''Leonardo'', also known as the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) is a module of the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

. It was flown into space aboard the Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' on STS-133 on 24 February 2011 and installed on 1 March. ''Leonardo'' is primarily used for storage of spares, supplies and waste on the ISS, which was until then stored in many different places within the space station. It is also the personal hygiene area for the astronauts who live in the US Orbital Segment. The ''Leonardo'' PMM was a

Multi-Purpose Logistics Module A Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) is a large pressurized container that was used on Space Shuttle missions to transfer cargo to and from the International Space Station (ISS). Two MPLMs made a dozen trips in the Shuttle cargo bay and initi ...

(MPLM) before 2011, then was modified into its current configuration. It was formerly one of two MPLM used for bringing cargo to and from the ISS with the Space Shuttle. Like the other Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules, it was constructed by the Italian Space Agency, who chose to name it after the Italian polymath

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...

. Construction began in April 1996, and the module was delivered to NASA at the

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten NASA facilities#List of field c ...

in August 1998 by an Airbus Beluga aircraft.

Previous proposals

A European proposal suggested equipping the ''Donatello'' MPLM with enhanced

micrometeoroid A micrometeoroid is a tiny meteoroid: a small particle of rock in space, usually weighing less than a gram. A micrometeorite is such a particle that survives passage through Earth's atmosphere and reaches Earth's surface. The term "micrometeoro ...

/ orbital debris protection and cooling systems, and leaving it attached to the ISS after the Space Shuttle fleet was retired. Costs for such MPLM modifications were estimated at $20M to $40M per unit. The MPLM would then be called a Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM), and it would house spare parts and supplies, allowing longer times between resupply missions. The proposal was rejected by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

because it would require changes to existing plans and would entail additional costs. Internal discussions continued and managers considered the possibility of STS-133, which at that time was planned to be the last Shuttle flight, leaving its MPLM permanently attached. The United Launch Alliance also published a proposal for a system that could allow additional ISS modules to be launched on an EELV even after the retirement of the Shuttle. On August 5, 2009 it was announced that STS-133 would indeed leave one MPLM permanently attached to the station. In October 2009, it was confirmed that ''Leonardo'' would be the MPLM converted to a PMM. It was launched on February 24, 2011. The PMM was transferred to the station using the Shuttle robotic arm and mated to the

nadir The nadir is the direction pointing directly ''below'' a particular location; that is, it is one of two vertical directions at a specified location, orthogonal to a horizontal flat surface. The direction opposite of the nadir is the zenith. Et ...

(Earth) facing port of ''Unity''. On May 27, 2015, at 13:08 UTC, the PMM was relocated from the nadir port of the ''Unity'' module to the forward-facing port of the ''Tranquility'' module. This was done in order to allow ''Unity'''s nadir port to serve as a berthing port for resupply craft, which in turn frees up ''

Harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

''s zenith port for future U.S. Commercial Crew Development spacecraft. After the re-location of ''Leonardo'' from the ''Unity'' module to the ''Tranquility'' module (which is where the toilet is located) in addition to its function as a storage module it is now the personal hygiene area for the ISS astronauts in the US Orbital Segment. Astronauts have much privacy in ''Leonardo'' and do sponge baths and change their clothes here. ''Leonardo'' might also be used on Axiom Station after the ISS is decommissioned.

Modifications

After returning to Earth on April 20, 2010 at the end of the STS-131 mission, the ''Leonardo'' MPLM was moved to the

Space Station Processing Facility The Space Systems Processing Facility (SSPF), originally the Space Station Processing Facility, is a three-story industrial building at Kennedy Space Center for the Manufacturing of the International Space Station, manufacture and Process manufac ...

(SSPF) at the

in Florida to undergo modifications. To convert the ''Leonardo'' MPLM into the PMM, NASA made the following modifications: removal of +Y grapple fixture (Flight Releasable Grapple Fixture, or FRGF), removal of ROFU (Remotely Operated Fluid Umbilical) components, replacement of CBM seal, installation of new forward end cone MMOD shields, feed through seal replacement, and installation of visiting vehicle retro-reflectors. In addition, the Multi-layer insulation (MLI) blankets from the never-flown ''Donatello'' MPLM were cannibalized for use on ''Leonardo''. The blankets were removed and returned to Italy where they were reinforced with Nextel/

Kevlar Kevlar (para-aramid) is a strong, heat-resistant synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed by Stephanie Kwolek at DuPont in 1965, the high-strength material was first used commercially in the early 1970s as ...

to provide better protection against micro-meteorites. The upgraded blankets were then installed on about two-thirds of ''Leonardo''s surface area. The ''Leonardo'' PMM mass is .

As an MPLM

The ''Leonardo'' MPLM, also known as MPLM-1, was one of three

s which were operated by

to transfer supplies and equipment to and from the

. ''Leonardo'' was used for eight of the twelve MPLM flights to the space station, with '' Raffaello'' being used for the other four. It was the first MPLM to be launched, making its first flight in March 2001, aboard on STS-102.

Flights

References

External links