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NASA's SOFIA Flying Telescope May Be Mothballed This Year

Posted March 05, 2014 8:59 AM

From SPACE.com:

The White House's 2015 federal budget request, which was released today, slashes funding for the space agency's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, a modified Boeing 747 aircraft that scans the heavens using an 8.2-foot-wide telescope.

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Brave Sir Robin
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#1

Re: NASA's SOFIA Flying Telescope May Be Mothballed This Year

03/05/2014 11:40 PM

It cost over a billion dollars to develop and over $100 million per year to operate. Those are some mighty expensive IR pictures of the universe.

I looked through the article to find out if there were any amazing discoveries or important data gathered by this telescope. Couldn't find any. Not on Wikipedia either.

I suppose that since space based IR telescopes eventually run out of coolant to keep the sensors cold, an airborne platform can have it's coolant renewed as necessary so it can continue to operate.
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redfred
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#2
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Re: NASA's SOFIA Flying Telescope May Be Mothballed This Year

03/06/2014 9:23 AM

The real slap in the face can be found in this report. This telescope became fully operational only last month. It is really hard to get a return on your investment in a month.

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Rixter
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#3
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Re: NASA's SOFIA Flying Telescope May Be Mothballed This Year

03/06/2014 10:16 AM

Those are some mighty expensive IR pictures of the universe.

Especially if you build it and then never use it.
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