QUESTION:
How will SOFIA affect you and do you think it will discover more things?

ANSWER from Chris Wiltsee on October 12, 1995:
I'm Chris Wiltsee, the SOFIA Project Manager here at NASA's Ames Research
Center. I have been working on the plans for this project for several years
now, so it has already affected me. However, my team and I are all eagerly
anticipating some important events: SOFIA's final go-ahead by Congress and the
President, expected this fall; SOFIA's actual design and development work
getting underway (next spring); and, of course, SOFIA's first flight and the
beginning of its science operations program (2000-2001).

As a professional Civil Servant and engineering manager, I'm very pleased to
have the opportunity to manage a project as interesting and challenging as
SOFIA, and hope that my bosses continue to want me on the job! It took many
years of preparation, including a good education, and lots of hard (but fun)
work to get where I am. When I have time to think about it, I realize that I
enjoy it immensely - especially when I see other jobs that I might have had.
As far as science discoveries go, there is no question at all that SOFIA will
make major new discoveries about all sorts of interesting things such as
galactic centers and black holes, star formation regions, and planet-formation
disks, not to mention currently invisible, unknown objects. That's the main
reason Congress is funding the program in these austere times. You should
probably ask one of the KAO scientists about science capabilities if you want
a better answer, though; I'm an engineer, responsible more for building the
Observatory than for getting science data from it. I do have to understand the
science plan and capabilities to do my job correctly, however, and I enjoy
reading about astronomy in various magazines such as "Sky and Telescope",
"Science" and so forth.

After SOFIA's built, I'll be moving on to another aerospace program,
hopefully. I expect that the SOFIA Project will have had a great effect on
shaping my thinking and capabilities for future work. Thanks for your question
and please let me know if I can improve my answer.
Chris Wiltsee