[flovec]

I worked on some components of SOFIA - the "garage door" actuators - at my first job after engineering school in 2008 ish. The actuators, 1 upper and 1 lower if I recall correctly, had large Titanium gears which required lubricant. NASA was pressing for a dry-film lubricant (something like what would normally be a backup lubricant in a helicopter gearbox if the primary lubricant failed) because large gobs of the lubricant might otherwise end up in unwanted places (the telescope!) with a large hole open on the aircraft. The company I worked for was against this, but was running tests on the gears with only dry-film lubricant applied at the time. I don't remember the results of the tests, but I do remember learning how to lock-wire on those test actuators which I had to repeatedly take apart for inspection!