Flying observatory SOFIA for major overhaul at Lufthansa Technik

SOFIA, a modified Boeing 747SP that is operated jointly by the USA’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) as a “Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy”, is undergoing a major overhaul at Lufthansa Technik in Hamburg. The DLR and NASA have selected Lufthansa Technik to perform a major overhaul of the aircraft on account of its claim to have the widest and longest experience at maintaining this aircraft type. SOFIA is the world’s only flying observatory, and in the course of some 90 scientific flights carried out since 2010 it has, amongst other things, investigated how Milky Way systems develop and why stars and planetary systems developed out of interstellar molecular and dust clouds. Integrated into the fuselage is a 17-ton telescope with a mirror diameter of 2.7 meters that was developed in Germany and commissioned by the DLR space management.