Someone In NASA or the ESA Loves the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Maybe, it's happenstance, but I think that it's the turtles.

Think about it, Leonardo, Donatello, and Raphaelo. Some Italian turtles fan?

NASA Nears Decision on Permanently Attached MPLM

Aviation Week & Space Technology
06/11/2007, page 33

Michael A. Taverna
Turin, Italy

NASA nears decision on MPLM; European inflatable and robot concepts advance

Printed headline: Housecleaning

Thales Alenia Space says it's close to clinching a deal with the European Space Agency and NASA to modify a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module so it can be permanently moored to the International Space Station once the shuttle is retired.

Such a plan--intended to add pressurized storage space needed to reduce clutter in living and working areas of the ISS--has been "kicking around for a while," says Dino Brondolo, the company's director of infrastucture programs, but has grown in priority as NASA confirmed its decision to phase out the shuttle by 2010. A green light would have to be given by the fall in order to complete modifications in time for the final MPLM mission, he says.

This X-45C tailless flying wing represents the fourth generation of stealth that protects against detection by low-frequency radars as well as it does against traditional high-frequency air defense sensors.Credit: BOEING

NASA is working out final specifications and discussing a barter acquisition arrangement with ESA and Italian space agency (ASI) for the plan, along the lines of previous agreements involving two new interconnecting modules, Node 2 and 3, and the Cupola astronaut viewing station, all of which, like MPLM, were built by Thales Alenia. Brondolo rates the chances for a go-ahead as "good."

Carried in the shuttle cargo bay, the 21-ft.-dia., 15-ft.-long MPLM can supply up to 10 metric tons of pressurized cargo to and from the station, arranged on 16 standard racks. Attached to the ISS, it would provide an additional 70 cu. meters of volume--comparable to the Columbus or U.S. habitation modules--freeing up storage space for other functions.

Three vessels were initially procured from Thales Alenia, for a design life of 25 missions each. However, because of the drastic reduction in shuttle missions, only two--Rafaelo and Leonardo--have flown since their inaugural flight in March 2001, and they have totaled only seven missions between them. The third ship, Donatello, is set for a sole mission in January 2009. Only two other flights are currently planned--Leonardo in October 2008 and Rafaelo in July 2009.

If there had been 4, it would have been named Michaelangelo.