(NASA)
NASA and the German Air and Space Center (DLR) announced the completion of SOFIA's flying stratospheric astrophysical observatory at the end of September this year. Previously, it was 2023.
SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy), developed by NASA and DLR, began operations in 2010 as the successor to the Kuiper Airborne Observatory.
It is a modified Boeing 747SP wide-body aircraft that houses a 2.7-meter infrared telescope. The payload consists of seven scientific instruments.
Observations are carried out when the observatory is at an altitude of 12-14 kilometers in the Earth's stratosphere.
SOFIA studies star-forming regions and the interstellar medium of the Milky Way, solar system objects, exoplanets, supernova remnants, and other galaxies.
Back in 2019, NASA concluded that the observatory was not very efficient, but the project continued to exist.
However, the authors of NASA's new 10-year astrophysical review recommended that the project be phased out in 2023, and the agency recently decided not to release money for it in 2023.
However, on April 28, NASA and DLR announced that they would be shutting down the observatory this year, no later than September 30.
Until then, SOFIA has 70 more flights, of which more than 30 will be in New Zealand.
At the same time, not all of the more than a hundred previously approved observatory observation programs will be completed by the end of September, their future fate will be announced later.
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