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Astronauts to get some rest before next spacewalk
19 Mar 2008 08:39:28 GMT
 Source: Reuters
HOUSTON, March 19 (Reuters) - Astronauts on the International Space Station and shuttle Endeavour were looking forward to some down time on Wednesday after they repositioned a new handyman robot.

The Canadian-built robot, named Dextre, was assembled in orbit and outfitted with tools by spacewalking astronauts to tackle maintenance and repairs on the complex.

The 12-foot-(3.7-meter-)tall handyman will perch on the outside of the U.S. Destiny laboratory until it is needed.

"He looks like a gunfighter," Endeavour commander Dom Gorie radioed to Mission Control.

Before the move to the U.S. lab, the astronauts on Tuesday tucked Dextre's 11-foot-(3.4-meter-)long arms closer to its body and delicately flew it on the end of the station's crane to a mounting post on Destiny.

Endeavour arrived at the station a week ago for a 12-day construction and repair mission which includes five spacewalks, three of which have been completed.

A fourth spacewalk Thursday will be devoted to a crucial heat shield repair technique, which NASA wants to demonstrate before sending a shuttle crew to fix the Hubble Space Telescope this summer. The astronauts did some of the preparations for that spacewalk late on Tuesday and early on Wednesday.

Astronauts flying to Hubble won't be able to reach the space station for shelter if their ship is too damaged to return to Earth.

NASA developed inspection and repair options after losing shuttle Columbia and its seven-member crew in a 2003 due to undetected heat shield damage.

The astronauts will continue preparations for Thursday's spacewalk late on Wednesday after a rest period.

"We're certainly not going to have to twist their arms to get them to rest tomorrow," flight director Kwatsi Alibaruho told reporters on Tuesday.

Endeavour is due back at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 26.

NASA has 10 more flights planned to complete the $100 billion space station and deliver supplies before the shuttles are retired in 2010 as well as the final servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope.

(Reporting by Irene Klotz in Cape Canaveral; Writing by Ed Stoddard in Houston)


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