Engineers will soon install the first piece of  the GLAST Burst Monitor into the  Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), bringing the project another step closer to launch. Currently, it is scheduled to lift-off in little over a year.

GLAST will study the gamma ray bursts (GRBs) resulting when two neutron stars merger or a large star collapses. "GLAST will...open up a new window in the high energy range," says Charles Meegan, principal investigator of the GLAST Burst Monitor at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

GRBs are just about the most distant phenomena scientists are able to observe. GLAST will need to meet some challenging goals that could rewrite the rules of physics. It will be able to study whether all light travels at the same speed in a vacuum. GLAST team members also hope to study how GRBs occur. "There hasn't really been a satisfactory explanation of the physics that goes on to get all this high energy radiation out in such a short amount of time," says Meegan. "We're hoping that measurements over a wider spectrum will contribute to the solution."

The mission may also test a theory that attempts to unify the laws of physics. Known as the "Unified Field Theory," proposes the existence of a fourth spatial dimension.

GLAST be launched aboard a Delta 2 Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air in September 2007. The mission is designed to last five years, but the team hopes they can squeeze up to ten years out of the device.