NASA is to cost the impact of altering its 29 July 2010 Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-133/ULF5 flight in preparation for a decision on permanently attaching its Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module (MPLM) to the International Space Station (ISS). In a reply to an enquiry by Hyperbola the space agency said
The change request was put into the system to cost the technical impacts of doing it if approved. It has not yet been agreed to by the programme or international partners.
Permanent MPLM at ISS was rejected once before by NASA as a solution to the potential problem of transporting spare parts to the space station once the Space Shuttle fleet is retired in 2010
While the MPLM’s are owned by NASA the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and its industrial partners designed, built and supplied the modules through a NASA/ASI bilateral agreement
ASI’s commissioner Enrico Saggese told Flightglobal earlier this year that the MPLM could form part of an Italian national laboratory attached to the ISS as well as provide delivery of spare parts
NASA’s ISS programme manager Michael Suffredini told Hyperbola in a video interview about how the ULF5 mission would work if permanent MPLM was given the go-ahead
The change request was mentoned in the 30 June issue of the Johnson Space Center 8th Floor News newsletter
