Meet Dextre

Originally published: March 10, 2008 9:46 AM PDT

Astronauts on the space shuttle Endeavour had a special Canadian visitor when they blasted off on their trip to the International Space Station (ISS). Canadian Space Agency's Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, aka "Dextre," is scheduled to be installed by Endeavour astronauts to the ISS later this week. Dextre was built to do maintenance tasks that were previously done during long and sometimes dangerous space walks.

Dextre is the third and final stage to the Mobile Servicing System and works with the Canadaarm2 which was installed on the ISS in 2001 and the mobile base which was installed in 2002.

March 10, 2008 9:46 AM PDT

Photo by: Canadian Space Agency