NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is shown with its telescope door partly open during a test flight for its astronomical observation mission. (NASA / Jim Ross) View Larger Image

PALMDALE, Calif. The first four Airborne Astronomy Ambassador (AAA) educators returned safely to Earth at Palmdale, Calif., early in the morning of Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013, after completing their initial flight on NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA.

That flight launched the AAA program's first full year of operations, during which 26 educators from classrooms and science centers across the United States will fly on the SOFIA as partners with scientists conducting astronomy research using the airborne observatory.

On board for the Feb. 12-13 flight were ambassadors Constance Gartner of the Wisconsin School for the Deaf in Delavan, Wisc.; Chelen Johnson from the Breck School in Golden Valley, Minn.; Ira Harden and Vincente Washington, both from City Honors College Preparatory Charter School in Inglewood, Calif. The astronomers on the flight included Juergen Wolf and Doerte Mehlert of the German SOFIA Institute in Stuttgart, Germany and Ted Dunham of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz.

The SOFIA is a modified Boeing 747SP jetliner that carries a telescope with an effective diameter of 100 inches (2.5 meters) to altitudes as high as 45,000 feet (14 km). Flying above Earth's obscuring atmospheric water vapor, scientists can gather and analyze infrared light to further our understanding of puzzles such as the processes that form stars and planets, the chemistry of organic compounds in interstellar clouds, and the environment around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.

"SOFIA enables educators to work with scientists and to experience a flight mission on the world's largest airborne observatory. Educators then take their experiences back to their classrooms and communities," said Eddie Zavala, NASA's SOFIA program manager. "They can relate the excitement, hardships, challenges, discoveries, teamwork and educational values of SOFIA and scientific research to students, teachers and the general public."

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Educator Teams Fly on NASA's SOFIA Airborne Observatory