Discover the legacy of NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO), a modified C-141A Starlifter that advanced infrared astronomy for over 20 years. Learn how parts of this historic aircraft are now ...

It was named the Kuiper Airborne Observatory in memory one of the pioneers of infra-red planetary astronomy, Gerald P. Kuiper of the University of Arizona. The observatory was in operation for about ...

American space agency NASA announced it ended stripping the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO), parts heading to museums.

NASA’s current flying telescope, SOFIA, is parked next to its predecessor, the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, in 2008. NASA Ames/ Eric James . On June 29, ...

The Kuiper Airborne Observatory served NASA from 1974 to 1995, discovering the rings of Uranus, evidence of a black hole in the galactic center of the Milky Way, and more. NASA.

Seven years later, the Kuiper Airborne Observatory carried a 36-inch reflecting telescope aboard a converted Lockheed C-141 military cargo plane. Formerly a Pan American and later ...

SOFIA is the successor to NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory, which was retired in 1995. Like Kuiper, SOFIA is optimized to observe in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum.

In the 1990s, when SOFIA was proposed, a smaller flying infrared observatory, the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, named after Dutch-born astronomer Gerard Kuiper, had been doing a similar job for ...