Canadarm Comes Home

Once NASA retires its fleet of space shuttles at the end of the summer, one of three Canadarms will return to Canadian soil.

After decades spent splitting time between Florida and, well, space, the Canadarm is coming home. On the 30th anniversary of the first space-shuttle flight, NASA announced that one of three Canadarms – the iconic, robotic arms that help set up satellites, inspect spacecraft, and assist astronauts on spacewalks – will find a new home in a Canadian museum. Once the space shuttle Endeavour is retired at the end of the summer, institutions such as the Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa or the Canadian Air and Space Museum in Toronto will bid to host its Canadarm, which was designed and built by SPAR Aerospace and was first deployed in 1981.