Technicians carefully guide SOFIA's primary mirror assembly on its transport cradle into a clean room where it is being prepared for shipment to NASA Ames

Technicians at the NASA Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif., removed the German-built primary mirror assembly from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, April 18, 2008 in preparation for the final finish coating of the mirror. A precision crane lifted the more than two-ton mirror assembly from its cavity in the rear fuselage of the highly modified Boeing 747SP. The assembly was then secured in its transport dolly and moved to a clean room where it was prepared for shipment to NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field near Mountain View, Calif. where it would receive its aluminized finish coating before being re-installed in the SOFIA aircraft.