Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)

The joint U.S. and German Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), project has been operating airborne astronomy flights from Palmdale, California since 2011. The observatory consists of a modified 747sp aircraft with a 2.5meter telescope in the tail section. In addition to observing flights out of Palmdale, Ca. this airborne observatory has been able to take advantage of its mobility to observe in the southern hemisphere (New Zealand), to perform multi-wavelength observations of the Super Novae (SN 2014b) in 2014, and to intersect the track of a Pluto Occultation in the southern hemisphere just a few weeks prior to the New Horizons mission fly by of the planet in summer 2015. Science results, observatory operations, current instrument status and participation in future instrument developments, over the lifetime of the observatory will be discussed.