Rather than train astronomers to hold their collective breaths, the telescope enclosure will be sealed off from the main cabin thanks to a double bulkhead designed to withstand up to 100,000 pounds (45,000 kilograms) of pressure. Although the telescope can be maneuvered, most of the targeting will be accomplished by pointing the airplane itself as it flies wide arcs over the Pacific Ocean.
Raytheon Aircraft Integration Services is now modifying the $12 million jet in Waco, Texas for NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The Universities Space Research Association (USRA) is the prime contractor and operator of the facility on behalf of the two agencies. The project will cost $40 million a year to operate.
Buffeted by 550-mile- (880-kilometer-) per-hour winds and the unpredictable jouncing of flight, the telescope will have to withstand conditions that make for an unlikely mix of the worst of both hurricanes and
. The telescope’s specifications say it can operate even in moderate turbulence.
"That’s white-knuckle time," warned Chris Wiltsee, the SOFIA project manager at NASA Ames.
There won’t be flight attendants on the flying observatory, but the scientists, engineers and educators will have use of a refrigerator, microwave and coffee maker.
SOFIA will hardly be the first project to take to the heavens to do infrared astronomy.
Astronomers have used aircraft as observational platforms for infrared projects since the early 1960s, beginning when NASA mounted telescopes on both a Convair CV-990 and a Lear Jet.
The short-lived Convair and Lear projects later gave way to the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO), the first full-fledged airborne astronomical research facility and SOFIA’s predecessor.
KAO – also based at NASA’s Ames Research Center – first took wing in 1974. Its career lasted until 1995, at which point SOFIA had already been under study for nearly a decade.
KAO used a 36-inch (0.9-meter) reflecting telescope mounted aboard a Lockheed C-141A for its science.
Making roughly 72 flights a year, KAO delivered more than many scientists had bargained for, including direct confirmation of
and the stunning 1977 discovery of the nine rings surrounding the planet Uranus.
In 1994, scientists scrambled to fly KAO to watch fragments of the Comet Shoemaker-Levy smash into the planet Jupiter.
Indeed, the ability to dart from spot to spot on Earth gives airborne observatories a distinct advantage over both ground- and space-based telescopes.
"If there’s a target of opportunity, like a comet or a supernova, we’re able to go after it very quickly," said Eric Becklin, SOFIA’s chief scientist and observatory director designate.
