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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratosph ... _AstronomyNASA photo / Jim Ross - NASA WebSite http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/4714 ... 0_full.jpg
https://simpleflying.com/nasa-end-sofia ... 7-project/Unique Boeing 747: NASA Will End The SOFIA Program Before October 2022
BY DANIEL MARTÍNEZ GARBUNO
PUBLISHED 12 HOURS AGO
Sadly, NASA and DLR have decided to end the project. On Thursday, NASA announced SOFIA will end operations no later than September 30, 2022, at the conclusion of its current mission.
SOFIA completed its five-year prime mission in 2019 and is currently completing a three-year mission extension.
https://www.space.com/nasa-sofia-flying ... y-shutdownNASA first began using SOFIA, a modified Boeing 747SP registration N747NA, between 2009 and 2010. On May 26, 2010, SOFIA delivered its first image of the solar system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratosph ... _AstronomyFollowing a zero-funding allocation in the White House's 2023 federal budget request in March 2022,
NASA and its partners at the German Aerospace Center (known by its German acronym, DLR)
said they have agreed to close out operations of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) mission.
DLR and NASA cited guidance from the astrophysics decadal survey
— a community-informed document generating top priorities for astrophysics research during the next 10 years — in making that call.
The latest astrophysics decadal, which came out in November 2021,
also recommended that SOFIA,
which costs about $85 million per year to operate, be shut down.
Boeing assigned serial number 21441 (line number 306) to the airframe that would eventually become SOFIA. The first flight of this aircraft was on April 25, 1977 and Boeing delivered the aircraft to Pan American World Airways on May 6, 1977. The aircraft received its first aircraft registration, N536PA and Pan American placed the aircraft into commercial passenger service.[12] Shortly thereafter, Pan Am named this aircraft in honor of aviator Charles Lindbergh. At the invitation of Pan Am, Lindbergh's widow, Anne, christened the aircraft Clipper Lindbergh on May 20, 1977, the 50th anniversary of the beginning of her husband's historic flight from New York to Paris in 1927.[12]
United Airlines purchased the plane on February 13, 1986 and the aircraft received a new aircraft registration, N145UA. The aircraft remained in service until December, 1995, when United Airlines placed the aircraft in storage near Las Vegas.[15]
On April 30, 1997, the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) purchased the aircraft for use as an airborne observatory. On October 27, 1997 NASA purchased the aircraft from USRA.[15]
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