NASA launched its Team Four into 24-hour mode when Dextre failed to power up earlier this week when it was pulled out of the space shuttle's payload bay and parked on the International Space Station.
The problem was narrowed down to a faulty circuit, one that can't easily be replaced, so NASA came up with a Plan B, and it worked.
Astronauts Rick Linnehan and Mike Foreman will head out on a spacewalk to finish assembling Dextre late Saturday now that it has power.
While Dextre (short for Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator) is not the most important addition to the space station it is one of the most engaging because the robot is so quirky and gangly.
Dextre can pivot at the waist and its shoulders support two identical eleven foot arms with seven joints for a good range of movement. The arms will only move one at a time to help keep the robot stable on orbit. Dextre can lift up to 1300 pounds and can position instruments with great precision -- and, because it has sensitivity in its "hands," is able to gauge pressure.
Astronaut Garrett Reisman spent his first spacewalk working on Dextre and he told ABC News the robot is quite impressive. "When Dextre is up and running he looks a lot a person, he has two arms, a body, a head, and he is designed to do basically the same things we do on a spacewalk."
Just what will Dextre be able to do once it is assembled? It will be able to replace astronauts on some routine maintenance tasks on the space station. Its arms can perform tasks like installing and removing batteries, which would involved bolting and unbolting connectors.
Dextre will stay hooked up to Canadarm 2 and have its thermal clocks reset. Space Station manager Mike Suffredini likes to call events like this just another day in learning how to operate an International Space Station on orbit.
While Dextre was being resuscitated the astronauts on the space station were opening up the hatch and christening the newest room on the orbiting outpost. This addition means all five International Space Agencies representing the U.S., Russia, Europe, Canada, and now Japan, have hardware on the space station.
Japanese astronaut Takao Doi celebrated his entry into his country's new module. "This is a small step for one Japanese astronaut, but a giant entrance for Japan to a greater and newer space program."
Five spacewalks are planned for Endeavour's nearly two-week visit, the longest ever by a shuttle. On Friday, mission managers finished their analysis of Endeavour's heat shield and formally cleared the space shuttle for re-entry on March 26th. A night landing is planned at the Kennedy Space Center.
