NASA's highly modified Boeing 747SP SOFIA observatory banks low over the Texas countryside as it heads for landing at Waco to conclude its second check flight

NASA's highly modified Boeing 747SP SOFIA observatory banks low over the Texas countryside as it heads for landing at Waco to conclude its second check flight.

NASA's highly modified Boeing 747SP SOFIA observatory banks low over the Texas countryside as it heads for landing at Waco to conclude its second check flight.

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