NASA’s SOFIA telescope has made its way back to California after over a month flying missions from Cologne Bonn Airport. The telescope is mounted on a Boeing 747SP and is the world’s only flying infrared observatory. The aircraft is now back at its home base of Palmdale, California, preparing for its next mission.
Special missions
SOFIA, or Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, is a specialized telescope flying on a Boeing 747SP. The telescope is a joint project by NASA and DLR, flying missions around the world to record sensitive data about ongoing space phenomena. In February, SOFIA began its first mission from Cologne, Germany.
According to Aviation24, the telescope flew 15 eight to nine hour flights over the Atlantic, Scandanavia, and the Mediterranean during its time at Cologne. The purpose of the missions was to study matter in interstellar space and the effect on the matter by cosmic radiation, along with learning more about the birth of massive stars.
Missions began on February 9th and last was on March 12th, following which the plane began planning its trip back home to the US. Notably, the 747SP found an enthusiastic following both in Cologne and online too with many excited to see the aircraft flying in Europe for non-maintenance purposes.
The mission went well too, with Dr. Walther Pelzer, the Head of German Space Agency saying,
“At Cologne Bonn Airport, we were provided with the best possible conditions for our scientific campaign and we would like to thank the Airport sincerely for their amazing cooperation. Our researchers were able to carry out observations for almost 100% of the time that was available and we are now very excited to see what the analyses of their work will bring.”
Back home
The specialized Boeing 747SP, registered N747NA, began its flight back to Palmdale, California on March 16th. The aircraft took off from Cologne at 11:17 AM local for the nearly 12-hour long transatlantic journey. The flight took a fairly straight path over Greenland and Canada before flying south into the US.
The aircraft landed in Palmdale Regional Airport (or USAF Plant 42) at 14:37 local time. The next destination for the aircraft is currently unknown but it will likely resume flying missions from the airport soon.
In the sky
The SOFIA telescope captures infrared images of the solar space during its overnight flights. The telescope, with its wide array of instruments, is deployed between 38,000 and 45,000 feet to avoid nearly all infrared-blocking atmosphere on earth. It is the world’s only flying infrared telescope and can capture images impossible from the ground.
Have you ever seen the Boeing 747SP or SOFIA in action? Let us know in the comments!