Robotic Controls Delivered to NASA for the International Space Station

BRAMPTON, Ontario - MacDonald Dettwiler, Space and Advanced Robotics Ltd. (MD Robotics) has shipped to the Kennedy Space Flight Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida two Robotic Workstations for the International Space Station. The Robotic Workstations provide a vital link to the station's robotics, cameras and video equipment enabling astronauts to perform difficult assembly and maintenance tasks from within the safe confines of the space station.

The workstations are based on specification requirements defined by the space station astronauts. The system incorporates the most stringent safety, operational and technological requirements. Throughout the development, space station crew members participated in the evaluation of the units by performing simulations of the complex robotic maneuvers that will be required to assemble the International Space Station.

The workstations are used by the astronauts to operate the space station remote manipulator and special purpose dexterous manipulator systems also being produced by MD Robotics under contract to the Canadian Space Agency.

Delivery of the workstations follows extensive, highly complex system testing of U.S. and Canadian elements of the space station robotic systems. These tests were conducted at the MD Robotics facilities in Brampton, Ontario under contract to NASA and were a precursor to the final multi-element tests of space station flight hardware and software systems that will take place at Cape Kennedy in July.

"The production of the workstations and the performance of this testing in Brampton represents the most complex space integration work ever done in Canada. The tests were successfully performed because of outstanding teamwork between the various contractors and our NASA customer," said Mike Parfitt, Director of the Mobile Servicing System Program at our Brampton facility.

MacDonald Dettwiler Space and Advanced Robotics Ltd. has earned an international reputation in engineering excellence for the design and development of advanced robotic systems. Best known for developing the Canadarm, we are building on our heritage and expertise in space robotics with a new generation of robotics, the Mobile Servicing System, Canada's contribution to the International Space Station. MD Robotics is a wholly owned subsidiary of MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates located in Richmond, B.C., employs about 1,400 people from coast to coast. The Company also maintains multiple foreign offices.