1 Status of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy
Status of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) R. D. Gehrza, E. E. Becklinb, J. de Buizerb, T. Herterc, L. D. Kellerd, A. Krabbee, P. M. f f b f b b Marcum , T. L. Roellig , G. H. L. Sandell , P. Temi , W. D. Vacca , E. T. Young , and H. Zinneckere,g aDepartment of Astronomy, School of Physics and Astronomy, 116 Church Street, S. E., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA bUniversities Space Research Association, NASA Ames Research Center, MS 211-3, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA cAstronomy Department, 202 Space Sciences Building, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853- 6801, USA dDepartment of Physics, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA eDeutsches SOFIA Institut, Universität Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 31, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany fNASA Ames Research Center, MS 245-6, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA gSOFIA Science Center, NASA Ames Research Center, MS N211-3, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA Abstract The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a joint U.S./German project, is a 2.5-meter infrared airborne telescope carried by a Boeing 747-SP that flies in the stratosphere at altitudes as high as 45,000 feet (13.72 km). This facility is capable of observing from 0.3 µm to 1.6 mm with an average transmission greater than 80 percent. SOFIA will be staged out of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center aircraft operations facility at Palmdale, CA. The SOFIA Science Mission Operations (SMO) will be located at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA. First science flights began in 2010 and a full operations schedule of up to one hundred 8 to 10 hour flights per year will be reached by 2014.
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