MS. STILSON: Discovery will be carrying several payloads to the International Space Station,
including Raffaello, one of three Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules built by the Italian Space Agency.
Scott Higginbotham, Space Station payload manager, is about to explain what we take with us into space and how we prepare it for the trip.
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MR. HIGGINBOTHAM: A payload is anything that the Shuttle carries up into space,
anything that's not part of the Shuttle itself. And so for the mission like the one we're getting ready to fly,
the payload is the hardware in the payload bay, the International Space Station hardware that we're carrying up to the Station.
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The hardware that we're preparing is, again, very expensive, very complex and its high performance.
And it's very sensitive. It has a lot of machinery and a lot of electronic devices that need to be kept clean in order for them to operate properly.
So we go to great lengths to ensure that both the facility environment that we're working in and the people and the tools that work on the hardware
protect the hardware from themselves. And we have our crews wear special garments so that they don't leave any hairs
or skin cells or sweat or oils behind. And we also make sure that all of our tools and equipment are clean before they're used around the hardware.
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Well, one thing that I think is a little bit amusing is that our Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules which were built by the Italians for our use
are named after famous Italians that lived in -- before 1600. But they also happen to be
three of the four names of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and so that gets a lot of giggles from a lot of folks.
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We take all of the elements that are flying on a given mission, when they're finished
and we're done with all of the off-line preparations, we put them in our transportation canister,
which looks like a payload bay on wheels. We rotate that canister to vertical and we deliver it out to the launch pad.
There, it's hoisted up into the Rotating Service Structure and a large gantry within that structure rolls forward,
picks up our payload elements out of our transportation canister and pulls them back into the back of the room.
Canister is then lowered and it goes away. The Rotating Service Structure then is swept around
and mated up to the Space Shuttle. The payload doors are open, the doors to that room are open
and this gantry rolls forward and places the payload elements into the payload bay of the orbiter.
The payload bay doors are closed for flight and we go launch.
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