NASA's SOFIA Flying Telescope Heads to Retirement Home at Pima Air & Space Museum

NASA's Retired SOFIA Flying Telescope Heads to Museum

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) will be immortalized at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona.

NASA's SOFIA flying telescope is pictured in flight. — NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) made its final flight in September and will soon go on display at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona. (Photo: NASA)

By Hanneke Weitering • Science & Technology Editor

December 22, 2022

NASA’s SOFIA flying telescope, retired in September after 12 years of observing the cosmos from the stratosphere in a modified Boeing 747, is moving to its permanent home at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona.

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) made its final flight on December 13, departing from its old headquarters at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center at Palmdale Regional Airport in California. After taking off, the aircraft’s pilots conducted one last low-altitude flyby of the area “with a wing tilt to acknowledge everyone in the community who has supported and worked on SOFIA,” NASA officials wrote in a blog post. SOFIA landed at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, where it is undergoing final preparations before going on display at the museum.

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