Dextre the handyman space robot now has the tools of his trade and is ready for work. Astronauts from the shuttle Endeavour outfitted the International Space Station's newly installed robotic maintenance man with tools and cameras during a seven-hour spacewalk that ended early Tuesday.
Veteran spacewalker Richard Linnehan and rookie Robert Behnken conducted the outing. The astronauts battled to secure a science experiment outside of Europe's Columbus laboratory and in the end took it back to the shuttle's payload bay.
The Canadian-built robot, dubbed Dextre, was assembled during the mission's second spacewalk. It resembles a humanoid stick figure with gangly 11-foot (3.4 meter) arms. NASA says it will save astronauts from much of the routine maintenance they currently do on arduous and potentially dangerous spacewalks, enabling them to devote more time to the experiments and other scientific activities.
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