It was a dark, clear October night in 2015, and from 41,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean, the sky above seemed to overflow with stars. Even from the cabin door, peering over the pilots’ shoulders to see out the Boeing 747’s cockpit windows, the sky was a dazzling sight. But more importantly, this leg of our flight path was the perfect vantage point for viewing a distant supernova remnant through the infrared telescope mounted just behind the jumbo jet’s wings — a typical night aboard NASA’s flying telescope.
