First handshake and force-feedback with space

ESA performed the first-ever demonstration of space-to-ground remote control with force feedback and live video on 3 June 2015, as NASA astronaut Terry Virts orbiting Earth on the International Space Station shook hands with ESA telerobotics specialist André Schiele in the Netherlands.

Terry was testing a joystick that allows astronauts in space to ‘feel’ objects from hundreds of kilometres away. The joystick is a twin of the one on Earth and moving either makes its copy move in the same way. The joystick provides feedback so both users can feel the force of the other pushing or pulling.