Astronauts planned to run brake tests on Sunday on the newly attached arms of a Canadian robot delivered to the international Space Station by the shuttle Endeavour while more work was scheduled on Japan's new lab in orbit, reported reuters. Dubbed "Dextre," the Canadian robot will act as a mechanical maintenance man to the International Space Station. It has human-like features with a 12-foot (3.6-metre) body and 11-foot arms that were hooked up by astronauts during a spacewalk that ended early on Sunday. Controllers on the ground had already started testing the robot's circuits while the astronauts later in the day were to check the brakes and joints on the arms. "Dextre's getting a checkup," Pierre Jean, acting program manager of the Canadian space station program, told a mission status briefing after the spacewalk. He said the arms each had seven joints for movement along with brakes to hold them in place and that the crew would be checking these and essentially "breaking the brakes in." "When you get a new car you don't slam on the brakes, you ease them in. This is sort of what they will be doing with the brakes in Dextre's arm," he said. Assembly of the the $209 million robot is to be completed during the third of five spacewalks planned during Endeavour's 12-day visit to the station. That spacewalk is set to begin late on Monday and end early Tuesday morning. The robot can be mounted on the station's crane to transport equipment and handle routine maintenance chores, such as replacing electronics boxes. While the spacewalk to attach the arms took place, mission astronauts also set up equipment inside the first piece of Japan's newly arrived space laboratory which was also brought up with the shuttle. Following the installation last month of Europe's space lab to the orbital outpost, Japan's -- named "Kibo" or "Hope" -- makes the station a truly global effort. The next section of the Japanese laboratory is scheduled to be delivered on the next shuttle mission set for May. The shuttle arrived at the station Wednesday for a a construction and maintenance mission, the second of five visits to the space station NASA plans this year. A sixth shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope is also scheduled for late summer.
