The Canadarm

With the space shuttle Discovery now in orbit above the Earth, I thought it would be a good time to talk to you about something cool... and Canadian! It's called the Shuttle Remote Manipulator System or the Canadarm, and it's a 15.2 meter long mechanical arm. The Canadarm is installed on each of the three remaining space shuttles, and since its first flight in 1981, has been successfully used on more than 50 missions, including the mission to repair the Hubble telescope.


The Canadarm weighs 410 kilograms and although it can't even support its own weight in Earth's gravity, it can lift up to 29 tons in space! An astronaut operates the arm from inside the space shuttle, often while other astronauts perform a spacewalk outside. The arm is used to retrieve satellites and other components from the shuttle's payload bay and release them into space. It can also be used to capture satellites in orbit and maneuver them into the payload bay.

Canadarm 2, a more advanced version, is installed on the International Space Station. When the Canadarm passes a station component to the Canadarm 2, it's called a "Canadian handshake"!