Michael Braukus

Headquarters, Washington, DC September 20, 1995

(Phone: 202/358-1979)

Don Savage
Headquarters, Washington, DC
(Phone: 202/358-1727)

Jeff Sherwood
Department of Energy, Washington, DC
(Phone: 202/586-5806)

RELEASE: 95-157

PHYSICS EXPERIMENT TO FLY ON SPACE STATION

NASA and the Department of Energy (DOE) today signed an

agreement to fly a major scientific experiment on the Space
Shuttle and later on the international Space Station. Nobel
laureate, Professor Samuel C.C. Ting of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology will lead the experiment's
scientific team.

The DOE-sponsored experiment will look for antimatter

originating from outside our galaxy and also may lead to the
scientific discovery of dark matter, the mysterious, yet
undiscovered material that some scientists say makes up 90%
or more of the universe.

"The enthusiastic cooperation from NASA has helped to

make this physics research in space possible," said
Secretary of Energy Hazel R. O'Leary. "This pioneering
experiment holds the promise of delivering a better
understanding of our universe."

"I'm thrilled that this experiment has been selected to

fly on the Space Station," said NASA Administrator Daniel S.
Goldin. "I've always said that the Space Station will be an
orbiting laboratory capable of conducting world-class
science, and the addition of an experiment whose science
team is led by a Nobel laureate is one more step in
realizing the full potential of the Space Station."

- more -
-2-

The experiment is a state-of-the-art particle physics

detector called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS). AMS
will use the unique environment of space to study the
properties and origin of cosmic particles and nuclei
including antimatter and dark matter. Discovering the
presence of either material will increase scientists'
understanding of the early universe and could potentially
lead to a clearer understanding of the actual origin of the
universe and to the discovery of antimatter stars and
galaxies.

The AMS experiment is an international collaboration of

some 37 universities and laboratories. AMS will be the
first large magnet experiment ever placed in Earth orbit.
NASA plans to fly AMS initially as a Space Shuttle payload
on the STS-90 mission in April 1998. This flight will
provide the investigator's team with data on background
sources and verify the detector's performance under actual
space flight conditions. The detector will operate for
approximately 100 hours during this mission.

The detector's second space flight will occur when it

is launched on Space Shuttle mission STS-110 in 2001 for
installation on the Space Station as an attached payload.
Current plans call for operating the detector for three
years before it is returned to Earth on the Shuttle.

Utilizing the Space Station offers the science team the

opportunity to conduct the long-duration research necessary
to collect sufficient data required to accomplish the
science objectives.

NASA Associate Administrator Harry Holloway and DOE's

Director of Energy Research Martha Krebs signed today's
interagency agreement in a ceremony in Washington, DC.

- end -
NASA press releases and other information are available
automatically by sending an Internet electronic mail message
to domo@hq.nasa.gov. In the body of the message (not the
subject line) users should type the words "subscribe press-
release" (no quotes). The system will reply with a
confirmation via E-mail of each subscription. A second
automatic message will include additional information on the
service. Questions should be directed to (202) 358-4043.