QUESTION:
We are interested in how much the new SOFIA observatory will cost.  Also,
I am interested in a rough breakdown of costs, ie the aircraft itself
costs X, the telescope costs Y, etc.

ANSWER from Chris Wiltsee on October 9, 1995:
I believe I answered another of your questions, but if not, let me
introduce myself; I'm Chris Wiltsee, the SOFIA Project Manager here at
Ames Research Center. The issue of system costs is a crucial, but also a
sensitive one. The reason it's sensitive is that we expect aerospace
contractors to be making competitive bids to NASA for the design and
development of parts of the Observatory. We will select one or more
companies based on their bids and capabilities. This being the case, we do
not like to broadcast what we think a system will cost in detail; we'd
rather have the companies come up with their own estimates independently.

However, it's clear that we must develop our own cost estimates to get
the program approved by Congress. We have put a good deal of effort into
doing just that over the last few years. We have made several estimates;
some were provided by aerospace industry studies of parts of the system,
some were developed by independent cost-estimating companies, and other
were done using our own in-house cost models. Applying judgment to these
inputs, we have developed a composite estimate of the total cost, which
has been fully reviewed and approved by boards reporting to the highest
levels of the Agency.

How's that for background? But I guess you still want your question
answered, don't you?? I can only give you a top-level number for the SOFIA
program, due to the problem I mentioned above. We expect the total
development cost for SOFIA (that is, not including subsequent annual
operations) to be around $300 million. About 20% of this is to be
contributed by the German government - they are responsible for building
and delivering the telescope.  On our side, we will be purchasing the
airplane, making the major structural and system modifications to it,
adding the on-board mission control center, integrating the whole
Observatory to make it work efficiently, and providing the ground support
system, which includes a hangar, labs, offices, etc.  These numbers have
been in the public domain, so there's no secret regarding them. I can also
tell you that a used 747SP in good condition, which is what we need, is
currently selling for between $10-15M. Further, you should know that
shutting down the Kuiper early, which was a very difficult, heart-rending
decision for the Agency, will save about $60-70M for the SOFIA effort over
the next 5 years.

I hope this helps you - thanks again for your interest.
Chris Wiltsee