NASA’s flying observatory SOFIA is scheduled to make one final flight to its ultimate resting place. The jumbo jet might be spending its retirement years on the Pima Air & House Museum in Tucson, Arizona, the place it will likely be on show for its adoring followers.
SOFIA, or the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, spent greater than 15 years observing planets, comets, and asteroids throughout its lengthy airplane rides. The plane is a modified Boeing 747SP jet, fitted with a reflecting telescope. SOFIA cruised by Earth’s stratosphere, whereas its telescope poked out of a big door that remained open throughout flight. The observatory’s infrared devices gathered essential information on the cosmos from between 38,000 and 45,000 ft above the floor, which is clearly far greater than ground-based telescopes.
The hybrid jet took off in April 2007 and accomplished its final science mission on September 29. Since then, SOFIA has been chilling at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Analysis Middle in Palmdale, California. However the plane will take off one final time, flying to Arizona on Tuesday, December 13, NASA announced on Thursday.
There, SOFIA might be housed at Pima, one of many largest aerospace museums on this planet. The museum will put together the plane at its restoration facility earlier than SOFIA makes its public debut.
“The SOFIA mission has a strong potential to encourage, from its discoveries concerning the unknown in our universe, to the engineering achievements that broke new floor, to the worldwide cooperation that made all of it potential,” Paul Hertz, senior advisor for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA, stated within the NASA assertion. “We’re excited SOFIA will proceed to interact a various new technology of scientists, engineers, and explorers.”
SOFIA was one of many casualties of a NASA funds lower in 2021, with the house company stating that its “science productiveness doesn’t justify its working prices.” Throughout its time within the air, SOFIA turned its consideration to Pluto, Saturn’s moon Titan, and the stays of a supernova.
It’s a disgrace that SOFIA’s mission needed to come to an finish, however the plane is definitely getting the retirement plan it deserves.
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