Google.ca is celebrating the first launch of the Canadarm, which happened 31 years ago, Tuesday.

If you search for something on the Canadian Google site, you’ll see a special doodle, which shows an astronaut floating in space manipulating the arm to spell out the L and E in Google.

The Canadarm had its first mission on Nov. 13, 1981, on the space shuttle Columbia.

Google’s chief doodler Ryan Germick said the suggestion for the image came from the company’s Canadian offices a few months back.

He said his team chooses from “hundreds and hundreds” of doodle ideas to work with and is on track to have completed about 300 by the end of 2012.

Germick said the Canadarm doodle took “several tens of hours” to complete.

“For doodles we really try to sort of celebrate things that are exciting to Google as a culture and we think will be exciting for our users,” Germick said.

“We’re big proponents of technology and innovation and knowing this is one of the really cool things that Canada has done for space technology we thought it would be the perfect thing to celebrate.”

The Canadarm is 15 metres long with a 33-centimetre diameter and a weight of about 410 kilograms.

The dexterous robotic arm was used to move and retrieve satellites and provide support for astronauts during spacewalks, among other tasks.

Its final mission with shuttle Endeavour ended June 1.