June 07, 2007
By Edna DeVore, Education and Public Outreach
SETI Institute

NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy left Texas for Southern California on May 31 to continue engineering flight tests at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. A consortium led by Universities Space Research Association (USRA) developed SOFIA as a world-class infrared astronomical observatory for NASA and DLR, Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft und Raumfahrt ( German Aerospace Center). L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, located in Waco, Texas, installed the German-built 2.5-meter infrared telescope and made other major modifications to the 747 over the past several years. The SETI Institute with its partner, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, leads the education and public outreach program for SOFIA as a part of the USRA consortium.

SOFIA’s maiden flight as an observatory occurred on April 27 from Waco, Texas. This 2-hour flight was soon followed by additional engineering flights to assure the NASA Dryden team that SOFIA was ready for her ferry flight to California.

The NASA and German Aerospace Center SOFIA airborne infrared observatory took flight for the first time April 26, 2007, from its modification center in Waco, Texas.

On May 21, Erik Lindbergh, grandson of Charles Lindbergh, re-christened the Boeing 747-SP that was named for his famous grandfather and originally christened by his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, as the Clipper Lindbergh under Pan American ownership. This historic celebration of the aircraft that has been transformed into the infrared observatory, SOFIA, coincided with the 80th anniversary of Lindbergh’s daring solo flight across the Atlantic from Garden City, New York to Paris, France.

Erik Lindbergh christens NASA's 747 Clipper Lindbergh, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, with a special commemorative concoction representing local, NASA, and industry partners. The liquid consisted of a small amount of California wine representing NASA Dryden where the aircraft will be stationed, a small amount of Dr. Pepper (a Waco, TX invention), a quantity of French bottled water (to symbolize Charles Lindbergh's flight to Paris on this date), and a dash of German beer to represent the SOFIA German industry partners.)

The observatory now has a new home in desert of Southern California. At Dryden, 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.

SOFIA over Dryden Caption: NASA's SOFIA, a Boeing 747SP, flies over NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center after a ferry flight from Waco, Texas.

The SOFIA flight crew, consisting of Co-pilot Gordon Fullerton; DFRC, Pilot Bill Brocket; DFRC, Test Conductor Marty Trout; DFRC, Test Engineer Don Stonebrook; L-3, and Flight Engineer Larry Larose; JSC, descend the stairs after ferrying the 747SP airborne observatory from Waco, Texas.

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. SOFIA's science and mission operations are managed jointly by the Universities Space Research Association and the Deutsches SOFIA Institut, 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. For Education and Public Outreach, SOFIA’s Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors program will train teams of educators to participate in flight missions, which will allow this unique NASA Mission to reach schools and the public across the US and Germany.