The Right Key

Abstract

The four space walks of astronauts Luca Parmitano, ESA astronaut, and Drew Morgan, NASA, took place from November 2019 to January 2020 to extend the lifetime of the 9 years old AMS (Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer) cosmic ray detector. This is a poignant overview of the technical difficulties and engineering challenges, including the development of special tools, overcome by a team of engineers and physicists from CERN and NASA over the 4 years planning and the challenges of the Extra Vehicular Activities (EVAs) for the astronauts. This chapter is based on interviews carried out by Paola Catapano and Claudio Bortolin to astronaut Luca Parmitano and the scientists behind the mission; these are guiding the reader through the most stressful moments of the four EVAs. The success of the EVA’s program allowed AMS-02 to be back to fully operational in space, poised to explore our Universe for many years to come.