Spotted by a friend in at Christchurch Airport

[DavidTrap]

A friend from NZ posted this pic on FB - apparently parked outside the US Antarctic facility at Christchurch airport.

It's the Sofia 747 that houses a telescope under a hatch that can be opened in flight. Used for high altitude infra-red imaging.

DT

[bigjoe]

Whats NASA secretly been up to once again.Hmmm.
Never A Straight Answer Strikes again!:)

[DavidTrap]

Secretly??

[seeker372011]

Very cool

[stephenb]

No secret . I've been following them on Twitter for sometime and here is the mission page: http://www.sofia.usra.edu/News/news_2013/07_18_13/index.html

[DavidTrap]

And another link (http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/july/nasas-sofia-investigates-the-southern-sky-from-new-zealand-0/#.Ueug46ze3K0). (Probably very similar to the first link)

DT

[multiweb]

How do they keep the whole thing steady enough?

[naskies]

Very interesting! Does anyone have a link to technical information about how it works?

[OICURMT]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratospheric_Observatory_for_Infra red_Astronomy