Canada begins work on new Canadarm3 robotic arm for upcoming Gateway lunar outpost

A robotic arm on a space station in an illustration. in back is the moon and in the distance, the earth.

Canadarm3 will fly to the upcoming NASA Gateway space station in five years or so on the back of a lucrative new design contract drawn from earlier funding of the program, Canadian space officials pledged.

The robotic arm, key to building the Gateway space station that will play a key role in NASA's series of crewed Artemis program lunar missions, received a $730 million ($999.8 million in Canadian dollars) design and testing contract on Thursday (June 27) from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). This will allow Canadarm3 to launch no earlier than 2029.