Astronauts give robot his arms

A pair of space shuttle astronauts floated outside the International Space Station late Saturday to assemble a mechanical maintenance man while crewmates set up equipment inside the first piece of Japan’s newly arrived space laboratory.

Veteran astronaut Richard Linnehan and rookie partner Michael Foreman left the station’s airlock to begin the second of five spacewalks planned during the Endeavour’s 16-day spaceflight.

“Wow, what an awesome view,” said Foreman, making his first spacewalk more than 200 miles over China.

Putting 11-foot arms on the Canadian-built robot, dubbed Dextre, was to take Saturday’s entire seven-hour spacewalk, said space station flight director Ginger Kerrick.

The $209-million robot will officially come to life at the end of a third spacewalk Monday.

The work wasn’t easy. Grunting, Linnehan wrestled to free the first arm from its restraining straps so it could be attached to the robot. “We might have to get medieval on Mr. Dextre,” a frustrated Linnehan joked.

After nearly an hour, the first arm was released with the help of a pry bar and a lot of muscle.

“That was quite a workout,” Linnehan said. “Like doing a chin up with one hand.”

During an in-flight interview earlier Saturday, newly arrived space station crew member Garrett Reisman said that when the robot was all put together it would resemble a person.

“He’s really pretty big -- he dwarfs us out there in our spacesuits,” said Reisman. “I’m really looking forward to seeing him come to life.”

The 12-foot-tall robot will be mounted on the station’s crane to transport equipment and handle routine maintenance chores, such as replacing electronics boxes.

“He was designed to do basically the same things that we do on a spacewalk,” Reisman said. “He’ll be able to carry the big, bulky stuff that’s really hard for us to lug around and be a tremendous assistant to us.”

The shuttle arrived at the orbital outpost Wednesday.