A spacewalk from beginning to end-point solution

Did you know?

• David Saint-Jacques is the first CSA astronaut to go on a spacewalk in 12 years.
• Chris Hadfield was the first Canadian astronaut to go in 2006, followed by Steve MacLean (2006) and Dave Williams (2007).

Teams within SSC’s Integrated High Performance Computing Management Directorate support the Canadian Space Agency’s (CSA) Robotics Mission Control Center to ensure the success of robotics operations on board the International Space Station (ISS).

For CSA astronaut David Saint-Jacques, his first spacewalk on April 8, 2019, is proof of that success.

The spacewalk

Along with fellow NASA astronaut Anne McClain, David’s objectives during the spacewalk, were to:

• relocate battery equipment;
• upgrade the ISS’s wireless communications system;
• connect electrical cables to the Station to provide an alternate path of power to Canadarm2;
• install equipment to hold future science experiments.

SSC’s End-Point Solutions Team, located within the CSA Headquarters in Saint-Hubert, Quebec, supports the audio, video and computer systems that help plan Canadarm2’s movements and provide continuous support to astronauts during robotics operations in orbit.

The continuing support

We also played a role in another first for David on May 6th: capturing a Dragon!

Our Data Integration Solutions team provided IT infrastructure, visualization and data movement and transformation services needed for CSA & NASA operational tools to help David operate Canadarm2 to catch a SpaceX cargo ship known by the name of Dragon. The unpiloted vehicle contained supplies and scientific equipment needed to perform experiments that study the effect of the space environment on the human body.