In April 2001, the crew of Shuttle Endeavour bolted a Canadian-built robotic arm to the outside of the International Space Station knowing that pieces of it would eventually wear out, and twenty-five years later, on June 30, 2026, two NASA astronauts will spend six and a half hours replacing the wrist joint that finally did

Canadarm2 has been bolted to the outside of the International Space Station since April 2001, working in shifts measured in years rather than hours. It catches arriving cargo ships, ferries spacewalking astronauts around the truss, and inspects parts of the station that no human eye reaches without it. On the morning of May 27, 2026, [...] The post In April 2001, the crew of Shuttle Endeavour bolted a Canadian-built robotic arm to the outside of the International Space Station knowing that piece