A 48-wheeled transporter will haul a 60-foot-tall, environmentally controlled canister holding a cylindrical module packed with more than 8,000 pounds of supplies and parts bound for the International Space Station.
The flight will be the fourth since 2001 for the Italian-built "moving van" named Raffaello.
A sister module named Leonardo flew eight times before being left on the station as a permanent addition in Februrary.
Technically called a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, or MPLM, Raffaello measures 21 feet long and 15 feet in diamter.
A separate cargo carrier also will be installed in Atlantis' payload bay behind Raffaello, holding a box that will be installed on the station for tests of in-orbit refueling technologies. On the way down, it will carry a station coolant system pump module that failed last summer and will return to Earth for analysis.
The cargo is scheduled to be lifted into a changeout room in the launch pad's rotating gantry Friday morning and be installed in the payload bay Monday -- the same day four Atlantis astronauts fly into KSC for a countdown reheasal and other launch training.
Atlantis is targeted to launch at 11:26 a.m. July 8. An official launch date will be confirmed June 28.
IMAGE: In the Space Station Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center on June 3, technicians garbed in protective wear, commonly known as 'bunny suits,' installed cargo inside the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module for shuttle Atlantis' flight to the International Space Station. Credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller
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