Switzerland To Florida To Space

Photo by SSgt. Ryan Crane

A joint active duty and Air Force Reserve Command C-5M Super Galaxy crew from Dover AFB, Delaware, delivered the 8.3 ton Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, or AMS, from Geneva to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on 26 August 2010. The AMS, which will be launched to orbit next year on the last Space Shuttle mission, will be docked to the International Space Station to collect evidence of antimatter, dark matter, and other cosmic phenomena over the next two decades. A team of international physicists from the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, in Switzerland specifically requested the C-5M to transport the AMS to Florida. Prior to arriving in Geneva, the aircrew had dropped supplies off in Afghanistan and Iraq