NASA retired the Boeing 747SP SOFIA

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The NASA and the German Space Agency ended the mission of the Boeing 747SP Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), after eight successful years in obtaining scientific data. NASA photo

One Boeing 747 more entered his mandatory retirement. On this occasion a legendary 747SP that for several years he carried out unforeseen missions and managed to change the way in which data is obtained from something as far away for the human being as outer space.

Every day there are fewer 747 flying in the world, the last one produced has already left the final assembly line and when its official delivery is made, the end of the production of such an emblematic aircraft that revolutionized the way of flying by air will have come.

The legacy of the Boeing 747SP SOFIA

Fewer four-engines fly over our cities day by day, since its operating costs are higher by consuming more than a twin-engine plane, they also logically pollute more and their entire maintenance line is more expensive, being some of the several main reasons that leads operators around the world to withdraw these aircraft from their fleets and make way for new technologies with more efficient and economical aircraft to operate.

In this context, The same has happened with SOFIA, the Boeing 747SP observatory that NASA together with the German Space Agency had been operating with a very particular mission..

SOFIA is a Boeing 747SP aircraft is modified to carry a reflecting telescope (from 17.000 kilos and 2.5 meters long) and completed his five-year primary mission in 2019 and was already completing a mission extension of three additional years. They were a total of 732 nights in which SOFIA allowed us to look at space like never before.

Specifically, after economic recommendations and by not justifying the investment to the results obtained, the 29 September 2022 this mission was ended with a flight in Palmdale, which was his main base of operations during these years, where he also visited several countries around the world, such as Chile most recently.

SOFIA'S STORY

Is long-lived, but still operational aircraft has more than 45 years since his first flight for the missing Pan Am, where it was received new from the factory in May 1977 with registration N536PA. Later it continued its operations in United Airlines Come in 1986 and 1997, when it finally passes to NASA with its current registration N747NA, operating since then research missions and various services for the production chain of the services of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the USA.

After the end of the program 29 last september, the aircraft remained in Palmdale and the 14 October was transferred to Mountain View, where despite the end of the program, definitive information from NASA about the future of this aircraft is still awaited, being able to continue providing a service in this space agency or that it be definitively withdrawn as its operating costs are not justified.

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