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NASA’s Plane Telescope SOFIA Damaged During Mission

NASA's Plane Telescope SOFIA Damaged During Mission

Plane Carrying NASA’s New Telescope SOFIA Damaged During Flight!

 
Boeing 747 carrying NASA’s telescope was damaged during the mission in New Zealand. The event due to storm caused the telescope called SOFIA to make a forced landing. NASA announced that damage assessment studies are continuing.
 
The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) used a telescope called SOFIA some time ago. This telescope was quite different from anything we’ve seen so far. Because SOFIA was a Boeing 747. NASA, which placed equipment to watch infrared rays coming towards Earth on this huge passenger plane, was studying the depths of the sky with the plane flying at 40,000 feet.
 
Loaded with NASA equipment, SOFIA was flying over New Zealand on its final mission. But, it has been announced that SOFIA has been downloaded recently and will not be able to be for a long time. This was because a storm on Monday, July 18, damaged the plane. In the statements made by NASA, it was stated that the damage assessment studies continue.
 

Won’t fly until the repair is complete

 
In the official statement, it was stated that the strong wind damaged both the front of the plane and the ladders placed on the fuselage of the plane. Fortunately, no crew was harmed during the time the telescope was in the air, which was used at a height of kilometers.
 

SOFIA was about to complete its mission

 
NASA designed SOFIA together with German scientists and has been using it for years. NASA officials, who took a decision according to the reports prepared last year, decided that SOFIA would not be used as of September 2022. The mission in the skies of New Zealand was one of the last missions of this giant telescope. But, the storm has disrupted the process. Authorities have not made any statement about whether the Boeing 747 will fly again after the repair.

NASA 747 SOFIA flight schedule

 

Cycle 9 Flight Series
Series ID Instrument Flight Date Flights Location
OC9A FORECAST Tue, Jul 6, 2021, to Thu, Jul 8, 2021 3 Palmdale
OC9B GREAT Mon, Jul 12, 2021, to Tue, Jul 13, 2021 2 Palmdale
OC9C GREAT Fri, Jul 23, 2021, to Fri, Aug 20, 2021 20 French Polynesia
OC9D HAWC+ Wed, Aug 25, 2021, to Fri, Sep 10, 2021 11 Palmdale
OC9E HAWC+ Thu, Oct 28, 2021, to Thu, Nov 4, 2021 6 Palmdale
OC9F GREAT Mon, Nov 8, 2021, to Tue, Nov 23, 2021 10 Palmdale
OC9G EXES Tue, Nov 30, 2021, to Fri, Dec 3, 2021 4 Palmdale
OC9H HAWC+ Mon, Dec 6, 2021, to Wed, Dec 22, 2021 11 Palmdale
OC9I FIFI-LS Tue, Dec 21, 2021, to Fri, Jan 21, 2022 13 Palmdale
OC9J FORECAST Mon, Jan 24, 2022, to Fri, Feb 18, 2022 16 Palmdale
OC9K EXES Tue, Feb 22, 2022, to Thu, Mar 10, 2022 12 Palmdale
OC9L FIFI-LS Mon, Mar 14, 2022, to Tue, Mar 15, 2022 2 Palmdale
OC9M FIFI-LS Sun, Mar 20, 2022, to Tue, Mar 29, 2022 8 Santiago, Chile
OC9N GREAT Tue, Apr 5, 2022, to Thu, Apr 21, 2022 12 Palmdale
OC9O EXES Mon, Apr 25, 2022, to Thu, May 5, 2022 8 Palmdale
OC9P FORECAST Mon, May 9, 2022, to Thu, May 26, 2022 12 Palmdale
OC9Q HAWC+ Tue, May 31, 2022, to Thu, Jun 9, 2022 8 Palmdale
OC9R HAWC+ Tue, Jun 21, 2022, to Wed, Jul 6, 2022 12 Christchurch
OC9S GREAT Sun, Jul 10, 2022, to Sun, Aug 7, 2022 20 Christchurch
OC9T FIFI-LS Mon, Aug 29, 2022, to Thu, Sep 1, 2022 4 Palmdale
OC9U FORECAST Tue, Sep 6, 2022, to Sat, Sep 17, 2022 8 Palmdale
OC9V HAWC+ Wed, Sep 21, 2022, to Wed, Sep 28, 2022 6 Palmdale

 

Where is NASA SOFIA now?

Last September, NASA sent SOFIA to New Zealand for the last time, on a mission to perform final experiments. SOFIA is scheduled to stop operations in 2022.

What did NASA’s SOFIA recently do?

In the eight years since SOFIA began its Flights and observations, astronomers have studied the properties of the Moon, planets, stars, star-forming regions, and nearby galaxies.
As NASA 747 SOFIA continues to work, these observations have been made public, so that all researchers and enthusiasts can enjoy this information.

What has been detected with the SOFIA telescope?

SOFIA used electromagnetic field measurements to measure magnetic fields in galaxies, found water on the sunlit parts of the Moon, and confirmed that helium, the first type of ion to form in the Universe. That said, NASA spends about $85 million a year on the project.

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