The final components of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory for the International Space Station are ready to be offloaded from the flatbed trailer.

The final components of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory for the International Space Station are ready to be offloaded from the flatbed trailer and moved into the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The elements are the Kibo Exposed Facility, or EF, and the Kibo Experiment Logistics Module-Exposed Section, or ELM-ES. 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