2011, and delivered to the ISS. On August 22, R2 was powered up for the first time while in low earth orbit. This was called a "power soak" which is a power system test only with no movement. On October 13, R2 moved for the first time while in space. The conditions aboard the space station provide a proving ground for robots to work shoulder to shoulder with people in microgravity. Once this has been demonstrated inside the station, software upgrades and lower bodies may be added, allowing R2 to move around the interior of the station and perform maintenance tasks, such as vacuuming or cleaning filters. A pair of legs were delivered to the ISS on SpX-3 in April 2014. The battery backpack was planned to be launched on a later flight in Summer/Fall 2014. Further upgrades could be added to allow R2 to work outside in the vacuum of space, where R2 could help space walkers perform repairs, make additions to the station or conduct scientific experiments. There were initially no plans to return the launched R2 back to earth. 2018 Repair and possible relaunch NASA announced on 1 April 2018 that R2 would return to Earth in May 2018 with CRS-14 Dragon for repair and eventual relaunch in about a year's time. NASA planned to return R2 for repairs and then relaunch. NASA's experience with R2 on the station will help them understand its capabilities for possible deep space missions. Project M (R2 on the moon) In late 2009, a proposed mission called Project M was announced by Johnson Space Center that, if it had been approved, would have had the objective of landing an R2 robot on the Moon within 1,000 days. See also List of NASA robots CIMON – Floating robot deployed on the ISS by Airbus Int-Ball – Floating camera robot deployed on the ISS by JAXA Justin (robot), a similar robot on Earth by DLR Kirobo, first fully humanoid robot astronaut FEDOR (robot) – Russian humanoid robot astronaut References Further reading R.O. Ambrose, H. Aldridge, R.S. Askew, R. Burridge, W. Bluethman, M.A. Diftler, C. Lovchik, D. Magruder, F. Rehnmark, ROBONAUT: NASA’s Space Humanoid , IEEE Intelligent Systems Journal, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 57–63, July/Aug. 2000, . M. A. Diftler, C. J. Culbert, and R.O. Ambrose, "Evolution of the NASA/DARPA Robonaut Control System," in IEEE International Conf. Robotics Automation, pp. 2543–2548, 2003. G.