Astronauts to Work on Giant Robot, Dextre


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HOUSTON (AP) -- After linking up with the international space station, Endeavour's astronauts got right to work Thursday unloading the parts they'll need to build a giant robot that will help maintain the orbiting outpost.

Astronauts Robert Behnken and Gregory Johnson were using the station's robotic arm to pull a pallet containing the Canadian robot, named Dextre, from Endeavour's cargo bay and install it temporarily on a station girder.

Dextre -- short for dexterous and pronounced like Dexter -- is designed to assist spacewalking astronauts and, ultimately, to take over some of their dangerous outdoor work.

Spacewalkers Richard Linnehan and Garrett Reisman will begin assembling the robot late Thursday night during the first of five outings planned for Endeavour's busy 16-day mission.

Before pulling up to the space station, Endeavour's commander, Dominic Gorie, guided the shuttle through a 360-degree backflip to allow for full photographic surveillance.

It's one of the many safety-related procedures put in place following the Columbia tragedy in 2003.

The space station crew used cameras with high-powered zoom lenses to photograph Endeavour from nose to tail, especially all the thermal tiles on its belly. The pictures -- as many as 300 -- will be scrutinized by engineers on the ground to see whether the shuttle suffered any damage during Tuesday's launch and ascent.

The crew had already used a 100-foot laser-tipped boom to inspect Endeavour's wings and nose, and flight director Mike Moses said engineers haven't spotted any problems.

''Everything looked really good,'' he said.

In fact, he said, engineers were able to determine that whatever appeared to have struck Endeavour's nose nine or 10 seconds after liftoff actually missed the ship.

It will take several days for NASA to analyze all the data and determine whether Endeavour will be able to re-enter safely at the end of its 16-day flight, the longest space station mission ever by a shuttle.

The shuttle's seven astronauts exchanged hugs and handshakes with space station commander Peggy Whitson and her two-man crew after the hatches between the two ships were opened.

''You guys look marvelous,'' Mission Control radioed the joint crew, as Gorie and Whitson hugged.

After a quick safety briefing, the crew got right to work unloading Dextre and preparing for the upcoming spacewalk.

Reisman also formally exchanged spacecraft seats with Leopold Eyharts, making him an official member of the space station crew. Eyharts will return to Earth aboard Endeavour after spending a little over a month on the station. Reisman is set to return to Earth in June.

In addition to the Canadian robot, Endeavour also delivered the first piece of Japan's new space station lab, Kibo, which is Japanese for ''hope.'' The storage compartment will be attached to the orbiting complex on Friday; it's a temporary location until the lab arrives in May.

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New Robot Gets Eyes, Tools in Spacewalk

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL (AP) -- Spacewalking astronauts stepped outside Monday night and gave the space station's new robot some eyes and a set of tools.

It was the third spacewalk of shuttle Endeavour's visit to the station, each one aimed at putting together Dextre, the giant robot.

The last time astronauts floated out, Dextre got arms. This time, the robot got a tool belt and two cameras that will serve as eyes -- interestingly, at waist level.

''Happy St. Patrick's Day, guys,'' astronaut Michael Foreman called out to his spacewalking colleagues.

''I forgot it was St. Paddy's Day,'' replied Richard Linnehan. ''Should have worn the green EMUs.'' That's NASA talk for extravehicular mobility units, otherwise known as spacesuits.

The robotic work by Linnehan and Robert Behnken completed Dextre's assembly outside the international space station. So far, the 12-foot robot and both of its 11-foot arms have checked out fine. Each arm has seven joints, and the crew wanted to make sure the brakes worked.

Dextre, a Canadian Space Agency contribution that cost more than $200 million, is designed to assist spacewalking astronauts and, eventually, to take over some of their chores. Its designers envision the robot one day replacing batteries and other space station parts -- it can lift as much as 1,300 pounds -- and also performing some fine precision tasks like handling bolts.

It has a sense of touch and is capable of sensing force and movement.

That's how Dextre got its name, in fact. It's short for dexterous.

By the midway point of Monday's 7-hour spacewalk, which wrapped up early Tuesday, Dextre had been equipped with three types of tools, four in all, as well as a platform for holding big items like batteries.

Linnehan, who also took part in the mission's first two spacewalks, said it was surreal to work around the gigantic white robot. It reminds him of a prop from a ''Star Wars'' movie.

''But it isn't sci-fi, it's reality, and it's happening up here right now,'' he said.

The spacewalkers had some robot-unrelated chores, such as attaching a science experiment to the European lab, Columbus, and unloading spare station parts from the shuttle and attaching them to the orbiting complex for future use.

Behnken had trouble securing the suitcase-sized experiment to the station, and he ended up taking it back to Endeavour's payload bay. He said it appeared metal shavings were preventing him from locking the experiment into place.

Five spacewalks are planned for Endeavour's 16-day flight, which is nearing the halfway mark. While shuttle astronauts have performed five spacewalks before on a single flight -- on trips to the Hubble Space Telescope -- it will be a record for a shuttle-station mission.

Besides delivering Dextre to the space station, Endeavour's crew dropped off a storage compartment for the Japanese lab that will fly up in May. The astronauts not involved with the spacewalks -- including Japanese astronaut Takao Doi -- continued setting up the storage compartment in preparation for the arrival of the lab, named Kibo, Japanese for hope.

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