NASA's Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)

Cycle 2 applications will be accepted March 1 - May 3, 2013.

Cycle 2 application process and requirements will be similar to Cycle 1, as described below.

Updated details available early 2013. 

NASA and the DLR, German Aerospace Center, together created SOFIA — a Boeing 747SP aircraft modified by L-3 Communications Integrated Systems to accommodate a 2.5 meter reflecting telescope. SOFIA is the largest airborne observatory in the world, and makes observations that are impossible for even the largest and highest of ground-based telescopes. SOFIA is an 80%/20% partnership with the German Space Agency (DLR). The Observatory was developed for NASA and DLR by a team of international government and industry experts led by Dryden Flight Research Center; the Program is divided into two main "Projects": the Platform Project (the aircraft and its subsystems), managed by DFRC, and the Science Project, managed by NASA Ames Research Center. SOFIA is based at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, adjacent to Edwards Air Force Base in southern California. SOFIA's science and mission operations center are located at NASA Ames Research Center in northern California.

SOFIA Education and Public Outreach is geared for people involved in science education such as teachers, museum or planetarium workers, youth or community organization workers and volunteers, scientists doing outreach education, or journalists writing about science education.

Airborne Astronomy Ambassador (AAA) Program Cycle 1 Ambassadors Selected
Twenty-six educators from the United States have been selected for research flights aboard SOFIA, NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. As participants in the Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors program, the educators will partner with professional astronomers using SOFIA for scientific observations in 2012 and 2013. Read more.

Airborne Astronomy Ambassador (AAA) Program
SOFIA’s Education & Outreach program managers seek bids to implement a formative and summative evaluation program for the upcoming  SOFIA AAA Cycle 1 phase corresponding to the  Cycle 1 science phase. Proposals are due February 8, 2012, details available <PDF>

AAA program participants will fly on overnight missions, at altitudes of up to 45,000 feet, in the main cabin. The 8 – 10 hour flight experience will be similar in environmental conditions (temperature, seating, turbulence) to a regular commercial airline flight, although interior noise level will be somewhat higher. Participants must be able to walk up a steep and narrow stairway unassisted, sit for an extended period of time in a pressurized cabin and carry flight materials unassisted. AAA program applicants and members must be a US Citizen or legal resident teaching in a U.S. school.

For further information or questions, please contact-
Pamela Harman (SETI Institute Education and Outreach Manager) via email at: pharman@seti.org or
(650) 960-4523