The space shuttle Endeavour today began its latest mission (Updated)

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Technologie - Général
Friday, 29 April 2011 14:17

First came the turn of Atlantis , after it fell to the Discovery and today is the space shuttle Endeavour to launch its latest mission putting course for the International Space Station (ISS) after completing 30 years of life and made ​​the not inconsiderable number of 133 missions.

Specifically, if nothing happens rare (there is a 30% chance that the mission was postponed by bad weather), Endeavour will take off at 19:47 GMT from the Kennedy Space Center, headed by the astronaut Roberto Vittori European Space Agency in STS-134 mission that is special not only for being the last shuttle youngest NASA but also because in her store carries the mass spectrometer more expensive and complex of all built to date.

The machine, named after Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer 02 (AMS-02 or by its initials in English), weighs about 7,000 kilos, has cost about 2,000 million dollars in its construction have been involved scientists from 16 countries, Spain has played a key role in providing one of the eight detectors that comprise the AMS. Very good, but what is it?, you might be wondering, as in a summary of the AMS principal function is to capture high-energy particles from supernovae, black holes and other corners of the cosmos. Even hope to find a particle of antimatter, which would be a milestone would be the first proof of its existence and thus corroborating that indeed the universe is composed mostly of this type of stuff.

And little more to add comment that at 19:47 GMT post around here a post with the live streaming of the Space Shuttle Endeavour launch (so you do the wait more enjoyable, I recommend going through the web NASA where you will find lots of information about Endeavour's last mission).

Image: NASA

Update: NASA has just been postponed for at least 48 hours the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour by technical problems.

The space shuttle Endeavour today began its latest mission (Updated) written ALT1040 April 29, 2011 by elias
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