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Recently, the astronauts on board the International Space Station performed a routine “walk-off” maneuver with the large, 58-foot-long robotic arm attached to the orbiting laboratory. The robotic arm, known as Canadarm2 because it was supplied by the Canadian Space Agency, is something of a modern engineering miracle—it can effectively move around the exterior of the large space station like an inchworm because both ends are essentially identical. However, after this particular walk-off maneuver, the robotic arm, along with the mobile transporter that guides it along the main truss of the space station, engineers noted some issues with operations. As of Sunday evening, according to two sources, work was underway to determine whether this problem was due to a data or software issue or the robotic arm or mobile transporter hardware itself. (Update: NASA provided the following statement at 2 pm ET on Monday). The Canadarm2 is currently operating as expected and is being used for inspection of the Crew-12 Dragon spacecraft as part of predeparture procedures. Non-robotic components associated with the mobile transporter on the truss, which the arm is often attached to, have exhibited some communication errors. NASA is troubleshooting and investigating the errors prior to the next transporter movement from its current worksite (Worksite 6). In parallel, NASA and SpaceX are working to ensure there is no GPS interference affecting Dragon’s docking capability to the station’s forward port as a result of the transporter’s current position. Joint teams are actively conducting the analysis and expect to resolve the issue before the Crew-13 launch. NASA will provide additional updates during the Crew-13 prelaunch news conference on Wednesday, Sept. 30. Working past its design lifetime Designed and developed by the Canadian space corporation MDA, the Canadarm2 launched to the International Space Station in April 2001 on Space Shuttle Endeavour, and it has since served as a critical component of the orbiting laboratory. Its nominal design lifetime was 15 years, so it has been operating for more than a decade beyond this point.
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