ISS Program Manager Mike Suffredini reflects on Canadarm2's 10 years of success

Uploaded on April 19, 2011

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ISS Program Manager Mike Suffredini reflects on Canadarm2's 10 years of success

2011-04-19 - Mike Suffredini, Program Manager of the International Space Station, reflects on the success of Canada's signature technology. (Credit: NASA)

Mike Suffredini:

Good day. Ten years ago on April 19^th in 2001, the Space Shuttle STS-100 launched to the International Space Station (ISS), a relatively new facility at that time, and in the payload bay was the beautiful Canadarm2 ready to begin its task on orbit. Quietly on orbit the first Canadian spacewalker Chris Hadfield and his partner Scott Parazynski unfolded the arm and we maneuvered it over to the PDGF and installed the SSRMS and its first task was to hand over the pallet that it rode up on to the Shuttle arm, a cousin to Canadarm2. As you all recall that was an exciting mission not because of any challenges necessarily with Canadarm2, but because of the computers onboard that decided to act up all together, something we thought wasn't possible.

After much wrangling, we finally got the signal squared away, we were able to command Canadarm2 and she handed over the pallet to the SRMS and successfully put the pallet in the bay and so began the storied career of the Canadarm2 on the Space Station. She is without a doubt one of the most critical components on board Station, having participated in the construction of the spacecraft that's on orbit today. Some 29 missions were supported, 27 of them from Shuttle, two of them capturing and berthing the HTV vehicle. And in all that time an absolutely flawless performance. And again without her we couldn't have gotten to where we are today.

So as a team you should be very, very proud of the performance of Canadarm2. I look forward to its participation in not only further jobs on board ISS with construction and maintenance but also perhaps with research as we look forward to some robotic servicing missions in the future. So to your entire team, congratulations on a job well done. Enjoy this day celebrating what should be (with) great pride that you have in this wonderful creation that we have on board ISS. We look forward to many, many more years of service from Canadarm2. Thank you very much.

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