SOFIA’s primary mirror assembly rests in its transportation cradle prior to reinstallation in NASA’s airborne laboratory on Oct. 8, 2008.
NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy 747SP reached a milestone Dec. 18, 2009, when the doors covering the aircraft’s German-built…
With the sliding door over its 17-ton infrared telescope wide open, NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy – or SOFIA…
On a hazy day over Edwards Air Force Base flight test range, A NASA F/A-18 mission support aircraft maintains tight…
A NASA Technician directs loading of the crated SOFIA primary mirror assembly into a C-17 for shipment to NASA Ames…
SOFIA’s primary mirror assembly is cradled on its dolly as technicians prepare to move it into a “clean room” at…
The cavernous expanse of the Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif., now houses NASA’s DC-8 science laboratory and SOFIA…
The high-tech German-built infrared telescope and its associated lower flexible telescope cavity door are rotated upward to their maximum 58-degree…
Technicians carefully maneuver a spreader bar into place before removing the telescope aperture assembly from NASA’s SOFIA infrared observatory Boeing…
NASA’s new SOFIA observatory shared the ramp with its predecessor, the now-retired Kuiper Airborne Observatory, during open house at NASA…
