Photographer Aaron Murphy. Last fly-by of NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) after a circuit over the town.

Photographer Aaron Murphy. Departure of NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) from Christchurch on its last visit here.

Photographer Aaron Murphy. Fly-by of NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) on departure.

SOFIA - Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy

SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) 747SP departs AF Plant 42 off runway 25

Starting push-back 45 minutes before departure, with many long checklists to be run. On 21 May 2007, shortly after its first flight as SOFIA - Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (following nearly 10 years on the ground) the aircraft was named Clipper Lindbergh. This in turn was 30 years and one day after the same happened for the first time, on the 50th anniversary of Lindbergh's Atlantic crossing. The name was not carried during its time with United.

Departing after sunset for an 8.5h flight between Berlin and the Azores, up to FL430. The rear fuselage of this former PanAm and United 747SP was heavily modified for the in-flight opening doors, large enough to let the more than 2.5m diameter telescope of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) do its work.

Putting it very much simplified, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA, consists of a German telescope in a NASA aircraft. The 747SP as a platform allows for 10 hour missions typically at 41,000ft or more, above almost all water vapour that would block parts of infrared light. SOFIA was decommissioned the following year, flying its last mission out of Palmdale, CA in the night of 27 and 28 September 2022.

The SOFIA aircraft, Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy.