The Universities Space Research Association (USRA) and a team including United Airlines and Raytheon E-Systems has been awarded a ten-year, $484 million, contract by NASA to design, assemble, test and operate the Stratospheric Observatory For Infra-red Astronomy (SOFIA), a modified Boeing 747 equipped with a 2.5m-diameter telescope.
The SOFIA is expected to be flown in 2001 and will be the world's largest flying astronomical observatory. Prime contractor USRA is a consortium of more than 80 US universities, set up to manage scientific-research programmes. United Airlines will supply the 747-SP and manage flight operations. The aircraft will be modified by Raytheon. The telescope is being developed and built by MAN of Germany. DARA, the German space agency, is providing 20% of the total funds, with NASA supplying the remainder
The SOFIA's telescope will be designed to study the infra-red radiation given off by planets, stars, the centre of Earth's galaxy, and even distant galaxies. Infra-red radiation is a form of light not directly visible to the human eye, and most of it is blocked by water vapour in the Earth's atmosphere.
Flying at higher than 41,000ft (14,350m), the SOFIA will be above 99% of the interfering water vapour, and will have a view of the universe unmatched by ground-based telescopes.
Source: Flight International