SOFIA Airborne Observatory Passes Technical Review

WASHINGTON -- NASA announced June 15 that a senior review board found no "insurmountable technical or programmatic challenges" to the completion of the SOFIA flying astronomy observatory, but pointedly noted that the U.S. space agency has not decided whether to stick with the over-budget and behind-schedule program or cancel it.

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a 747 jetliner equipped with a German-built infrared telescope, has been on the chopping block since the beginning of the year. NASA shocked the astronomy community and annoyed its German partners when it sent Congress a budget request in February that included no money for SOFIA. NASA said at the time that it put SOFIA on hold in order to evaluate the technical challenges standing in the way of completing the observatory and beginning its first science flights.

"We placed the program on hold last February because of programmatic and technical issues," NASA Associate Administrator Rex Geveden, the agency's third-in-command, said in a June 15 statement. "Since that time, we have thoroughly reviewed the program and now are confident that SOFIA can resolve those issues. However, it is not yet clear whether SOFIA represents the best investment of space science funding, and we will need to consider funding options and sources before we decide to continue the mission."

Geveden chairs NASA's Program Management Council, the review board senior NASA managers that met June 15 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to take up the SOFIA question. Immediately following the meeting, NASA headquarters issued a press release stating that the Program Management Council "concluded that there were no insurmountable technical or programmatic challenges to the continued development" of SOFIA. The release also said that the agency has a "technically viable plan" for completing development of the flying observatory provided the money can be found.

NASA has spent approximately $500 million on SOFIA since 1996. Prior to putting the program on hold, NASA estimated that SOFIA's first science flights would not begin before 2008.

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