Dextre Debuts In Cargo Ops Outside ISS

HOUSTON — Canada’s Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (Dextre), responding to commands from NASA’s Mission Control, took temporary possession on Feb. 3 and 4 of two external payloads delivered to the International Space Station onboard Japan’s unmanned HTV-2 in late January.

Canada’s robotic handyman, equipped with two 11-ft.-long arms, had been awaiting its first formal operations since delivery to the station in March 2008.

The 15.5-hr. operation, which concluded on Feb. 4 at 3 a.m. EST, began as Canada’s robot arm, rooted in the Mobile Base/Mobile Transporter that rolls along the station’s solar power truss, extracted Dextre from its perch on the Destiny Laboratory.

While in the grasp of the 58-ft.-long robot arm, Dextre pulled a Cargo Transport Container filled with spare circuit breakers and a Flex Hose Rotary Coupler from the HTV-2’s Exposed Pallet.

The pallet was extracted from the HTV-2’s Unpressurized Carrier section on Feb. 1 using the Canadian arm. The pallet with the transport container and rotary coupler was secured to the external science platform on the Japanese Kibo laboratory module with the help of Japan’s 30-ft.-long robot arm to await the Dextre operations.

Japan’s HTV-2, or Kounotori, rendezvoused with the station on Jan. 27. The station’s crew grappled the cargo capsule and its 5.3 tons of supplies with the Canadian arm. The 33-ft.-long HTV-2 was berthed to the station’s Harmony module.

Dextre will retain the transport container and rotary coupler until the arrival of the shuttle Discovery, which is undergoing preparations for a Feb. 24 lift off. Dextre was to be returned to its perch on Destiny late on Feb. 4.

Discovery’s cargo includes an external platform for the long-term stowage of spare parts on the station’s starboard truss. The transport container and rotary coupler, a device that transfers ammonia coolant through the rotational mechanism that turns the station’s outstretched radiator panels, will be moved from Dextre to the new platform for long-term storage.