ph ] 1 4 A ug 2 00 7 Launch of the Space experiment

PAMELA is a satellite borne experiment designed to study with great accuracy cosmic rays of galactic, solar, and trapped nature in a wide energy range (protons: 80 MeV-700 GeV, electrons 50 MeV-400 GeV). Main objective is the study of the antimatter component: antiprotons (80 MeV-190 GeV), positrons (50 MeV-270 GeV) and search for antimatter with a precision of the order of 10). The experiment, housed on board the Russian Resurs-DK1 satellite, was launched on June, 15 2006 in a 350 × 600 km orbit with an inclination of 70 degrees. The detector is composed of a series of scintillator counters arranged at the extremities of a permanent magnet spectrometer to provide charge, Time-of-Flight and rigidity information. Lepton/hadron identification is performed by a Silicon-Tungsten calorimeter and a Neutron detector placed at the bottom of the device. An Anticounter system is used offline to reject false triggers coming from the satellite. In self-trigger mode the Calorimeter, the neutron detector and a shower tail catcher are capable of an independent measure of the lepton component up to 2 TeV. In this work we describe the experiment, its scientific objectives and the performance in the first months after

G. C. Barbarino | J. Lund | A. Vacchi | N. Zampa | V. V. Mikhailov | S. Russo | P. Hofverberg | M. Ricci | F. Cafagna | J. Lundquist | G. Zampa | S. B. Ricciarini | P. Spillantini | E. Vannuccini | N. N. Nikonov | L. Bonechi | V. Bonvicini | O. Adriani | E. A. Bogomolov | M. Bongi | G. Castellini | M. Pearce | P. Picozza | R. Sparvoli | L. Marcelli | P. Papini | M. Casolino | A. Basili | C. De Marzo | M. Nagni | M. Casolino | P. Picozza | R. Sparvoli | A. Galper | M. Boezio | A. Vacchi | N. Zampa | P. Spillantini | G. Castellini | P. Carlson | F. Cafagna | J. Lundquist | C. Marzo | M. Ambriola | M. P. Pascale | W. Menn | P. Papini | O. Adriani | V. Mikhailov | G. Barbarino | É. Bogomolov | M. Bongi | V. Bonvicini | D. Campana | S. Krutkov | A. Kvashnin | L. Marcelli | E. Mocchiutti | N. Nikonov | G. Osteria | M. Pearce | S. Ricciarini | Y. Stozhkov | E. Vannuccini | S. Voronov | G. Zampa | V. G. Zverev | E. Taddei | G. Rosa | N. Simone | S. Russo | L. Bonechi | A. Basili | P. Hofverberg | S. Orsi | L. Bongiorno | D. Fedele | D. Campana | F. Altamura | N. De Simone | V. Di Felice | M. P. De Pascale | M. Minori | A. M. Galper | M. F. Runtso | S. A. Voronov | Y. T. Yurkin | E. Taddei | M. Ambriola | G. De Rosa | G. Osteria | G. A. Bazilevskaja | A. N. Kvashnin | O. Maksumov | S. Misin | Yu. I. Stozhkov | S. Yu. Krutkov | M. Boezio | E. Mocchiutti | L. Bongiorno | P. Carlson | S. Orsi | W. Menn | M. Simon | M. Runtso | Y. Yurkin | V. Felice | D. Fedele | F. Altamura | G. Bazilevskaja | O. Maksumov | M. Minori | S. Misin | J. Lund | M. Nagni | M. Ricci | V. Zverev | M. Simon

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