Two astronauts are spacewalking today to repair the space station’s robotic arm
This morning, two NASA astronauts will do a spacewalk outside the International Space Station in order to repair the orbiting lab’s main robotic appendage: the Canadian robotic arm. A latching mechanism on the end of the arm isn’t working properly, and the two astronauts are tasked with replacing it. Their spacewalk is the first of three planned for October that revolve around getting the Canadian robotic arm in good shape for doing work outside the ISS.
The arm, informally known as Canadarm2, is one of the most crucial tools on the ISS. The dexterous snake-like instrument can extend up to nearly 60 feet into space and “grab” onto large objects. Canadarm2 was instrumental in the station’s assembly in the early 2000s, helping to move and…
