Multi-Purpose Logistics Module

Two MPLMs made a dozen trips in the Shuttle cargo bay and initially berthed to the Unity and later the Harmony module on the ISS.

In July 2011, the Raffaello module was the primary payload on the final Space Shuttle mission.

The basic design of the MPLM was later used as the basis for two cargo spacecraft, the European Automated Transfer Vehicle and the American Cygnus.

Three MPLMs were built and delivered to NASA and have names chosen by the ASI to denote some of the great talents in Italian history: Leonardo da Vinci, Raffaello and Donatello.

Initially, they were to be built by Boeing, but in 1992, the Italians announced that they would build a "Mini-Pressurized Logistics Module", able to carry 4,500 kilograms (4.5 t) of cargo.

[1] Donatello was a more capable module than its two siblings, as it was designed to carry payloads that required continuous power from construction through to installation on the ISS.

[3] With the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011, the Raffaello and Leonardo modules were flown a combined total of 12 times.