NASA Shuttle Final Trip

By: Cory Perrin
05/16/2011 12:51 PM ET

NASA Shuttle Final Trip – NASA launched its final takeoff early Monday morning. Space shuttle Endeavour launched from Launch Pad 39A in Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8:56 a.m. according to NASA’s website. The shuttles voyage to space is going to be filmed live on NASA’s website, www.nasa.gov, and on NASA TV.

The crew members who are part of the NASA space shuttle’s final launch are Commander Mark Kelly, Pilot Gregory H. Johnson, three Mission Specialists and one astronaut from the European Space Agency. The crew members will be on a 14-day journey to deliver Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) and spare parts” to the International Space Station Dextre. This will be the 12th mission to the International Space shuttle.

It looks like a great day to launch Endeavour for the final time so on behalf of the thousands of proud Americans who have been part of her journey, good luck,” launch director Mike Leinbach radioed to the crew. There to witness the launch was about 500,000 people. Most of which watched from their cars.

The item that the members are taking to the space station, the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle detector, is designed to analyze cosmic rays for fingerprints of dark matter, antimatter and other phenomena undetectable by traditional telescopes. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer is also expected to sift through 25,000 cosmic ray hits a second and operate for at least the next 10 years while attached to the outside of the space station.