22 July 2005
Shuttle Return to Flight

NASA has announced plans to begin the countdown to a 26 July launch of Space
Shuttle Discovery. The countdown will start on Saturday, with a test of the
External Tank to follow early on launch day. If all goes well with the test,
the countdown will continue to a lift-off at 16:39 CEST on Tuesday.

Discovery's payload includes the Italian Multi-Purpose Logistics Module
Raffaello, built by Alcatel Alenia Space.
Raffaello will carry 12 large racks filled with food, clothing, spare parts
and research equipment to the International Space Station. Included in the
cargo is the Human Research Facility-2 that will expand the Station's
capability to support human life sciences research.
Alcatel Alenia Space has designed, built and delivered for the Italian Space
Agency three MPLMs: Leonardo, Raffaello and Donatello.

To date, there have been five MPLM missions to the International Space
Station.

The first (Leonardo, STS-102, 8-21 march 2001), dedicated to Station
assembly, took into orbit equipment and subsystems for America's Destiny
laboratory. It was followed by Raffaello (STS-100, 19 April-1 May 2001), a
mission that also saw the presence of the first European astronaut (the
Italian Umberto Guidoni) on the International Space Station.
Leonardo had another mission (STS-105) from August 10 to 22 2001, and
Raffaello returned to the Station on STS-108 (5-17 December 2001).

The last MPLM flight was again Leonardo on STS-111 (5-19 June 2002) carrying
almost three tonnes of cargo.



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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info