NASA SOFIA: Flying Telescope May Be Mothballed This Year

NASA's SOFIA flying observatory is framed by a rainbow following a shower as it sits on a ramp at Christchurch International Airport, New Zealand during its first Southern Hemisphere deployment. 

Credit: NASA / Carla Thomas

NASA's SOFIA, the flying astronomical observatory, will be grounded later this year unless outside funding can be found for the project, NASA officials announced Tuesday (March 4).

The White House's 2015 federal budget request, which was released Tuesday, slashes funding for the space agency's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a modified Boeing 747 aircraft that scans the heavens using an 8.2-foot-wide (2.5 meters) telescope.

SOFIA will continue flying science missions through the remainder of the 2014 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, but the aircraft will have to be mothballed thereafter.

It cannot continue its operations without an infusion of cash from oustide NASA, agency officials said.

"This is a very disappointing thing, I think, to a lot of people who have been working on it," Pete Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., which maps out SOFIA science flights, told reporters Tuesday.

"I'm going to work very, very hard to find international partners on this, to enable us to continue with this mission."

This NASA image shows the SOFIA telescope during testing procedures in May 2010, before the instrument's first science flight. 

Credit: NASA/Tom TschidaView

NASA already partners with one international organization on the SOFIA mission, the German Aerospace Center, DLR.

NASA chief Charles Bolden has talked to Johann-Dietrich Wörner, his DLR counterpart, about the situation.

Johann-Dietrich Wörner

"DLR are equally concerned," Worden said. "They've agreed to work with us to see if there's a way forward."

SOFIA is the successor to NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO), which was retired in 1995.

Like Kuiper, SOFIA is optimized to view in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum.

During its roughly 10-hour science flights, the observatory cruises at an altitude of 41,000 to 45,000 feet (12,500 to 13,700 m), getting above 99.5 percent of the infrared-absorbing water vapour in Earth's atmosphere.

SOFIA also boasts another advantage over ground-based facilities, mission officials say: mobility.

The plane can chase down one-off events, such as a June 2011 occultation of a distant star by Pluto, which was visible only from a small area over the Pacific Ocean.

"SOFIA has earned its way; it has done very well," Bolden said during a press briefing on Tuesday. "But I had to make a choice."

NASA AIM Spacecraft: Noctilucent Clouds Start Early this year - Video

Glowing electric-blue at the edge of space, noctilucent clouds have surprised researchers by appearing early this year. The unexpected apparition hints at a change in the "teleconnections" of Earth's atmosphere.

Every summer, something strange and wonderful happens high above the north pole. Ice crystals begin to cling to the smoky remains of meteors, forming electric-blue clouds with tendrils that ripple hypnotically against the sunset sky.

Noctilucent clouds (NLCs) are a delight for high-latitude sky watchers, and around the Arctic Circle their season of visibility is always eagerly anticipated.

News flash: This year, NLCs are getting an early start. NASA's AIM spacecraft, which is orbiting Earth on a mission to study noctilucent clouds, started seeing them on May 13th.

Cora Einterz Randall

"The 2013 season is remarkable because it started in the northern hemisphere a week earlier than any other season that AIM has observed," reports Cora Randall of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado. "This is quite possibly earlier than ever before."

The early start is extra-puzzling because of the solar cycle. Researchers have long known that NLCs tend to peak during solar minimum and bottom-out during solar maximum-a fairly strong anti-correlation.

"If anything, we would have expected a later start this year because the solar cycle is near its maximum," Randall says. "So much for expectations."

For sky watchers, this means it's time to pay attention to the sunset sky, where NLCs are most often seen. An early start could herald brighter clouds and wider visibility than ever before.

India to launch mission to Mars this year, says their president

This image of the Earth was taken by ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 mission while on its way to the Moon on 29 October 2008, at 03:30 CET. 

Credit: REUTERS /ESA/Cluster/Handout.

India will launch its first mission to Mars this year, President Pranab Mukherjee said on Thursday, as the emerging Asian nation looks to play catch up in the global space race alongside the United States, Russia and its giant neighbor China.

"Several space missions are planned for 2013, including India's first mission to Mars and the launch of our first navigational satellite," Mukherjee told parliament.

India will send a satellite in October via an unmanned spacecraft to orbit the red planet, blasting off from the southeastern coast in a mission expected to cost about $83 million, scientists who are part of the mission say.

The spacecraft, which will be made in India, will take nine months to reach Mars and then launch itself in an elliptical orbit about 500 km (310 miles) from the planet.

"The mission is ready to roll," Deviprasad Karnik, a scientist from the India Space Research Organization (ISRO), said by phone from the city of Bangalore.

India's mission to Mars has drawn criticism in a country suffering from high levels of malnutrition and power shortages, and currently experiencing its worst slowdown in growth in ten years. But India has long argued that technology developed in its space program has practical applications to everyday life.

India's space exploration program began in 1962. Five years ago, its Chandrayaan satellite found evidence of water on the moon. India is now looking at landing a wheeled rover on the moon in 2014.