Several NASA science aircraft, including (from bottom) the SOFIA observatory, the DC-8 airborne laboratory and an ER-2 high-altitude aircraft, along…
The German-built 100-inch telescope that is the heart of NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy is nestled in the SOFIA…
Several NASA aircraft, including the SOFIA observatory in the foreground, the DC-8 airborne laboratory, an ER-2 high-altitude science aircraft and…
The rear fuselage of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy’s 747SP is illuminated during telescope testing operations in preparation for…
This close-up of the German-built telescope assembly seen through the open telescope cavity door in the side of NASA’s SOFIA…
ED09-0279-15 This close up of SOFIA’s German-built telescope assembly offers a view of both the primary and secondary mirrors, the…
NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, 747SP flies above California’s Mojave Desert during a functional check flight Dec.…
The high-tech German-built infrared telescope and its associated lower flexible telescope cavity door are rotated upward to their maximum 58-degree…
Thousands of NASA Ames employees and their families toured NASA’s SOFIA flying observatory during its first visit to NASA Ames…
