The Week in SpaceMay 3-9, 2010
An Arm by Any Other Name Call it what you will—the robot arm, the Remote Manipulator System, or the Canadarm—the most versatile appendage in all of space history got a big hand thirty-five years ago this week when NASA announced that the arm would be a gift from the Canadian Space Agency. Five fifty-foot long arms were built, each weighing a mere 900 pounds but capable of maneuvering payloads of 585,000 pounds in space. Among Canadarm’s notable achievements are the deployment (and subsequent retrieval for repair) of the Hubble Space Telescope, and assembly of the International Space Station. Canadarm, seen here behind the shuttle Endeavour during the STS-118 mission in August 2007, also helped deploy its larger ISS sibling, Canadarm2, seen in the foreground, in 2001. Image credit: NASA Weekly CalendarMay 3-9, 2010Holidays - Sky Events - Space History
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