrt (German Aerospace Center). Major aircraft modifications and installation of the telescope was performed by L-3 Communications Integrated Systems facility at Waco, Texas. Systems integration and flight test operations are being conducted at NASA's Dryden Flight Resarch Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. SOFIA's science and mission operations are managed jointly by the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) and the Deutsches SOFIA Institut (DSI), and are based at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field near San Jose, Calif. Once operational in the 2009-2010 period, SOFIA will be the world's primary infrared observatory during a mission lasting up to 20 years, as well as an outstanding laboratory for developing and testing instrumentation and detector technology. |
NASA Photo by: | Tony Landis |
Keywords: | SOFIA, Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, Clipper Lindbergh, German-built 100-inch (2.5 meter) diameter infrared telescope, 20 tons, highly-modified Boeing 747SP aircraft, DLR Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt (German Aerospace Center), L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, Universities Space Research Association, USRA, Deutsches SOFIA Institut, DSI, flight #5, string tufts |
Dryden Home > Collections > Photo Home > SOFIA > Photo # ED07-0237-03 |
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Last Modified: October 30, 2007 |