Shuttle Endeavour's final trip to the International Space Station will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer science experiment and another pallet of spare parts. This gallery of images shows the work to hoist both payloads into the transporter at Kennedy Space Center's Space Station Processing Facility and the 60-foot-long canister being rotated upright at a separate building in preparation for heading to the launch pad.

During the two-week flight of Endeavour, both the AMS and the Express Logistics Carrier No. 3 will be robotically removed from the shuttle's cargo bay and attached to the space station's truss backbone. The spectrometer seeks answers about dark energy and anti-matter while ELC 3 holds replacement communications antennas, a high-pressure oxygen tank, an extra ammonia coolant tank, a new arm for the Dextre robot, a military experiment package and other assorted items for use as needed in the future.

Photos by NASA

Photos by NASA