THE HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT BLOG: From the Space Shuttle to Beyond

NASA / Frank Michaux

IMAGES OF THE DAY... Earlier this morning, a payload canister carrying the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) was transported to Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The MPLM will be placed inside LC-39A’s payload changeout room before finally being installed inside the cargo bay of space shuttle Atlantis on Monday. This is the last time the payload canister will be driven over to a launch pad to deliver cargo to an orbiter waiting to lift off into Earth orbit...though the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) from which the canister came will continue to be used to prepare International Space Station (ISS)-bound cargo for years to come. Instead of being driven to KSC’s launch pads, the cargo will be brought over to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station where it will be installed inside SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft...which is the first of many commercially-made orbital vehicles that will begin venturing to the ISS over the next decade or so.

(The SSPF also processes cargo that is flown overseas to other launch sites such as the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan...where the payload is prepped and delivered to the ISS via Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicles.)


NASA / Dimitri Gerondidakis


NASA / Kim Shiflett