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The Canadian robotic arm on the International Space Station is days away from reaching a major milestone.
The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced today (August 2) that MDA Space’s Canadarm2 spacecraft will celebrate its 50th cosmic hunt as early as August 5, when the Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ship will dock with the International Space Station (ISS) carrying thousands of kilos of experiments, supplies and food for Expedition 71 astronauts.
Cygnus will launch to the ISS just before 11:29 a.m. EDT (0329 GMT) on August 3, and you can watch the mission here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA+, formerly NASA Television. If Cygnus launches on time, it will be captured by Canadarm2 and dock with the ISS at approximately 3:55 a.m. EDT (0755 GMT) on August 5. Coverage will begin at 2:30 a.m. EDT (0630 GMT) on NASA+.
Managed by MDA Space under CSA funding, Canadarm2 was first launched into space on space shuttle mission STS-100 on April 19, 2001. Mission astronaut Chris Hadfield performed the first CSA spacewalks to attach the arm, a milestone celebrated by playing the Canadian national anthem in space and jokingly referring to fellow spacewalker Scott Parazynski (of NASA) as an “honorary Canadian.”
The arm’s first spacecraft capture occurred on September 17, 2009, when it captured Japan’s HTV-1 (“HTV” stood for a now-retired cargo spacecraft series, the H-II Transfer Vehicle. In the 15 years since then, spacecraft that have docked with Canadarm2 have ranged from SpaceX’s Cargo Dragon to Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus.
According to “Canadarm and Collaboration” (Elizabeth Howell, ECW Press, 2020), Canadarm2 is part of a series of Canadian robotic arms that draw on generations of telescopic tube technology seen in space, including everything from extendable antennas to the lunar legs of the Apollo program.
The Canadarm was first flown into space on November 12, 1981, during shuttle mission STS-2 by Spar Aerospace and the National Research Council of Canada (the governing council that governed astronauts before the CSA was formed in 1989). According to NASA, the Canadarm was used for spacewalks, several Hubble Space Telescope missions, and some impromptu maneuvers, such as dropping an ice plug from a frozen shuttle drain line.
The success of the Canadarm in space allowed the NRC, and later the CSA, to pay for astronaut seats on the shuttle, as the robotic arm provided a net benefit to NASA activities in orbit. (The first Canadian astronaut to serve on the NRC was Marc Garneau on STS-41G in October 1983.) This astronaut arrangement has continued to the present day and will continue on future lunar missions under the Artemis program.
Relating to: Artemis 2’s Canadian astronaut gets his moon mission seat with ‘potato salad’
According to the National Post, MDA Space (then MDA) formed the space robotics division of Spar Aerospace in 1999. MDA Space’s Canadarm2 has been operational since 2001 and played a role in a challenging and near-emergency spacewalk in 2007 in which Parazynski repaired a torn solar panel with adapted tools.
Canadarm2 helped build the ISS alongside the Canadarm in general and continues to participate in ISS maintenance spacewalks. MDA Space’s CSA-funded robotic aid Dextre was launched in 2008 for more delicate ISS maintenance missions.
In recent years, the Canadarm2 team has gained so much trust with NASA that many missions are now authorized to be performed at ground control facilities at CSA headquarters near Montreal, Quebec. And CSA was invited to participate in 2019 by supplying a new robotic arm, the Canadarm3, to Artemis. MDA Space has received a number of Canadarm3 contracts and is finalizing the design for an expected 2029 launch in support of NASA’s Gateway space station on the Moon.
NASA has been keen to say that CSA is known for its trusty robotic side dish, Podwalski told Space.com in 2023. Robotics is a strategic expenditure for a space agency with an annual budget of $300 million ($413 million CAD), compared to NASA’s $25.4 billion in 2025. Outside of space, robotics could also be repurposed for medical and mining needs in remote areas of Canada, another reason to invest in the technology.
Canadarm3 funded CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen’s Artemis 2 mission around the moon, making him the first Canadian to leave low Earth orbit. His 2025 mission with three NASA astronauts will be the first of a series of CSA Artemis missions to the Gateway and perhaps the moon’s surface.
Ken Podwalski, executive director of CSA’s Gateway program, has led Canadian space robotics for most of his career. He was involved in negotiations for Hansen’s seat, which took four years because NASA and CSA had to align policy priorities and secure funding.
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In an interview, Podwalski likened CSA robots to a magnificent “potato salad” created to complement the other main dishes at a feast.
“Everyone expects Canada to bring the potato salad,” Podwalksi told Space.com 2023 shortly before Hansen’s seat was announced on April 3. And he said it’s possible to build other lunar programs from there: “Potato salad gets you in the door, no problem. […] “And it doesn’t stop you from bringing something else. You’re part of the party now. Now would be a good time to bring something else up.”
Of course, there are other funding avenues beyond the CSA’s annual budget: It partners with other Canadian government agencies and industry to stretch its dollars even further, for example. It has also received repeated multibillion-dollar, one-time government funding injections for Artemis in recent years.
CSA’s other lunar contracts include funding for a mini rover for science and a companion rover for Artemis astronaut cargo, as well as funding for a range of lunar-related technologies, particularly those focused on lunar science, astronaut health and proper deep space food.