The Last Launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour
Credit:
NASA
Two days ago, powerful yet controlled explosions rocketed the
Space Shuttle Endeavour on its final trip into Earth orbit.
The above image was taken seconds after
liftoff as the massive orbiter and six astronauts began a climb to a height where the atmosphere is so thin it is
unbreathable.
The shuttle, on mission STS-134, is expected to dock with the
International Space Station (ISS) today.
The Endeavour will
deliver to the ISS, among other things, an ambitious detector called the
Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer 2 (AMS), a detector that over the next few years could detect a significant abundance of specific types of
dark matter, charged
antimatter, and even a
strangely possible variation of familiar matter called
strangelets.
The very last trip for any space shuttle is currently planned for mid-July when
Atlantis will also visit the space station.