SOFIA Status Update, 1-15-08SOFIA Visits Ames; To Begin Mission Systems Installation
After a brief visit to NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field near San Jose, Calif., NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy has arrived at its permanent base of flight operations in Palmdale, Calif.
During the one-day visit to NASA Ames Jan. 14, Ames employees, family members and news media representatives had the opportunity to see the highly modified Boeing 747SP with the German-built 2.5-meter (98.4-inch) infrared telescope installed in its rear fuselage. After tours of the aircraft and interviews of project scientists by San Francisco Bay Area news media, several thousand Ames employees and their families had the opportunity to tour the SOFIA during an open house that stretched well into the evening.
Following the visit to Ames, the SOFIA flew to the newly established Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility operated by NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in Palmdale, Calif., where it will be based during additional development, flight testing and its operational lifetime. SOFIA science and mission operations will continue to be managed by NASA Ames…Read morePhoto Description
Two large science aircraft, a DC-8 flying laboratory and the SOFIA 747SP, are based at NASA’s Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif.January 17, 2008
NASA Photo / Tom Tschida
ED08-0022-11