Dextre robot

Dextre is Alive, Well, and on Vacation

After a successful assembly, NASA's newest robotic crew member awaits its first mission

Dextre: Astronaut Rick Linnehan begins maintenance work on the outside of the space station, including Dextre. Photo by NASA
All reports suggest that the International Space Station’s new robotic handyman will survive, and not freeze into a $209 million junk pile due to a power problem. Astronauts bypassed a faulty cable on Friday, and managed to get power to the robot arm, which will keep it warm, and ready for duty, in the deep cold of space.

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Help for Hubble

Fixing the ailing space telescope may be too risky for humans. Solution: hire a robot.

The beloved Hubble Space Telescope may get a new lease on life after all. Late last summer, NASA nixed its controversial decision to retire the aging instrument and instead will consider asking Congress for roughly $1 billion to plan and launch a robotic repair mission by late 2007.


The leading contender for a Hubble house call: a 3,664-pound, two-armed robot named Dextre. The robot, made by MD Robotics in Brampton, Canada, is about

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