NASA's Boeing 747SP SOFIA airborne observatory soars over a bed of puffy clouds during its second checkout flight over the Texas countryside on May 10, 2007

NASA's Boeing 747SP SOFIA airborne observatory soars over a bed of puffy clouds during its second checkout flight over the Texas countryside on May 10, 2007.

NASA's Boeing 747SP SOFIA airborne observatory soars over a bed of puffy clouds during its second checkout flight over the Texas countryside on May 10, 2007.

Photographer NASA/Jim Ross
Location AFRC
SOFIAStratospheric Observatory for Infrared AstronomyClipper LindberghGerman-built 100-inch 2 5 meter diameter infrared telescope20 tonshighly-modified Boeing 747SP aircraftDLR Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt German AerospaceL-3 Communications Integrated SystemsUniversities Space Research AssociationUSRADeutsches SOFIA InstitutDSIsecond flight