Space Shuttle Columbia facility beginning in January 1984, undergoing modifications that removed the Orbiter Flight Test hardware and bringing it up to similar specifications as those of its sister orbiters. At that time the shuttle fleet was expanded to include "Discovery" and "Atlantis". "Columbia" returned to space on January 12, 1986, with the launch of STS-61-C. The mission's crew included Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz, as well as the first sitting member of the House of Representatives to venture into space, Bill Nelson. The next shuttle mission, STS-51-L, was undertaken by "Challenger". It was launched on January 28, 1986, ten days after STS-61-C had landed,
International Space Station a storage module attached to the "Tranquility" node. The three NASA Space Shuttle MPLM cargo containers—"Leonardo", "Raffaello" and "Donatello"—were built for NASA in Turin, Italy by Alcatel Alenia Space, now Thales Alenia Space. The MPLMs were provided to NASA's ISS programme by Italy (independent of their role as a member state of ESA) and are considered to be US elements. In a bartered exchange for providing these containers, the US gave Italy research time aboard the ISS out of the US allotment in addition to that which Italy receives as a member of ESA. The Permanent Multipurpose Module was created