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Lifting off on April 29, the 14-day STS-134 Mission featuring ESA astronaut Roberto Vittori (who will become the last European to fly on any of the NASA Shuttles) will deliver to the International Space Station a pioneering scientific experiment designed to track elusive antimatter and 'dark matter' in the Universe.

Mounted on the Station’s main truss, the AMS-02 alpha magnetic spectrometer will probe the little-explored realm of high-energy cosmic rays to look for signs of antimatter and the mysterious 'dark matter'. Antimatter is believed to have been created on a par with normal matter but it seems to have disappeared from the Universe we know today. 'Dark matter' is estimated to account for around 90% of our Universe’s mass but it has not been detected directly so far. This 'dark matter' element is reflected in the name ‘DAMA’ of Roberto Vittori’s mission.

The AMS-02 observations could be of paramount importance for understanding the origin, nature and evolution of the Universe.

STS-134 marks the end of ESA’s participation in Space Shuttle missions, which started in November 1981 with the first flight of Europe’s Spacelab pallet on the second launch of Columbia. Over three decades, ESA astronauts will have flown on 26 missions and, counting payloads, hardware and experiments, Europe will have been involved in 86 missions by the time of the Shuttle’s final venture, STS-135, in June.

Watch the live launch - April 29, 19:47 GMT

ESA TV is providing extensive coverage of this penultimate Shuttle mission. Several stories are available on ESA TV’s FTP server and transmitted via satellite on the Europe by Satellite (EbS) service.

ESA TV will relay NASA TV live via satellite for broadcasters in Europe from the Kennedy Space Center before launch, in addition to providing the latest images of the Shuttle on the pad and interviews on location. ESA TV will also relay NASA TV daily highlights throughout the mission.


Details will be given and updated on the ESA TV website, at http://television.esa.int.

This news article originally appeared on the ESA website