Leonardo became the International Space Station’s permanent storage module. Built in Italy, it was converted from a reusable cargo carrier into the Permanent Multipurpose Module and permanently installed on the ISS in March 2011.
Before its conversion, Leonardo was one of the station’s Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules. Space Shuttle missions carried it to the ISS filled with supplies, equipment, and experiments; it then returned to Earth in the Shuttle’s payload bay. The STS-133 mission changed that arrangement by leaving the module attached to the station.
Today, Leonardo stores spare parts, supplies, equipment, and waste. It also includes a personal hygiene area for astronauts in the US Orbital Segment. The module was named after Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian Renaissance polymath.
Raffaello was another Italian-built logistics module and is a common mix-up, but it continued serving as a cargo module rather than becoming the ISS’s permanent multipurpose storage module. Donatello was never flown to the station.