STS-108 PAYLOADS
International Space Station Assembly Flight UF-1

Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module
The Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module will be making its second trip to the International Space Station during STS-108. The module will be filled with equipment and supplies to outfit the U.S. Destiny Laboratory, which was carried to the International Space Station on STS-98 in February 2001. Of the 16 racks the module can carry, this mission brings eight Resupply Stowage Racks and four Resupply Stowage Platforms.

The Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module is backdropped over clouds and water on Earth during STS-100 when it was attached to the International Space Station.

Raffaello, which was provided by the Italian Space Agency, is the primary payload for STS-108. It is one of three such pressurized modules that serve as the ISS' "moving vans," carrying laboratory racks filled with equipment, experiments and supplies to and from the station aboard the space shuttle.

The unpiloted, reusable logistics modules function as both a cargo carrier and a space station module when flown. Mounted in the space shuttle's cargo bay for launch and landing, they are berthed to the station using the shuttle's robotic arm after the shuttle has docked. While berthed to the station, racks of equipment are unloaded from the module and then old racks and equipment may be reloaded to be taken back to Earth.

Avian Development Facility
The second generation of avian development hardware, the Avian Development Facility, is designed for space experiments that use Japanese quail eggs. The facility's main objective on STS-108 is to validate its subsystems and reduce the risk in developing the next generation of avian development hardware, the Egg Incubator. Secondary objectives will be support of two experiments studying how the lack of gravity affects the development of avian embryos.

Commercial Biomedical Testing Module Experiment
A promising treatment for Osteoporosis is being tested during STS-108 by Amgen Inc., a biotechnology firm in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Osteoporosis is a debilitating disease that can lead to bone fractures and result in reduced quality of life for the elderly. Before launch, the treatment, the protein osteoprotegerin, will be given to 12 mice and 12 mice will receive a placebo. Other similarly treated mice will stay on the ground. This experiment will contribute to Amgen's ground-based studies of OPG. Since space flight induces a complete, more systematic, accelerated bone loss, it is expected to provide a good model for osteoporosis and potential treatments.

Multiple Application Customized Hitchhiker-1
Multiple Application Customized Hitchhiker-1, which is also known as MACH-1, is a collection of experiments mounted on a crossbay GAS bridge assembly. The experiments include: STARSHINE-2, the Prototype Synchrotron Radiation Detector, Collisions Into Dust Experiment-2, Capillary Pump Loop, and Space Experiment Module-11.

STARSHINE 2
STARSHINE 2 will be the third satellite of Project Starshine -- the Student Tracked Atmospheric Research Satellite for Heuristic International Networking Experiment -- to be deployed. More than 25,000 students from 26 countries will track STARSHINE 2 as it orbits Earth for eight months. The students will use the information that they collect to calculate the density of the Earth's upper atmosphere. Starshine will fly into space in a Hitchhiker canister in the payload bay of Endeavour and will be deployed 240 miles (387 kilometers) above the Earth.