“AMS is in nominal data taking operations“ – that was the releasing message for everyone.

On May 16th naturally all of us at ISATEC were glued to the live transmission of the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour with “our” space experiment AMS on board: a picture book launch of the last flight of the Endeavour in NASA history! Orbiting the earth helically, the shuttle gained height and approached to the flight velocity of the ISS of unbelievable 28,000 km/h at 400 km altitude. With more than 6 t, AMS is one of the biggest experiments being carried to the ISS.

3 days later AMS was transferred from the space shuttle cargo bay to the ISS. Now, a second exciting moment had come … AMS was activated! Mike Capell of the MIT mailed us: “AMS is in nominal data taking operations.“ It has been worth our commitment and passion. From now on the experiment supplies numerous measured values to the physicists, who expect interesting findings concerning the components of our universe.

We will continue observing “our“ AMS experiment on the ISS from down here, having worked on it for so many years. At night one can see it even with the naked eye.