After its shipping cover was removed, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo Exposed Facility, or EF, is moved to a high bay in the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. When it is installed on the Kibo laboratory, the EF will provide 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 EF, along with the Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section, will be carried aboard space shuttle Endeavour on the STS-127 mission targeted for launch May 15, 2009. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
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