Need support for creating/editing .FITs files

I am an amateur astronomer and support for .FITS files (Flexible Image Transport System) would be extremely helpful to me and to others in the amateur (or even professional) community.

Information regarding .FITS files:
http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits_primer.html
http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits_samples.html

Specifically, I need a way to read .FITS images and/or save an image as a standard .FITS file that can be used with common astronomy software and services (MaxIm DL, nova.astrometry.net, etc.).... something as simple as
dib = FreeImage.LoadEx("C:\FITS\Frame.fit")
FreeImage.SaveEx(dib, "C:\FITS\Frame.fit")

I am assuming that this is a fairly easy thing to do, but I don't understand enough about image file structures to write such a thing myself. I use FreeImage.NET for a number of image-related astronomy projects and I find it very helpful... and by the way... I am thrilled to see new .NET support in version 3.17.0

Maybe there is a way to accomplish this without specifically adding .FITS file support to FreeImage, but I don't know how to do it. But, as I said, this addition might be worthwhile for your group to consider.

David Emery