A flatbed trailer carrying the final components of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory for the International Space Station drives in Florida.

A flatbed trailer carrying the final components of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory for the International Space Station drives past the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The trailer contains the Kibo Exposed Facility and the Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section, which are going to the Space Station Processing Facility. The two components arrived earlier on a Russian Antonov AH-124-100 cargo airplane at the Shuttle Landing Facility. The EF provides a multipurpose platform where science experiments can be deployed and operated in the exposed environment. The payloads attached to the EF can be exchanged or retrieved by Kibo's robotic arm, the JEM Remote Manipulator System. The ELM-ES will be attached to the end of the EF to provide payload storage space and can carry up to three payloads at launch. In addition, the ELM-ES provides a logistics function where it can be detached from the EF and returned to the ground aboard the space shuttle. The two JEM components will be carried aboard space shuttle Endeavour on the STS-127 mission targeted for launch in May 2009. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis