Title: The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)

Speaker: Bob Joseph

Institution: IfA

Abstract: SOFIA comprises a 2.5 m telescope built into a Boeing 747
airplane. Its focal plane instrumentation includes an array of 9 of
imagers and spectrometers covering the spectral region from 0.5 µm to 1.6
mm.  It will fly at altitudes between 39 and 45 kft (12-14 km) above
99.8% of the obscuring water vapor.  SOFIA has been under joint
development by the U.S.A. (80%) and Germany (20%) for the past decade.
SOFIA will be operated as a Guest Observer facility similar to any space
astronomy mission. The first science flights are scheduled for next May,
the next call for observing proposals will be in November 09, and the
next call for proposals for new instruments will be in 2010.

I will describe the expected telescope performance and the measurement
capabilities of the SOFIA instrumentation, the proposal preparation and
data analysis support, and give examples of the kinds of science that
might be done using SOFIA.  Finally I will comment on some of the
problems that have been encountered in developing SOFIA, including
schedule and cost overruns, and what I see as the reasons for them.