October 25, 2016: SOFIA Cycle 5 results announced.
The SOFIA Cycle 5 Call for Proposals , released on April 29 2016, solicited observing proposals using SOFIA from the US and International astronomical communities for approximately 476 hours of observing time. It was issued on behalf of NASA by the Universities Space Research Association (USRA). A parallel German SOFIA Cycle 5 proposal call was issued by the Deutsches SOFIA Institut (DSI) on behalf of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) on May 13, offering approximately 75 hours of observing time to astronomers affiliated with German institutions. The deadlines for submitting Phase I proposals were July 1 for the US queue and July 8 for the German queue.
A total of 205 proposals were received ; 179 proposals requesting 1749 hours through the US queue (oversubscription rate of 3.7), and 26 proposals requesting 221 hours through the German queue (oversubscription rate of 2.9). Significant numbers of proposals for each of the instruments offered were received. The proposals underwent technical and feasibility analysis as the SOFIA Science Center in support of the independent peer reviews, which took place independently for the US and German queues. The recommendations of the peer review panels were then merged and approved by the SOFIA Science Mission Operations Director and Deputy Director.
The results of both the US and German queues were announced on October 24, 2016. Successful proposers will be required to submit Phase II proposals following the announcement. For the US queue, it is expected that approximately $5M will be available to support General Investigators based in the US.
The titles and abstracts of approved Cycle 5 programs are available on the results page .
Cycle 5 observations are scheduled to start in February 2017.