USRA/SOFIA Public Affairs
Mike Bennett
(650) 604-2128
email: mbennett@astrosociety.org

NASA Ames Research Center
Public Affairs Office
Mike Mewhinney
(650) 604-3937
e-mail: mmewhinnery@mail.arc.nasa.gov

More background text and color images are available
at the SOFIA web site: http://sofia.arc.nasa.gov

In a unique cooperative program, NASA, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and an international contractor team are working together to create SOFIA – a 2.5-meter (98.5-inch)-diameter reflecting telescope mounted in a modified Boeing 747SP. SOFIA will be the largest airborne telescope in the world, making observations that are impossible for even the largest, highest ground-based infrared telescopes. The contractor team, lead by the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), is responsible for developing and subsequently operating the observatory for NASA.

USRA will base SOFIA operations at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Federal Airfield near Mountain View, California. With an expected operating lifetime of 20 years or more, it is scheduled to begin science operations in late 2004.

A large transport-type aircraft such as the Boeing 747SP, designed for extended cruising in the stratosphere, is particularly well-suited for infrared astronomy. Because most infrared radiation is absorbed by atmospheric water vapor, ground-based observations are limited to certain wavelength bands. SOFIA will complement earth-based infrared observations, and also space-based infrared telescopes, which are able to observe all infrared bands with higher sensitivity, but which have shorter lifetimes and cannot carry such large science instruments nor as many different instruments as an airborne observatory can. Flying above 41,000 feet, an airborne observatory is above more than 99% of the Earth's atmospheric water vapor and thus has virtually unrestricted access to infrared wavelengths. In addition, instruments and other technologies can be easily upgraded to stay at the state-of-the-art over the life of the observatory, unlike space-based telescopes.

Many astronomical objects emit infrared radiation through a multitude of rich, varied physical processes, revealing astronomical phenomena occurring in otherwise hidden regions of the cosmos. Previous ground-based, satellite and airborne infrared observatories have explored this region of the spectrum, revealing many new opportunities for research. As a component of NASA's Origins Program, SOFIA will exploit and extend this scientific legacy by means of high spectral- and spatial-resolution observations spanning the infrared domain. Topics to be addressed by SOFIA scientists include:

• Interstellar cloud physics and star formation in our galaxy
• Proto-planetary disks and planet formation in nearby star systems
• Origin and evolution of biogenic atoms, molecules and solids
• Composition and structure of comets and planetary atmospheres and rings
• Star formation, dynamics, and chemical content of other galaxies
• The dynamic activity in the center of the Milky Way.

In addition to these contributions to scientific knowledge, SOFIA will be a major factor in the development of observing techniques, of instrumentation and education of young scientists. It will include a robust program in K-12 science education and public outreach.

As part of its privatization program NASA conducted a rigorous competitive bidding process, culminating on December 16, 1996 with a $484.2 million prime contract award to USRA to design, build, integrate, test and operate SOFIA.

Contractual oversight of the project resides at NASA’s Ames Research Center. In addition, Ames is contributing to the aircraft cavity door design, facilities design and support and scientific analysis.

The USRA was founded in 1969 under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences to provide a mechanism through which universities, the government and private industry can cooperate to further space science and technology and to further education in these areas. It is a non-profit consortium of 80 universities and colleges.

USRA is responsible for overall project management and for both the development and scientific operations of the observatory. As prime contractor, the USRA leads a subcontractor team of companies, non-profit organizations and universities:

• L-3 Communications Integrated Systems is responsible for the design engineering, airframe structural modifications and aircraft flight test activities. The aircraft is currently located at L3's Waco, Texas facility, where it will remain during telescope installation and initial flight testing.

• United Airlines supplied the Boeing 747SP from its fleet. United, which is developing the SOFIA aircraft flight and maintenance capability, will provide flight and maintenance crews and carry out SOFIA aircraft flight and maintenance operations.

• The University of California at Berkeley, Los Angeles, Irvine, and Santa Cruz will provide science support, instruments, portions of the user interface software, data archiving expertise, optical testing, and experience in mirror coating and cleaning.

• The education and public outreach programs for SOFIA are being handled by a partnership of two non-profit education and scientific organizations, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the SETI Institute. SOFIA’s robust education programs include provision for educators to fly aboard SOFIA during routine missions and to actively participate in the research process.

Under an agreement between NASA and DLR, the German Aerospace Center, SOFIA's 2.5-meter-diameter telescope is being designed and constructed in Germany by a consortium of German companies, led by MAN Technologie and including Kayser-Threde, GMBH. The telescope is scheduled to be delivered to Waco in 2002. DLR will provide 20% of the operational support for SOFIA, and German scientists will have access to 20% of SOFIA's observing time.

Seven first-light instruments are under development in the United States. They are:

• Occultation CCD Photometer/Imager. Lowell Observatory (HIPO)
• Multi-purpose Near-Infrared Test Camera. UCLA (FLITECAM)
• Far Infrared Bolometer Camera. University of Chicago (HAWC)
• Mid Infrared Camera. Cornell University (FORCAST)
• Echelon Spectrometer. University of Texas (EXES)
• Heterodyne Spectrometer. California Institute of Technology (CASIMIR)
• Bolometer Array Spectrometer. Goddard Spaceflight Center (SAFIRE)

In addition, the German science community has two instruments in the development stage.

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August 28, 2002