AMS fit for many years on the ISS – Spectrometer flown to NASA today

The space physics experiment AMS (Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer) was flown from CERN in Geneva to NASA at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida today. The physicists did not want to miss the opportunity offered by the extended life cycle of the International Space Station (ISS). And thus AMS was quickly rebuilt to accommodate a permanent magnet and an enlarged tracker for tracing the particles. ISATEC was selected to provide engineering services on the basis of its experience and successful work on the AMS project. With reference to our engineering for the previously installed and successfully tested AMS02 TRD, NASA Manager Ken Bollweg wrote "... everything associated with ISATEC functions as it should."

Engineering work for the conversion was performed on a very tight schedule between February and May 2010 in close collaboration with physicists from Aachen, NASA and other leading institutes of physics. Ken Bollweg commented on the most recent engineering work on 6 May 2010: "The products you've produced to support this crash effort in a ridiculously short period of time have been truly remarkable."

Link to the Website of the AMS experiment: <link http: www.ams02.org>www.ams02.org

Flight STS-134 on 26 Feb. 2011 with Space Shuttle Endeavor

Photographer: Maximilien Brice