GREAT – History

Mentionable events of the GREAT project

Date

Event

2008  
4 th – 5 th December GREAT Pre-Shipment Review: release of shipment, airworthiness ok’d
2010  
September Shipping GREAT to NASA's Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility (DAOF) in Palmdale, CA
October  Re-installation at DAOF, successful post-shipment verification
2011  
1 st Quarter  Installation in aircraft, interface checks, EMI/EMC, software interfacing during series of line ops
1 st April Observatory characterization flight OCF4, GREAT detects first light
April GREAT Short Science flights
July – November GREAT Basic Science flights
September SOFIA deployment to Germany & Washington D.C. with GREAT installed on aircraft
18 th November Kick-off meeting for upGREAT development
2012
May 2012 Special Feature of Astronomy and Astrophysics published
2013  
April Begin Cycle 1 Science flights
July SOFIA’s first southern deployment (with FORCAST and GREAT): GREAT has 9 flights out of Christchurch
2014  
January Closing Cycle 1 Science
May Begin Cycle 2 Science flights
Commissioning of H-channel (4.7 THz)
2015  
January Closing Cycle 2 Science
May Begin Cycle 3 Science flightsCommissioning of upGREAT LFA
13 th May upGREAT LFA sees first light
July GREAT is part of SOFIA’s 2 nd Southern Deployment to New Zealand
October First design ideas for low-frequency extension 4GREAT (working title “downGREAT”)
December Closing Cycle 3 Science
2016  
May Begin Cycle 4 Science flights
Commissioning of upGREAT HFA
June GREAT is part of SOFIA’s 3 rd Southern deployment
December Build-up of 4GREAT starts
2017  
February Closing Cycle 4 Science
1 st Quarter NASA completes the installation of the Phase 2 infrastructure on board: two liquid-cooled Helium compressors available
June Begin Cycle 5 Science flights
Commissioning of the full upGREAT configuration (operation of HFA and LFA in parallel)
July GREAT is part of SOFIA’s 4 th Southern Deployment
Commissioning of 4GREAT’s bands 4G-1, 4G-2 and 4G-4 in New Zealand
2018  
February Closing Cycle 5 Science
May Transfer of GREAT-L1 mixer into 4GREAT system: 4GREAT at its full capabilities
June Begin Cycle 6 Science flights
GREAT is part of SOFIA’s 5 th Southern deployment to Christchurch
December Closing Cycle 6 Science
2019  
May Begin Cycle 7 Science flights
June GREAT is part of SOFIA’s 6 th Southern deployment to New Zealand
2020  
March Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, GREAT’s flight series ends early
Last GREAT flights within Cycle 7 Science
May COVID-19 pandemic: GREAT’s coming flight campaign and SOFIA’s Southern deployment canceled
2021  
January – March Flight series with GREAT from Köln (Cologne), Germany during the COVID pandemic
July/August Southern Deployment of SOFIA with GREAT to Tahiti, French-Polynesia; New Zealand is still in lock-down
October/November Cycle 9 Science flights
2022  
July/August Southern Deployment to Christchurch, New Zealand, with GREAT
19 th August Flight series is canceled due to damage to the aircraft
Autumn Cancelation of SOFIA project is announced
November Packing of GREAT for return shipment to Germany
2023  
4 th April GREAT is picked up at NASA’s AAOF to start its final journey
20 th June GREAT arrives at the MPIfR
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