Space | 16. September 2011 | posted by Andrea Haag

The tension builds up – SOFIA to land at Cologne-Bonn Airport on Saturday at 06:50

SOFIA (Stratosphären%2dObservatorium für Infrarot%2dAstronomie)
SOFIA (Stratosphären-Observatorium für Infrarot-Astronomie)

The airborne observatory SOFIA will arrive at Cologne-Bonn Airport on Saturday 17 September 2011 at about 06:50 CEST. The aircraft will be one of the attractions during German Aerospace Day, which takes place on the following day. The flight from the United States to Germany can be followed live online from 19:10 CEST – learn how in this blog post.

SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy, is a joint project by the US space agency NASA and the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) and is expected to operate for 20 years. This is its first ever visit to Europe, and on 18 September 2011 it will be present at German Aerospace Day, and visitors will have the chance to see it. On board will be the German instrument GREAT (German REceiver for Astronomy at Terahertz frequencies), responsible for separating the infrared radiation collected from space by the telescope and into its spectral components.

Those interested can follow the flight from the United States to Germany live as of 19:10 CEST at http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N747NA.

SOFIA
Sunrise: SOFIA – shortly after a scientific flight – at Palmdale, California, USA. Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0).

Information about all the activities during German Aerospace Day are available here: www.tagderluftundraumfahrt.de/en/index.php

The DLR Corporate Communications Online Team will report live on the 18th – in this blog, , via twitter.com/DLR_de (German), twitter.com/DLR_en (English), www.facebook.com/DLRde (German) and www.facebook.com/DLRen (English).

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About the author

As manager of the web portal and online editor, Andrea Haag is responsible for the redesign and further development of DLR.de in addition to editing and producing online formats as part of the DLR Communications and Media Relations Department. to authorpage