USRA is a collaborative membership organization where universities and other research organizations may cooperate effectively with each other, with the United States government, and other entities to develop knowledge associated with space science and technology.
USRA operates national facilities and programs for the benefit of our government and other customers conducting scientific research and technology development for the public good. In the past year, researchers from more than 300 universities participated in USRA programs.
Some of our representative research and technology programs are described below.
Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy
SOFIA is a reflecting telescope housed in a modified Boeing 747SP that will study the universe in the infrared part of the spectrum. Developed in collaboration with the
German Space Agency, SOFIA is undergoing flight testing at
Dryden Flight Research Center. USRA and the Duetches SOFIA Institute will conduct International Science Mission Operations at Ames Research Center over SOFIA's 20 year lifetime.
Lunar and Planetary Institute
USRA's Lunar and Planetary Institute is a state-of-the-art research facility located near the
Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The LPI is a focal point for the lunar and planetary research community, and houses an extensive data collection, image-processing facility, scientific visualization facility, and a library containing more than 52,000 items. The LPI was created in 1968 and has been operated continuously by USRA since 1969.
NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts
NIAC was developed as a national "virtual" institute focused on revolutionary concepts that can have a major impact on NASA missions 10 or more years in the future. NIAC was established in 1998 to solicit, evaluate, and fund concepts that are largely independent of existing technology or systems, and submitted by research groups at universities and industrial firms across the country. NIAC operated until August 2007.
