04/30/2015. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is shown with its telescope door partly open during a test flight for its astronomical observation mission.

The SOFIA is a modified Boeing 747SP jetliner that carries a telescope with an effective diameter of 100 in (2.50 m) to altitudes as high as 45,000 ft (13,716 m). Flying above Earth's obscuring atmospheric water vapor, scientists can gather and analyze infrared light to further our understanding of puzzles such as the processes that form stars and planets, the chemistry of organic compounds in interstellar clouds, and the environment around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.

SOFIA is a partnership of NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center (Edwards, California) manages the SOFIA program. NASA's Ames Research Center (Moffett Field, California) manages SOFIA's science mission in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association (USRA; Columbia, Maryland) and the German SOFIA Institute (DSI; Stuttgart, Germany). SOFIA is based at NASA's Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility (DAOF) in Palmdale, SOFIA's education and public outreach programs are managed by a partnership of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif. and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in San Francisco, California."