IceCube: Construction status and first results

IceCube is a 1 km3 neutrino telescope currently under construction at the South Pole. The detector will consist of 4800 optical sensors deployed at depths between 1450 and 2500 m in clear Antarctic ice evenly distributed over 80 strings. An air shower array covering a surface area of 1 km2 above the in-ice detector will measure cosmic ray air showers in the energy range from 300 TeV to above 1 EeV.The detector is designed to detect neutrinos of all flavors: νe, νμ and ντ. With 40 strings in operation in 2008, construction is 50% complete. Based on data taken to date, the observatory meets its design goals and currently exceeds the sensitivity of AMANDA and previous neutrino telescopes. The construction outlook and possible future extensions are also discussed.