SOFIA Final Flight

Composite image of SOFIA aircraft with Orion magnetic fields in the background and a swoosh depicting various mission patches. At the bottom are thumbnails of significant SOFIA science images.

With its observations, SOFIA’s traveled throughout the universe, and the aircraft traveled the world. SOFIA temporarily changed its home of operations 17 times after achieving “first light” to observe time-sensitive phenomena and parts of the sky not readily observable from its home base in Palmdale, California. SOFIA observed a wide variety of objects in our solar system, our galaxy, and beyond. Credit: NASA/SOFIA

SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, was a Boeing 747SP aircraft modified to carry a 2.7-meter (106-inch) reflecting telescope (with an effective diameter of 2.5 meters or 100 inches). Flying into the stratosphere at 38,000-45,000 feet put SOFIA above 99 percent of Earth’s infrared-blocking atmosphere, allowing astronomers to study the solar system and beyond in ways that are not possible with ground-based telescopes. SOFIA was a joint project of NASA and the German Space Agency at DLR.