Browse Archive
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SOFIA Observatory Completes First Astronomy Mission
NASA's SOFIA observatory recently completed the first series of early science flights to demonstrate the aircraft's potential to make discoveries about the infrared universe.
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SOFIA: Searching the Heavens for Newborn Stars
SOFIA, NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, soared into the overnight skies on its first science flight Nov. 30, focusing on the Orion nebula and the Sharpless 140 star cluster.
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SOFIA Ready for 'Short Science' Missions
The SOFIA flying observatory underwent several nights of telescope system checkout activities in mid-October in preparation for upcoming early astronomical science flights.
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NASA Advisory Council Tours SOFIA
Bob Meyer, program manager of NASA's SOFIA observatory, points out technical features of the German-built infrared telescope to members of the NASA Advisory Council.
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SOFIA Observatory Prepares For Early Science Flights
NASA's SOFIA flying observatory is scheduled to undergo tests of its entire integrated observatory system with the Faint Object InfraRed Camera mounted on its telescope in October.
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SOFIA Observatory Completes Open-Door Flight Tests
Completion of second segment of flight tests with telescope door open sets stage for early science missions by NASA's SOFIA observatory.
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SOFIA Flight Tests for Early Science Progress
A NASA F/A-18 mission support aircraft keeps pace alongside the SOFIA airborne observatory during a test flight in preparation for Early Science missions.
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NASA'S Airborne Infrared Observatory Sees The "First Light"
The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) achieved a major milestone May 26, with its first in-flight night observations.
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SOFIA Mission Teams Prepare for 'First Light'
The Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, mission operations and science instrument teams are working nights in a dress rehearsal for the airborne observatory’s Telescope Assembly Characterization and 'First Light' flight.
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FORCAST Camera Installed on SOFIA Telescope
Cornell University's Faint Object Infrared Camera for the SOFIA Telescope, or FORCAST, has been installed on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy's 2.5-meter telescope in preparation for the flying telescope's "First Light" mission slated later this month.
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SOFIA Telescope Tracks Celestial Targets in Flight
NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy 747SP completed a seven-hour telescope assembly test flight April 30 that included the first in-flight tracking of celestial objects.
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SOFIA Observatory Nears 'First-Light' Astronomy Mission
Scientists and technicians are preparing NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy – or SOFIA – for a flight in late May when the world's largest airborne telescope will gather long-awaited "first light" infrared observations to validate and verify its astronomical science capabilities.
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USRA Issues First SOFIA Call for Proposals
The Universities Space Research Association has issued the first call for proposals to the astronomical science community for use of the SOFIA airborne observatory.
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SOFIA Exhibit Lands at Hiller Aviation Museum
Aeronautic enthusiasts young and old visited the new SOFIA exhibit at Hiller Aviation Museum on March 30, 2010.
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SOFIA Resumes Flight Tests Leading to Initial Science Flights
NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy – SOFIA – resumed flight envelope expansion test flights over the past two weeks.
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SOFIA Faint-Object Infrared Camera Arrives at NASA Dryden's Palmdale Facility
The Cornell University-designed and built Faint Object InfraRed Camera for the SOFIA Telescope, or FORCAST, was delivered to the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)’s operations base at the NASA Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif., Feb. 8.
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SOFIA Telescope Assembly Activated In Flight
NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy completed a telescope assembly activation test during an almost six-hour flight Jan. 15.
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NASA Airborne Telescope Will Be Used to Study Cosmos
A NASA jumbo jet that will help scientists unlock the origins of the universe with infrared observations reached a milestone Friday when doors covering the plane’s telescope were fully opened in flight.
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NASA's SOFIA Aircraft Resumes Flight Tests
NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, aircraft took to the skies above California's Mojave Desert Dec. 9 on its first flight since January 2008.
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SOFIA Imaging Systems Tested During Nighttime Operations
The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy science team completed checkout of optical star tracking camera systems and conducted telescope assembly preparation exercises.