SOFIA Mission patch

NASA’s new airborne observatory, SOFIA, is a Boeing 747SP tted with a 17-ton, 100-inch (2.5-meter) diameter infrared telescope. The observatory operates between 39,000 feet and 45,000 feet (12 and 14 km). Operated jointly by NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), SOFIA is a world-class observatory that will complement the Hubble, Herschel and James Webb space telescopes and major Earth-based telescopes.

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