page_title: Multi-Purpose Logistics Module
section_title: Missions
hierarchical_section_title: Multi-Purpose Logistics Module / Missions
caption_attribution_description: "Cosmonaut Yuri P. Gidzenko is dwarfed by transient hardware aboard Leonardo, the Italian Space Agency-built Multipurpose Logistics Module (MPLM). Gidzenko has been aboard the International Space Station (ISS) since early November of 2000, but he will be returning to Earth with the STS-102 astronauts and the MPLM in a few days."[1]
context_page_description: A Multi-Purpose Logistics Module is a large pressurized container that was used on Space Shuttle missions to transfer cargo to and from the International Space Station. Two MPLMs made a dozen trips in the Shuttle cargo bay and initially berthed to the Unity module and later the Harmony module on the ISS. From there, supplies were offloaded, and finished experiments and waste were reloaded. The MPLM was then reberthed in the Shuttle for return to Earth. Three modules were built by the Italian Space Agency: Leonardo, Raffaello, and Donatello.
  The Leonardo module was modified in 2010 to turn it into the Permanent Multipurpose Module and was permanently attached to the ISS during the STS-133 mission in March 2011. The Raffaello module in July 2011 was the last ever payload of a NASA Space Shuttle. It returned with the Shuttle and was stored at the Kennedy Space Center. The Donatello module never launched.
  There were 37 Space Shuttle missions to the ISS. MPLMs were flown twelve times, with the Spacelab modules it was derived from flown nine times to ISS.
caption: 21 March 2001 – Cosmonaut Yuri P. Gidzenko is shown within Leonardo.
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