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DSI Historical Archive

SOFIA Data Center

This section contains the website of the former German SOFIA Institute (DSI) at the University of Stuttgart

Logo of the German SOFIA Institute (DSI, 2004 - 2025)

Classification of the following websites

The German SOFIA Institute (DSI)

In November 2004, the German SOFIA Institute (DSI) was founded at the Institute for Space Systems (IRS) at the University of Stuttgart. Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Alfred Krabbe, the DSI coordinated and managed the operations of the SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) infrared observatory on behalf of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). In addition, the DSI served as the German center of excellence for infrared astronomy. As part of its scientific observations, it provided technical and organizational support to Germany’s astronomical community in utilizing the SOFIA observatory. Another objective of the SOFIA project was to inspire the next generation to pursue technical and scientific fields through intensive public outreach and educational activities. The DSI was also responsible for this. The so-called Teacher Flight Program was a key pillar of this mission. To fulfill these tasks, approximately 30 employees were permanently stationed at two NASA sites in California.

SOFIA

The SOFIA project was a joint venture between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the U.S. space agency NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). Flight operations were conducted by the NASA Neil Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, CA. Scientific coordination took place at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA. Scientific flight operations took place over the twelve-year period from 2010 to the end of September 2022. This was followed by the project’s ramp-down, which included, on the German side, the transfer of know-how, data, and materials to Germany. At the same time, the “SOFIA Data Center” (SDC) project was launched at the IRS; it is also funded by the DLR and is scheduled to run until June 30, 2029. The DSI was officially closed on April 30, 2025.

The SOFIA Web Pages on the SDC

It is clear from the above that the DSI had a broad scope of responsibility, which was presented and made available to the public on a large number of web pages. The SDC has therefore set itself the goal of continuing to make these pages available to interested users, rather than simply deleting them from the servers. However, keeping these pages up to date and further developing them would significantly exceed the SDC’s capacity.

Therefore, the web pages in this section of the SDC website reflect the status of the DSI website as of April 2025. They primarily cover the following topics:

The German SOFIA Institute (DSI) - not yet online,
the FIFI-LS scientific instrument,
the FPI+ scientific instrument - not yet online - and
the Astronomical Telescope of the University of Stuttgart (ATUS).

We have chosen not to rewrite the texts in the past tense. In addition, links to internal or external pages may be outdated or incorrect and may no longer lead to the intended destination. We apologize for any inconvenience.