Robot Dextre Up and Running
The International Space Station’s new robot, Dextre, finally came to life Friday night after two days of troubleshooting by scientists.
The Canadian-built $210 million robot was delivered to the space station Thursday by the shuttle Endeavour. When the robot was removed from the shuttle, however, ground teams ran into problems routing power to the pallet on which the robot is being assembled. The teams tried troubleshooting the problem with a software patch early Friday morning, but were not successful.
On Friday night, ISS crew members used the station’s robot arm — Canadarm2 — to successfully power up Dextre, NASA said Friday in a release.
Once it is fully operating, Dextre is expected to aid astronauts with spacewalks and repairs, USA Today said.