A Robot Could Be an Astronaut's Best Friend

When they needed a helping hand in orbit, astronauts could count on NASA’s reliable Robonaut.

Astronauts and cosmonauts stationed aboard the International Space Station (ISS) from 2011 to 2018 shared their home in orbit with Robonaut 2, a dexterous humanoid roommate that was part of a NASA program to test robot assistants in space. Though R2 never went on a spacewalk, it performed well inside the space station. When tele-operated by ISS crew members, R2 handily pressed buttons, flipped switches, turned knobs, and handled tools.

Robonaut 2 returned to Earth in 2018 aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, and three years later, NASA loaned the robot to the National Air and Space Museum. The retired R2 is now on display at the Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.

Before there was R2, however, there was Robonaut 1A, R2’s older sibling. Unlike R2, Robonaut 1A has no legs, but with its broad shoulders and thick forearms, R1A’s physique is, well, jacked. 

Robonaut 1A was never sent to space. Instead it spent its NASA career as a test unit at the robotics lab at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Developed jointly by NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, R1A is made from stainless steel, anodized aluminum, carbon fiber, nylon, and silicone-covered fabric (among other materials). An orange helmet that covers R1A’s mostly expressionless face has cutouts for the robot’s high-quality camera eyes. 

Though Robonaut 1A is now a piece of history (NASA transferred the object to the Museum in 2014), the concept of robot assistants in space is here to stay. “The idea behind technology like Robonaut is to recreate the physical capabilities of humans,” says Jennifer Levasseur, a curator in the Museum’s Department of Space History. “These robots are meant to have human-like features, with the possibility that they can do our chores—the mundane ones like cleaning that no one likes to do. Robots can also help with dangerous and repetitive tasks in a space environment, which gives humans time to rest and conduct scientific research. Robots can be replaced, people cannot.”

Diane Tedeschi is the senior editor at Air & Space Quarterly.

This article, originally titled “Space Buddy,” is from the Spring 2025 issue of Air & Space Quarterly, the National Air and Space Museum's signature magazine that explores topics in aviation and space, from the earliest moments of flight to today. Explore the full issue.

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