Grad takes Academy experiment into space on Endeavour Published May 16, 2011 By John Van Winkle U.S. Air Force Academy Public Affairs U.S AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo -- An Air Force Academy graduate piloted the space shuttle Endeavour while carrying an Air Force Academy physics experiment into space just before 7 a.m. Mountain Standard Time, from Cape Canaveral for NASA's STS-134 mission. Piloting the crew of STS-134 is retired Col. Gregory H. Johnson, a 1984 graduate of the Air Force Academy. "We are an International Space Station assembly mission, one of the final ones," Colonel Johnson said. "We're taking up a very important experiment, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a science experiment that could change the course of physics. And we're also taking some pieces and parts up to the space station in anticipation of the shuttle retiring, because we only have a few more shuttle flights. "We have four mission specialists, [we're] doing four spacewalks, we have a lot of robotic arm operations and so I'm kind of the head arm operator overall, overseeing what we're doing with both the shuttle and the space station robotic arms, and I'll be taking part in both sides of that endeavor, moving the robotic arms, moving the pieces and parts around, inspecting the shuttle prior to reentry and after launch." The shuttle is scheduled to dock at the International Space Station early in its 16-day mission, to transfer several experiments and supplies to the space station. Among those experiments is Canary, one of the latest creations of the Academy's Space Physics and Atmospheric Research Center. Canary is a 10-centimeter cube, and will be bolted to the exterior of the ISS. It is designed to investigate the interactions of approaching spacecraft and the background plasma environment around the space station. Canary is one of four scientific experiments in the payload of Space Test Program Houston 3, which is managed by the Department of Defense Space Test Program offices at Johnson Space Center, Houston. The shuttle is scheduled to land June 1 at Kennedy Space Center. This will be the Space Shuttle Endeavour's final planned mission. The entire space shuttle fleet is slated for retirement, and only one planned space shuttle mission remains: Atlantis is slated to launch June 28 and land July 10. More information on the latest space shuttle mission and its crew is available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts134/index.html.