Carybeth, those are some very good questions! The actual flying time aboard SOFIA will be about 10 hours, but we will on the aircraft for a couple of hours before take off and for a short time after landing, so yes, it will all end up being somewhere around 14 hours spent on SOFIA per flight. Now I have a question for you. If I will be on SOFIA for 14 hours for each flight, and I will have two flights, how much total time will I spend on SOFIA?
And for your second question, SOFIA is a flying observatory and because it is an airplane, it has a limited amount of space available. That space is used up with all of the scientific instruments, computers, and science workstations, among other items, so there really isn’t room to put a coffee maker on on board.
countdownwithmrk 
I didn’t know what SOFIA does or the mechanics of it till I watched the inside NASAA SOFIA video
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Katie, I’m glad that you found the video helpful. SOFIA is a special aircraft and I’m glad I get to share it with you all.
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Hope you have fun Mr. K.
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Thank you Iri! I’m glad to see you visiting the blog. Please feel free to explore.
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I enjoyed watching the videos. They were very informative. What a great experience to fly on such a wonderful airplane.
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Mr. K,
Are you going to be on SOFIA for 14 hours??
How come there isn’t a coffee maker on board SOFIA if they are up all night?
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Carybeth, those are some very good questions! The actual flying time aboard SOFIA will be about 10 hours, but we will on the aircraft for a couple of hours before take off and for a short time after landing, so yes, it will all end up being somewhere around 14 hours spent on SOFIA per flight. Now I have a question for you. If I will be on SOFIA for 14 hours for each flight, and I will have two flights, how much total time will I spend on SOFIA?
And for your second question, SOFIA is a flying observatory and because it is an airplane, it has a limited amount of space available. That space is used up with all of the scientific instruments, computers, and science workstations, among other items, so there really isn’t room to put a coffee maker on on board.
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Hey Mr. K. I found this photo of you on Ms. Nichols’ twitter page: https://twitter.com/SOFIAtelescope/status/643548352148172800/photo/1
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