After a successful installation, astronauts tested out the operation of Dextre, the newest addition to the International Space Station.
After a grueling spacewalk where NASA astronauts had to use a pry bar to get parts out of their packing pallet, the newest robotic addition to the International Space Station (ISS) flexed its arms for the first time. Dextre, short for dexterous, is a two-armed robot that attaches to the end of Canadarm2, the existing robotic arm on the ISS. One of the astronauts was quoted in a CNN article that these robots seem so much like sci-fi, and that Dextre looked like a prop from a Star Wars movie, but they are real and here and now.
The current Space Shuttle mission is full of firsts. This is the first mission where five spacewalks are planned. This also the longest mission to date: nearly two weeks. In addition to assembling and installing Dextre, the Shuttle brought up a Japanese storage module that will be part of the Japanese lab module Kibo, scheduled to be delivered by Shuttle Discovery in May.
I'm a bit concerned about the future. The Shuttles are scheduled to be retired in 2010, and the replacement system, based on the Orion modules and the Ares launch system, isn't scheduled to go into service until 2014 or so. I know NASA has been taking advantage of the time the Shuttle has left, since their launch schedule for the next two years is more aggressive than it has ever been, but are we going to rely on the Russians for the four year gap?
