A technician examines the instrument mounting structure and bulkhead of the German-built infrared telescope installed in NASA’s SOFIA airborne observatory.
Technicians carefully fill the FORCAST camera’s dewers with liquid helium to cool the instrument during pre-installation checkout.
A sharp eye can pick out faint specks of stars reflected by the 100-inch (2.5 meter) primary mirror on NASA’s…
NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy 747SP flies over California’s Mojave Desert during a functional check flight Dec. 9, 2009.
A rotating external door (white) was installed over the telescope cavity in the rear fuselage of NASA’s SOFIA Boeing 747SP…
With a protective cover over its primary mirror, the high-tech German-built infrared telescope is nested in its framework inside the…
With a protective sun cover over its primary mirror, the high-tech German-built infrared telescope is nested in its framework inside…
Composite infrared image of Jupiter from SOFIA’s first light flight at wavelengths of 5.4 (blue), 24 (green) and 37 microns…
SOFIA program officials representing NASA, the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) and Deutsches SOFIA Institut (DSI) line up on the…
Scientists carefully examine data being received during nighttime line operations testing of the SOFIA airborne observatory’s 2.5-meter infrared telescope.