Two spacewalking astronauts attached 3.5-m arms to the international space station's huge new robot yesterday, preparing the giant machine for its handyman job on the orbital outpost.
The Canadian-built robot, named Dextre, will stand 4 meters and have a mass of 1,500 kg when it's fully assembled.
It is designed to assist spacewalking astronauts and possibly someday take over some of the tougher chores, like lugging around big replacement parts.
The already challenging outing turned grueling as spacewalkers Richard Linnehan and Michael Foreman struggled to release one of the robot's arms from the transport bed where it had been latched down for launch.
Two of the bolts wouldn't budge, even when the astronauts banged on them and yanked as hard as they could. They had to use a pry bar to get the arm out.
The other arm came out much more smoothly and quickly, paving the way for Linnehan to pull up Dextre's body 60 degrees, like Frankenstein rising from his bed.
That was the ideal position for plugging in Dextre's gangly arms to its shoulders.
"The whole team did a spectacular job today," Mission Control radioed the crew after the spacewalk. "You guys ought to be proud of yourselves."
Zebulon Scoville, the lead spacewalk officer for Endeavour's mission, said the ground team was ecstatic when Linnehan and Foreman got the last bolt out.
"The crew really performed beyond what could ever be expected of them," Scoville said.
Source: Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article