[en] The Penning trap mass spectrometer SHIPTRAP at GSI Darmstadt was set up for high-precision mass measurements of heavy radionuclides produced in fusion evaporation reactions and separated from the primary beam by the velocity filter SHIP. It consists of a gas stopping cell for the deceleration of the high energetic reaction products, an RFQ cooler and buncher for cooling and accumulation of the ions, and a double Penning trap system to perform mass measurements. The mass is determined by measuring the cyclotron frequency of the ion of interest in a strong homogeneous magnetic field and comparing it to the frequency of a well-known reference ion. With this method relative uncertainties in the order of 10^-8 can be achieved. Recently, mass measurements of the three nobelium isotopes ^252-254No (Z=102) and the lawrencium isotope ²⁵⁵Lr (Z=103) were performed successfully. These were the first direct mass measurements of transuranium elements ever per- formed. The production rate of the atoms of interest was about one per second or less. The results of the measurements on nobelium confirm the previous mass values which were deduced from Q_α values. In the case of ²⁵⁵Lr the mass excess value, which was previously only estimated from systematic trends, was for the first time directly measured. These results mark the first step in the exploration of the region of transuranium elements which is planned at SHIPTRAP. The main objective is to fix the endpoints of α decay chains which are originating from superheavy elements close to the predicted island of stability. (orig.)