Spaceflight Now




Spaceflight Now +



Subscribe to Spaceflight Now Plus for access to our extensive video collections!
How do I sign up?
Video archive

STS-123 day 3 highlights

This movie shows the highlights from Flight Day 3 as Endeavour docked to the space station.

 Play

STS-123 day 2 highlights

Flight Day 2 of Endeavour's mission focused on heat shield inspections. This movie shows the day's highlights.

 Play

STS-123 day 1 highlights

The highlights from shuttle Endeavour's launch day are packaged into this movie.

 Play

Launching on the shuttle

Video cameras on the boosters and tank, plus a cockpit camera show what the shuttle and its astronauts experience during the trek to space.

 Full coverage

STS-120: In review

The STS-120 crew narrates highlights from its mission that delivered the station's Harmony module and moved the P6 power truss.

 Full presentation
 Mission film

STS-123: TCDT

The STS-123 astronauts complete their countdown dress rehearsal at Kennedy Space Center.

 Full coverage

STS-123: To the pad

Endeavour travels to pad 39A in the overnight hours of Feb. 18 in preparation for liftoff on STS-123.

 Play | X-Large

Progress docking

The 28th Progress resupply ship launched to the International Space Station successfully docks.

 Play

NASA '09 budget

NASA officials present President Bush's proposed Fiscal Year 2009 budget for the agency.

 Play

Introduction to ATV

Preview the maiden voyage of European's first Automated Transfer Vehicle, named Jules Verne. The craft will deliver cargo to the International Space Station.

 Full coverage

Station repair job

Station commander Peggy Whitson and flight engineer Dan Tani replace a broken solar array drive motor during a 7-hour spacewalk.

 Full coverage

Mercury science

Scientists present imagery and instrument data collected by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft during its flyby of Mercury.

 Play

Expedition 17 crew

Pre-flight news briefing with the crew members to serve aboard the space station during various stages of Expedition 17.

 Play

Become a subscriber
More video



Dextre comes to life
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: March 15, 2008

Performing electronic bypass surgery, the Endeavour astronauts late Friday successfully routed power to a Canadian maintenance robot being assembled at the international space station. Using the station's mechanical arm to feed electricity directly to a power-and-data plug on one end of the unfinished robot's torso, the crew was able to bypass suspect circuitry in the pallet used to carry the robot's components into orbit. The power-up operation was confirmed by telemetry at 10:10 p.m. A few minutes later, engineers confirmed critical heaters were working as required.

"Well, I guess I have to say it: It's alive!" joked Pierre Jean, acting space station program manager for the Canadian Space Agency. "I'm happy to report Dextre's in keep-alive mode. There was no issue with commanding it through Canadarm2 as was anticipated. The system's functioning well. ... As a result, we have both good power and data connections between Dextre and Canadarm2. The situation looks really good."

Phil Engelauf, a senior mission operations manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said the successful bypass relieved "some real concern over the last day or two over getting that powered up."

"It was quite a relief and a real sense of success for the joint team to see power applied," he said. "Now we'll be able to complete the rest of the planned mission with only some minimal changes."

The special purpose dexterous manipulator, or Dextre, was launched to the space station unassembled, its arms, hands and torso bolted to a Spacelab pallet. During a spacewalk overnight Thursday, two astronauts attached gripper-like hands to the robot's arms. The primary goal of a second spacewalk overnight Saturday is to attach the 11-foot-long arms to the torso and prepare the robot for tests and checkout.

Designed as an attachment for the station's Canadian-built robot arm, Dextre is capable of replacing space station components when repairs are required that might otherwise require a spacewalk.

But engineers ran into trouble earlier in the week when they were unable to route keep-alive power to critical heaters. They initially believed the problem was a software timing issue and programmers quickly wrote a patch to change the parameters.

Studying the issue in more detail Thursday, engineers concluded the problem actually was with the 1553 data bus built into Dextre's Spacelab construction pallet. The problem is similar to what happens when a personal computer hard drive is not properly "terminated." The drive might be fully functional, but data will not flow properly. In this case, the 1553 bus should have included circuit termination but for reasons not yet understood, it does not. By connecting the station arm directly to a different grapple fixture on the robot's torso, the astronauts were able to bypass the bus and supply power directly.

The station arm does not have to stay attached around the clock. Periodic power ups will suffice to keep Dextre's joints warm until the robot is fully assembled and mounted directly to a power and data grapple fixture on the Destiny lab module.

Spaceflight Now Plus
Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO: THURSDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 4 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED PREVIEW OF SPACEWALK NO. 1 PLAY
VIDEO: THURSDAY'S MISSION MANAGEMENT TEAM UPDATE PLAY

VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 3 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: DEXTRE PALLET MOVED FROM SHUTTLE TO STATION PLAY
VIDEO: THURSDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR DOCKS TO SPACE STATION PLAY
VIDEO: ENDEAVOUR PERFORMS THE 360-DEGREE BACKFLIP PLAY
VIDEO: VIEWS OF THE SHUTTLE APPROACHING FROM BELOW PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED ANIMATION OF PREVIEWING THE DOCKING PLAY
VIDEO: UPDATE FROM MISSION MANAGEMENT TEAM PLAY

VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 2 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: WEDNESDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: ANIMATION OF THE HEAT SHIELD INSPECTIONS PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED TOUR OF ENDEAVOUR'S PAYLOAD BAY PLAY

VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: INSIDE MISSION CONTROL DURING LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: THE FULL LAUNCH EXPERIENCE PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR BLASTS OFF! PLAY
VIDEO: THE POST-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE PLAY
VIDEO: HIGHLIGHTS FROM ENDEAVOUR'S LAUNCH CAMPAIGN PLAY
VIDEO: HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PAYLOADS' LAUNCH CAMPAIGN PLAY

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: VAB ROOF PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PAD FRONT PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PRESS SITE PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: WEST TOWER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PAD PERIMETER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: UCS-23 WIDESCREEN PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 009 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 049 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 050 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 051 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 054 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 061 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 063 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 070 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 071 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA CS-1 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA CS-2 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA CS-6 PLAY

VIDEO: FINAL PRE-LAUNCH POLLS GIVE "GO" FOR LIFTOFF PLAY
VIDEO: ENDEAVOUR'S CREW MODULE CLOSED FOR FLIGHT PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUT DOI CLIMBS INTO HIS SEAT PLAY
VIDEO: PILOT JOHNSON CLIMBS INTO HIS SEAT PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUT REISMAN CLIMBS INTO HIS SEAT PLAY
VIDEO: COMMANDER GORIE CLIMBS INTO HIS SEAT PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE AT LAUNCH PAD 39A PLAY
VIDEO: CREW DEPARTS QUARTERS FOR LAUNCH PAD PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS DON SPACESUITS FOR LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: TIME-LAPSE MOVIE OF SUNSET OVER PAD 39A PLAY
VIDEO: MORNING PREPARATIONS AT LAUNCH PAD 39A PLAY
VIDEO: PAD GANTRY RETRACTED FOR LAUNCH PLAY

VIDEO: OVERVIEW BRIEFING ON CANADA'S DEXTRE ROBOT PLAY
VIDEO: OVERVIEW BRIEFING ON JAPAN'S KIBO FACILITIES PLAY
VIDEO: SUNDAY'S COUNTDOWN STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: SATURDAY'S COUNTDOWN STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: CREW ARRIVES AT KENNEDY SPACE CENTER FOR LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: FRIDAY'S COUNTDOWN STATUS AND WEATHER BRIEFING PLAY

VIDEO: STS-123 ASTRONAUT BIOGRAPHY MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED SHORT FILM PREVIEW ENDEAVOUR'S FLIGHT PLAY

VIDEO: STS-123 MISSION OVERVIEW BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: BRIEFING ON THE SPACEWALKS PLAY
VIDEO: CREW'S PRE-FLIGHT BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE AND ISS PROGRAM UPDATE PLAY

VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW: COMMANDER DOM GORIE PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW: PILOT GREG JOHNSON PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW: MS1 BOB BEHNKEN PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW: MS2 MIKE FOREMAN PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW: MS3 TAKAO DOI PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW: MS4 RICK LINNEHAN PLAY

VIDEO: FLIGHT READINESS REVIEW NEWS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: TCDT TRAINING HIGHLIGHTS PLAY
VIDEO: PRESS CHAT WITH CREW AT LAUNCH PAD PLAY
VIDEO: CREW ARRIVES AT KSC FOR PRACTICE COUNT PLAY
VIDEO: ENDEAVOUR ARRIVES AT PAD 39A PLAY | XL SIZE
VIDEO: SHUTTLE ROLLS TO THE VAB PLAY | XL SIZE
MORE: STS-123 VIDEO COVERAGE
SUBSCRIBE NOW