At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida an overhead crane is poised above the floor of the Space Station Processing Facility to lift the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, or AMS, from the tractor-trailer that delivered it.
AMS, a state-of-the-art particle physics detector, is designed to operate as an external module on the International Space Station. It will use the unique environment of space to study the universe and its origin by searching for dark matter. The STS-134 crew will fly AMS to the International Space Station aboard space shuttle Endeavour, targeted to launch Feb. 26, 2011. Photo credit: NASA/Frankie Martin