SOFIA is an 80/20 partnership of NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), consisting of an extensively modified Boeing 747SP aircraft carrying a 2.7-meter (106 inch) reflecting telescope (with an effective diameter of 2.5 meters or 100 inches). The aircraft is based at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, Calif. The SOFIA Program Office is at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., which manages SOFIA's science and mission operations in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association (USRA; Columbia, Md.) and the German SOFIA Institute (DSI; University of Stuttgart).

SOFIA Science Instrument Development Library

The SOFIA Science Instrument Development Library is a collection of SOFIA program documents used by investigators, scientists and engineers to support proposals, development, and production of SOFIA science instruments. The library contains the Science Instrument Developers’ Handbook, requirement specifications and a helpful Quick Look Guide that has tips and lessons learned from the SOFIA program and previous instrument developers. Additional information such as the SOFIA Instrument Guide and SOFIA videos related to the science instruments can also be found in this library.