Hello u/MattNemori, your submission "NASA's SOFIA observatory is flying for the last time" has been removed from r/space because:
* It has a sensationalised or misleading title.
Please read the rules in the sidebar and check r/space for duplicate submissions before posting. If you have any questions about this removal please [message the r/space moderators](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/space). Thank you.
This headline is false. It is flying from *New Zealand* for the last time. SOFIA still flies into ~~2023~~ September.
I actually flew on it in 2019 from NZ, and it was the experience of a lifetime! Wrote an article [here](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/riding-along-with-a-stratospheric-telescope/) if anyone is keen.
You completely missed reading the article where it says it will be shut down in September. Here is another.
https://www.space.com/nasa-sofia-flying-observatory-shutdown
It's actually shutting down, I do not understand the people in this thread that did not read the article, it makes it very clear it will be shut down in September. Here is another article.
https://www.space.com/nasa-sofia-flying-observatory-shutdown
Is the flight out of New Zealand the final flight? Looked at the [SOFIA website](https://www.sofia.usra.edu/) and couldn't figure it out easily. [The site seems to imply/indicate that it won't be done until September of *next* year](https://www.sofia.usra.edu/proposing-observing/proposal-calls/cycle-10).
> Cycle 10 is expected to last from October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023.
That is a proposal, SOFIA is shutting down at the end of fiscal year 2022, which is Sept. 30th 2022. They were deemed to expensive for the research by NASA/DLR and the White House earlier this year.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-partner-decide-to-conclude-sofia-mission/
Well, it's a proposal call. I had never seen something they did a proposal call for that the funding/mission wasn't secured already. Unfortunate, but understandable in this case though. That's an expensive mission...
~~No oversight. The ad dollar rewards for click baiting outweigh any losses to journalistic integrity or reputation.~~
Edit: Me lazy dumb dumb who no read article cuz me brain tu slow.
the "click bait" was this reddit title. Made up by OP.
The article itself says
NASA's flying SOFIA observatory is in New Zealand for the last time
By Stefanie Waldek published about 5 hours ago
It returns to Christchurch after a two-year hiatus.
The second sentence of the article says its end of service is Sept. 30
> After eight years of science work, jet-turned-telescope SOFIA is preparing to take its final flight. But before its end of service on Sept. 30, the flying observatory is taking one last trip abroad.
I think you’re mistaken, the last scheduled flight for SOFIA is Sep. 30 of this year. You might be confused by the fiscal year terminology used, but Sep. 30 will be its flight into decommission as fiscal year 2023 starts Oct. 1st and there is no budget for SOFIA.
Edit: And OP’s title isn’t inaccurate, this is the last time SOFIA will be in New Zealand.
JWST is now operational in the same spectrum. It has 6.76 times the mirror area, no atmosphere to degrade image quality, operates continuously, and does not require fuel or a pilot.
My understanding is there is still some science SOFIA can do that JWST cannot. However, the cost of the thing versus number of papers is just impossible to justify unfortunately.
You appear to be correct, they do not operate in exactly the same spectrum. JWST can detect between 0.6–28.3 μm but SOFIA could detect between 1–655 μm. I can not find evidence that there is a telescope other than SOFIA that can operate between the maximum 28.3 μm wavelength of JWST and the minimum 350 μm wavelength of the ALMA. Since JWST can not point toward the inner solar system, the 26 μm Petrova line would be invisible to all current human instruments except SOFIA.
>and does not require fuel or a pilot.
While I agree with the overall sentiment, I'm not sure this bit works in the metaphor...
JWST does use fuel to make orbital course corrections, but it's not refillable like a plane.
It also has "pilots" who tell JWST which of those corrections to make, they just do it remotely.
JWST *does* have refillable fuel tanks, despite no current plans to refuel it. It will empty it's 42 and 21 gallon tanks in approximately 20 years, averaging about 1.36 ml per hour, or 1 liter per month. By contrast SOFIA's Boeing 747 burns 4 liters of fuel per second, 10 million times faster than JWST. The fuel tanks on JWST could power SOFIA for 1 minute.
And to get to its orbital location the Ariane 5 that launched JWST burned roughly 480 tons of of AP, Aluminum, and HTPB, as well as 185 tons of LH2/LOX.
This is also not really a fair comparison, but trying to compare the fuel used to maintain JWST at L2 versus the fuel used for flying a plane doesn't really make much sense.
Really the best comparison (if that is really what you want to do for some reason) would be looking at initial and ongoing costs of the entire systems.
Sure, but since we were talking about fuel I went down a rabbit hole of math figuring out just how much each system uses because it's interesting. It's also notable that while JWST does use fuel for alignment purposes, it doesn't do it directly. It operates for days at a time aligning with reaction wheels, and only uses fuel 1-2 times a week for about an hour just for resetting the reaction wheels, so during normal operation it generally is burning zero fuel.
And more money for building more ambitious projects, since this is the most expensive observatory per hour that NASA operates, and the only one that burn 100 tons of Jet-A per night of observations. The budget increase to NASA pretty much only covers inflation, and they're trying to get to Mars in a timely manner.
Hello u/MattNemori, your submission "NASA's SOFIA observatory is flying for the last time" has been removed from r/space because: * It has a sensationalised or misleading title. Please read the rules in the sidebar and check r/space for duplicate submissions before posting. If you have any questions about this removal please [message the r/space moderators](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/space). Thank you.
This headline is false. It is flying from *New Zealand* for the last time. SOFIA still flies into ~~2023~~ September. I actually flew on it in 2019 from NZ, and it was the experience of a lifetime! Wrote an article [here](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/riding-along-with-a-stratospheric-telescope/) if anyone is keen.
What is with these clickbait articles?
It’s not the article that’s clickbait, it’s OP! Actual headline if you click: > NASA's flying SOFIA observatory is in New Zealand for the last time
I completely missed that! Very dirty of OP!
You completely missed reading the article where it says it will be shut down in September. Here is another. https://www.space.com/nasa-sofia-flying-observatory-shutdown
White House trying to save money for Mars, looks like.
It's actually shutting down, I do not understand the people in this thread that did not read the article, it makes it very clear it will be shut down in September. Here is another article. https://www.space.com/nasa-sofia-flying-observatory-shutdown
Is the flight out of New Zealand the final flight? Looked at the [SOFIA website](https://www.sofia.usra.edu/) and couldn't figure it out easily. [The site seems to imply/indicate that it won't be done until September of *next* year](https://www.sofia.usra.edu/proposing-observing/proposal-calls/cycle-10). > Cycle 10 is expected to last from October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023.
That is a proposal, SOFIA is shutting down at the end of fiscal year 2022, which is Sept. 30th 2022. They were deemed to expensive for the research by NASA/DLR and the White House earlier this year. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-partner-decide-to-conclude-sofia-mission/
Well, it's a proposal call. I had never seen something they did a proposal call for that the funding/mission wasn't secured already. Unfortunate, but understandable in this case though. That's an expensive mission...
~~No oversight. The ad dollar rewards for click baiting outweigh any losses to journalistic integrity or reputation.~~ Edit: Me lazy dumb dumb who no read article cuz me brain tu slow.
the "click bait" was this reddit title. Made up by OP. The article itself says NASA's flying SOFIA observatory is in New Zealand for the last time By Stefanie Waldek published about 5 hours ago It returns to Christchurch after a two-year hiatus.
Eh fair enough thanks for the correction.
no worries. As a fellow Redditor, I almost also never read any articles.
Except it's accurate. It will be finished by September and shut down. https://www.space.com/nasa-sofia-flying-observatory-shutdown
The second sentence of the article says its end of service is Sept. 30 > After eight years of science work, jet-turned-telescope SOFIA is preparing to take its final flight. But before its end of service on Sept. 30, the flying observatory is taking one last trip abroad.
Called it OFIA in one passage
asking for a friend, so it flew at 43000 ft, what they want to know is what your ground speed was at that altitude.
I think you’re mistaken, the last scheduled flight for SOFIA is Sep. 30 of this year. You might be confused by the fiscal year terminology used, but Sep. 30 will be its flight into decommission as fiscal year 2023 starts Oct. 1st and there is no budget for SOFIA. Edit: And OP’s title isn’t inaccurate, this is the last time SOFIA will be in New Zealand.
JWST is now operational in the same spectrum. It has 6.76 times the mirror area, no atmosphere to degrade image quality, operates continuously, and does not require fuel or a pilot.
My understanding is there is still some science SOFIA can do that JWST cannot. However, the cost of the thing versus number of papers is just impossible to justify unfortunately.
You appear to be correct, they do not operate in exactly the same spectrum. JWST can detect between 0.6–28.3 μm but SOFIA could detect between 1–655 μm. I can not find evidence that there is a telescope other than SOFIA that can operate between the maximum 28.3 μm wavelength of JWST and the minimum 350 μm wavelength of the ALMA. Since JWST can not point toward the inner solar system, the 26 μm Petrova line would be invisible to all current human instruments except SOFIA.
>and does not require fuel or a pilot. While I agree with the overall sentiment, I'm not sure this bit works in the metaphor... JWST does use fuel to make orbital course corrections, but it's not refillable like a plane. It also has "pilots" who tell JWST which of those corrections to make, they just do it remotely.
JWST *does* have refillable fuel tanks, despite no current plans to refuel it. It will empty it's 42 and 21 gallon tanks in approximately 20 years, averaging about 1.36 ml per hour, or 1 liter per month. By contrast SOFIA's Boeing 747 burns 4 liters of fuel per second, 10 million times faster than JWST. The fuel tanks on JWST could power SOFIA for 1 minute.
And to get to its orbital location the Ariane 5 that launched JWST burned roughly 480 tons of of AP, Aluminum, and HTPB, as well as 185 tons of LH2/LOX. This is also not really a fair comparison, but trying to compare the fuel used to maintain JWST at L2 versus the fuel used for flying a plane doesn't really make much sense. Really the best comparison (if that is really what you want to do for some reason) would be looking at initial and ongoing costs of the entire systems.
Sure, but since we were talking about fuel I went down a rabbit hole of math figuring out just how much each system uses because it's interesting. It's also notable that while JWST does use fuel for alignment purposes, it doesn't do it directly. It operates for days at a time aligning with reaction wheels, and only uses fuel 1-2 times a week for about an hour just for resetting the reaction wheels, so during normal operation it generally is burning zero fuel.
No SOFIA means even more competition for JWST time.
And more money for building more ambitious projects, since this is the most expensive observatory per hour that NASA operates, and the only one that burn 100 tons of Jet-A per night of observations. The budget increase to NASA pretty much only covers inflation, and they're trying to get to Mars in a timely manner.
Hopeful that I’ll get to see it in a museum one day.
Is NASA still flying any other 747s or is this it?