On April 13, 2026, NASA Astronaut Chris Williams, with assistance from NASA Astronaut Jack Hathaway, captured Northrop Grumman\u2019s Cygnus XL spacecraft using the International Space Station\u2019s (ISS) Canadarm2 robotic arm. The Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft is seen arriving at its capture point 12 meters away from the ISS before the Canadarm2 robotic arm reaches out and grapples the resupply ship.NASA<\/p>\n
Bringing together two massive vehicles, each one racing around the planet at about 28,000 km per hour, is no small feat. The operation, nicknamed a \u201ccosmic catch,\u201d is akin to reaching a hand from a speeding car into the open window of another while racing down the highway. While it has been accomplished well over 50 times on the station, it requires months of planning and a deep understanding of the Canadian-built machine that makes it all possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very high stakes,\u201d said Tim Braithwaite, the Canadian Space Agency\u2019s liaison manager in Houston. \u201cIf those supplies don\u2019t get on board, then there\u2019s a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Canadarm2 will mark its 25th year in space. <\/p>\n
In that time, the iconic arm has not only proved essential for building the station, but for maintaining it day to day. It is the orbiting facility\u2019s all-purpose handyman: Looking, adjusting, swapping parts and generally keeping things in running order.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all the stuff that we\u2019ve been able to do robotically to free the crew up to so they can do science inside while we do the maintenance stuff outside,\u201d said Isaac Mensah, a senior robotics engineer with the Houston office of MDA Space, the Canadian company that designed and build the arm.<\/p>\n
Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Engineers Michale Klemph, Justin Goolsby, Jason Campbell and Isaac Mensah at MDA Space in Houston have all spent years operating or working on various aspects of the Canadarm2 robotic system.Ivan Semeniuk\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n And the arm has endured. It has survived the vacuum of space, the harsh radiation, the temperature extremes (it is flying in and out of Earth\u2019s shadow every 90 minutes), and everything else it encounters, from corrosive ions to micrometeoroid impacts.<\/p>\n \u201cHow many cars from 2001 are still rolling today?\u201d Mr. Mensah said. \u201cI dare anybody to find any sort of mechanical system from any industry that has been this well behaved over that long of a time.\u201d<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield conducts a briefing on the the new-generation Canadian robotic arm, Canadarm2, in Toronto on Oct. 16, 2000.FRANK GUNN\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n That was certainly the hope when MDA first envisioned the arm in the 1990s. It was a huge leap from what came before. Starting in 1981, Canada had provided a generation of robotic arms for NASA\u2019s space shuttle fleet, which tackled the challenges of how to grasp and move objects in orbit. <\/p>\n But unlike that first generation of Canadarms, which returned to Earth with each flight and could be carefully maintained at the company\u2019s headquarters in Brampton, Ont., Canadarm2 had to be in space full time and perform far more complicated tasks.<\/p>\n To enable a wider portfolio of tasks, the arm was built with \u201cend effectors\u201d \u2013 the Canadarm version of hands \u2013 on both sides. This means it can anchor itself at either end, leaving the opposite end free to perform a task, or to find a new anchor point so that it can effectively walk its way around the outside of the station. And each attachment connects to power and data lines so that it remains alive and in constant communication with engineers on Earth.<\/p>\n The arm also has a mobile base that can roll along the station\u2019s main truss to transport the arm to different work stations. And it has an additional robot, nicknamed \u201cDextre,\u201d with two smaller arms that can sit on one end of the main arm and move into position to make precision movements and repairs.<\/p>\n Collectively, the entire system is the most sophisticated assortment of space hardware ever built by Canada. After 25 years, it remains the country\u2019s orbiting calling card. This has led directly to Canada\u2019s participation in the Artemis lunar program and to commercial possibilities as private space companies look to emulate what the space station achieved.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n The space shuttle Endeavour, carryng the Canadarm2, clears the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center as its journey to the ISS begins on April 19, 2001.GARY I. ROTHSTEIN\/CSA<\/p>\n The space shuttle Endeavour carried Canadarm2 into orbit on April 19, 2001 and arrived at the station two days later. On April 22, Chris Hadfield became the first Canadian to perform a spacewalk when he and NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski emerged to unpack and install the arm over the next two days.<\/p>\n In an interview with The Globe and Mail this week, Mr. Hadfield vividly recalled the challenge of assembling the main arm with its tree-trunk size booms and bolting the sections together. The fasteners, however, did not perform as expected in the free-fall environment.<\/p>\n \u201cWe ended up having to use the power drill as a manual ratchet,\u201d he said, \u201cjust strong-arming in order to to get them all tightened up.\u201d<\/p>\n
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