NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Safely protected in its shipping crate, the telescope mirror assembly for NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, is carefully unloaded from an Air Force C-17 transport plane upon arrival at the NASA Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif. on Sept. 17, 2008. The mirror had received its reflective coating at NASA's Ames Research Center's Mirror Coating Facility in late June, and is due to be re-installed in the SOFIA aircraft, a highly modified Boeing 747SP, in October.   NASA Photo / Tony Landis