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SOFIA eNewsletter for Scientists

v17 May 2, 2007

SOFIA makes its first flight!

Below is our seventeenth SOFIA Electronic Newsletter to the astronomical community. We describe SOFIA's first flight (!!), and other recent program developments.You'll find related images and video linked at the bottom of this page. Previous newsletter editions are here. Please email comments and/or inquiries to sofia@sofia.usra.edu.

Regards and best wishes,

Click here to view newsletter images and video

AIRCRAFT DEVELOPMENTS

The modified B747SP SOFIA aircraft - originally christened "Clipper Lindbergh" - took flight for the first time last Thursday, April 26! This major milestone occurred at Waco, Texas where the plane has been undergoing modification and maintenance by L-3 Communications Integrated Systems for the past decade. The plane flew for nearly two hours at altitudes up to 10,500 feet (3.2 km). NASA's test pilot, former astronaut Gordon Fullerton, said the plane flies well. On-board instrumentation and two F-18 chase planes monitored the flight, with no resulting concerns deemed significant. The telescope was caged with its hydraulic bearing pressurized throughout the flight. This was a great moment for all SOFIA enthusiasts! Images of the airborne SOFIA are on the link given above.

Extensive engineering and safety reviews were held prior to authorization> of this flight, under supervision of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC), which has taken sole responsibility for SOFIA flight safety. Structural modifications of the plane were completed about a year ago. The telescope, provided by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), was installed in the plane in 2003.

After completion of a few more test flights in Waco, SOFIA will be flown to DFRC at Edwards Air Force Base in California, probably in late May. There it is scheduled to undergo an extensive inspection before beginning further test flights in September. SOFIA will be certified by NASA for flight with personnel participating in its missions, as was its predecessor, the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO).

PROGRAMMATIC DEVELOPMENTS

Dryden presently manages the program and leads the airborne platform development; NASA Ames leads the science-related activities. The entire SOFIA team is developing a coordinated schedule that currently shows science community participation in observations beginning in 2010. As reported in our previous Newsletter (v. 16), NASA, the DLR, and their contractors (principally the Universities Space Research Association, USRA, and the Deutsches SOFIA Institut, DSI) are working to enable demonstration science observations about a year earlier.

NASA Associate Administrator Rex Geveden announced in late March that SOFIA flight operations will be based at and be the responsibility of DFRC for the duration of the program. He specified that when SOFIA reaches its full operational capability, the program management will be transferred to NASA Ames at Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View, California. Under this plan, Ames will be responsible for science planning and support for the operating lifetime of SOFIA. A Science Management Operations Review (SMOR) team met at Ames in February, and will reconvene in late June to examine this baseline and other relevant observing programs.

SCIENCE PROGRAM INFORMATION

Please contact Dana Backman (dbackman@sofia.usra.edu) if your institution would like a scientific colloquium - including information on SOFIA's capabilities and future observing opportunities - by a member of SOFIA's science staff.

Two articles containing general information for astronomers about the SOFIA program are available as PDF files below:

• Becklin, Tielens, & Callis 2007
• Erickson 2004

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Page Last Updated: May 2, 2007