The Most Well-Traveled Nobel in the Universe

On May 14, 2010, when the Space Shuttle Atlantis left for the International Space Station (ISS) on its 32nd and final flight, it carried some typical items on board: the Russian mini-research module (which provided a new docking port and storage space for the ISS), and a cargo carrier filled with spare parts for the [...]

STS-132 crew (from left: Piers Sellers, Garrett Reisman, Tony Antonelli, Ken Ham, Michael Good, Steve Bowen) during training. Courtesy NASA.
On May 14, 2010, when the Space Shuttle Atlantis left for the International Space Station (ISS) on its 32nd and final flight, it carried some typical items on board: the Russian mini-research module (which provided a new docking port and storage space for the ISS), and a cargo carrier filled with spare parts for the space station, which will be used as needed after the shuttle stops flying.
But a number of smaller articles made the 11-day journey as well, one of which was a the National Air and Space Museum’s replica of John Mather’s 2006 Nobel Prize for Physics. (Dr. Mather, of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, was awarded the prize jointly with George F. Smoot of the University of California at ...