Commander Kent Rominger and Mission Specialist Umberto Guidoni look over the inside of Raffaello a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module.

STS-100 Commander Kent Rominger and Mission Specialist Umberto Guidoni, who is with the European Space Agency, look over the inside of Raffaello, a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. Mission STS-100, scheduled to launch April 19, 2001, will include Raffaello as well as the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) as its payload. MPLMs are pressurized modules that will serve as the International Space Station's “moving vans,” carrying laboratory racks filled with equipment, experiments and supplies to and from the station aboard the Space Shuttle. The SSRMS is the primary means of transferring payloads between the orbiter payload bay and the International Space Station for assembly