Canadarm2 repairs planned as CRS-34 departs ISS

Date:
Thu, 18 Jun 2026 22:34:45 +0000

Description:
The Expedition 74 crew aboard the International Space Station have seen yet another busy month The post Canadarm2 repairs planned as CRS-34 departs ISS appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

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The Expedition 74 crew aboard the International Space Station have seen yet another busy month of spacewalks, science experiments, and maintenance tasks. The CRS-34 mission undocked from ISS on Tuesday, June 16, at 16:25 UTC prior to its successful splashdown off of southern California the following day.

An upcoming maintenance task for the crew involves the Canadarm2 robotic arm, which is currently not operational due to issues with an arm joint, and will be repaired during an upcoming spacewalk.

Canadas key contribution to the Station is the Canadarm2, which is a
follow-on to the original Canadarm that the Space Shuttle used as a key construction, satellite repair, EVA, and deployment tool during its 30 years of service. CRS-34 undocking from the ISS on June 16, 2026. (Credit: NASA TV)

The Canadarm2, originally installed in April 2001 by the crew of Shuttle Endeavour aboard STS-100, marked the 25th anniversary of its installation
this spring. However, on May 27, the wrist joint showed a high power draw and refused to move as expected. The arm has not been used for regular tasks since.

Fortunately, the wrist joint and other parts of the arm were designed with repair in mind, and a spare joint is stored on an external container on the Stations truss for just this eventuality. On June 30, two astronauts will conduct an extravehicular activity (EVA) from the Quest airlock to replace this joint.

The task is necessary due to certain cargo resupply ships like Cygnus or
HTV-X must be captured by the Canadarm2 to deliver cargo to the ISS. A
working Canadarm is needed to also conduct repairs on certain external
Station systems and other tasks, especially with the Dextre arm extension
also built in Canada. The AxEMU suit, designed with the help of Prada, is shown here. (Credit: Axiom Space)

While astronauts are preparing for the upcoming repair EVA by working on
their current suits, the repair job was not the only news involving
spacesuits and the ISS. NASA named the Artemis III crew on Tuesday, June 2
and also provided an update on the Artemis program. See Also Expedition 74 Updates ISS Forum Section Click Here to Join L2

During this press conference, NASA Moon to Mars Program Office Assistant Deputy Associate Administrator Jeremy Parsons announced that the Axiom Space AxEMU, designed for use on Artemis lunar missions, will be tested in space aboard the ISS next year. This is an example of the Station being used as a testbed prior to human missions to the Moon and Mars.

In other Station happenings, the CRS-34 Cargo Dragon departed the Stations Harmony module forward port on Tuesday, June 16. The undocking had been scheduled for 16:05 UTC, but was delayed 20 minutes due to a guidance and navigation control issue. The Polar portable freezer designed for use in space. (Credit: University of Alabama Birmingham)

One of the navigation sensors, an inertial measurement unit, on the
spacecraft suffered a radiation hit, but worked again after controllers power cycled the device. This step restored full redundancy to the Cargo Dragons systems and the undocking proceeded; if more troubleshooting were needed controllers would have had up to two hours to resolve the issue.

CRS-34 returned to Earth with several Polar portable science freezers loaded with experiment samples. These freezers were designed to be installed as a middeck locker aboard the EXPRESS rack on ISS as well as racks on Cargo
Dragon and Cygnus, and they preserve time-critical experiment samples until they can be retrieved.

The Polar freezer keeps samples cold at cryogenic temperatures up to -80 degrees Celsius using a cryocooler, and can transport up to 12.75 liters of sample volume as well as 20 pounds of sample support equipment. The units supply 75 watts of power to experiments. Expedition 74 astronauts Jessica
Meir and Jack Hathaway in the Destiny lab module working with research cassettes. (Credit: NASA/Jessica Meir)

The freezers returning to Earth aboard CRS-34 contain samples from the InSPA-StemCellEX-H2 and InSPA-Auxilium Bioprinter-Cell Printing experiments
as well as others investigating health and medical treatments conducted
aboard the Station over the last month.

InSPA-StemCellEX-H2, also known as the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Expansion in Space: Pathfinder Investigation, uses the BICEP bio-reactor aboard ISS to produce clinical grade stem cells. Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) are typically obtained from bone marrow, peripheral blood, or umbilical cord
blood (UCB).

Medical professionals now use HSC as the standard of care for various blood cancers like leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma, severe immune
diseases, and fatal blood disorders. Astronaut Frank Rubio, recently named to the Artemis III crew, working with stem cells during his more than year long stay on ISS. (Credit: NASA)

Stem cells from UCB are preferred over other sources due to their lower risk of attacking the human host, but the number of these types of cells is typically limited during a collection. This limitation can force rationing of treatment to children only, or to delay treatment in adults.

Production of new stem cells by expanding existing ones using cell division can be done on Earth, but is limited before the new cells lose their optimal potency for treatment. It is hoped that growing HSCs in microgravity can enable additional cell division and production while retaining potency for treatment.

The HSC samples aboard CRS-34 will be tested and compared to HSCs created on the ground, and will also be tested for safety, quality, quantity, cell-type distribution, function, and other features important for clinical testing and FDA approval. Astronauts Sophie Adenot, Jack Hathaway, Chris Williams, and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov (L to R) inside the Stations Tranquility module.
(Credit: ESA/Sophie Adenot)

The InSPA-Auxilium Bioprinter-Cell Printing experiment, also known as Biomanufacturing in Space of Drug-Delivery Medical Devices, uses the Auxilium Microfabrication Platform (AMP-1) 3D bioprinter aboard the Station to print cartilage tissues.

The AMP-1 unit has successfully printed implantable medical devices for peripheral nerve injuries, and demonstrated its capability for large-scale medical printing with minimal astronaut intervention. Printing cartilage in microgravity can eliminate cell settling and print more uniform, higher quality, tissues than on Earth.

The ability to print cartilage tissue is important because the human body is limited in regenerating its own cartilage. Over 900,000 knee cartilage injuries occur yearly in the United States alone, and up to 200,000 of these require surgery. Current treatment options have limitations and issues with long term efficacy. CRS-34 approaching the ISS on May 17, 2016. (Credit: ESA/Sophie Adenot)

Cartilage samples were returned aboard CRS-34, and the spacecraft was packed with one of the largest loads of research returned to Earth in the history of ISS commercial resupply missions.

CRS-34 also returned some Station hardware to Earth for examination. An
ocular imaging device for monitoring eye health, a sorbent bed to filter contaminants from cabin air, and a separator pump from the crew toilet are onboard the returning cargo ship.

The Cargo Dragon splashed down at 5:11 AM PDT (12:11 UTC) on Wednesday, June 17, off of Oceanside, California, north of San Diego. The spacecraft was retrieved by SpaceXs Dragon recovery ship Shannon , named after Crew-1 astronaut Shannon Walker, and taken to shore. Current ISS visiting vehicle complement. (Credit: NASA)

After CRS-34s departure, five visiting vehicles are still attached to the
ISS. The Crew Dragon Freedom is docked to the Harmony zenith port, Cygnus NG-24 is berthed to the Unity nadir port, and Soyuz MS-28 is docked to the Rassvet module on the Russian segment.

Progress MS-33 is docked to the Poisk module, while Progress MS-34 is docked to the Zvezda modules aft port. This aft docking ports transfer tunnel, known as PrK, has had air leakage issues due to persistent cracks, and Roscosmos recently put together a repair plan to diagnose and fix these cracks.

Roscosmos was prompted to plan the repair by worsening air leakage rates detected during Progress MS-34 cargo operations. These rates went up to two pounds per day while controllers identified new leak areas on the PrK,
leading Roscosmos to implement the repair plan. Closeup of a Progress spacecraft docked to the aft port of Zvezda. (Credit: NASA)

However, the plan involved cutting a bracket to access a potential leak area, and that work could have increased risk to the structure. NASA ordered the Crew-12 astronauts and Chris Williams to board Crew Dragon Freedom as a safe haven. Roscosmos subsequently paused their repair activity for additional analysis, and NASA strongly supported this decision.

The PrK air leaks have been possibly the highest risk to continued occupancy of ISS in the near term, while the complex is slated to deorbit in the 2030-2032 time frame. However, Roscosmos is reportedly planning to decommission the PrK and split the cargo and refueling roles among dedicated Progress ships.

In the meantime, Expedition 74 continues its work, with the next launch to
the Station planned for July 14. On that date, Soyuz MS-29 will launch with Roscosmos Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina as well as NASAs Anil Menon, the husband of current astronaut and former Polaris Dawn crew member Anna Menon. The next cargo ship to launch to ISS will be Progress MS-35 on Sept. 9. Vast and @esa , on behalf of the Czech Republic, have signed an agreement for a private astronaut mission to the International Space Station in partnership with @NASA . @astro_ales is slated to serve as mission pilot & is expected to become the first Czech astronaut to visit the pic.twitter.com/giQBnFdts5

Vast (@vast) June 8, 2026



Looking further ahead, Vast and the European Space Agency signed an agreement to fly Czech astronaut Ales Svoboda along with mission commander Thomas Pesquet on a private Crew Dragon mission to the ISS. The mission, announced
on June 8, will presumably name two additional crew members at a later date and is scheduled to fly sometime in 2027.

( Lead image: The Canadarm2 and ISS seen with the aurora australis in the background on Earths limb. Credit: NASA/Chris Williams)



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