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Endeavour's crew take space walk Japan's science lab takes shape
(1 day later)
Two astronauts on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS) have begun their first space walk. The first segment of Japan's science lab has been added to the International Space Station (ISS).
Hours after arriving aboard the shuttle Endeavour, Richard Linnehan and Garrett Reisman are undertaking two operations. The 4.3m-long cylinder is a storage facility for the Kibo ("Hope") complex.
They must attach a section of a Japanese space laboratory to the ISS and begin assembling a Canadian robotic arm to help with maintenance. Astronauts used a robotic arm to lift the pressurised vessel out of space shuttle Endeavour's payload bay and lift it into position on the platform.
Mission Control says an object that appeared to strike the shuttle on its ascent in fact missed the craft. Meanwhile, spacewalking astronauts have begun the assembly of the Dextre robot also brought up on the shuttle and which was moved across on Thursday.
It says the heat shield appears in good condition for the shuttle's return to earth in two weeks. In the first of five walks on the Endeavour mission, Richard Linnehan and Garrett Reisman added hands to the robot's arms, which were packed separately for launch, on Friday.
In the meantime, the astronauts are due to undertake five spacewalks, three of which will focus on Canada's $200m (£98m) robot Dextre, which has 11-ft (3.3-m) long arms. The arms themselves will then be fitted to the robot's torso in a spacewalk on Saturday.
Dextre, currently, can only be powered when attached to the station's robotic arm because its travel pallet will not make an electrical connection with the station.
Dextre will be used for external maintenance on the station 'Big daddy' of space robots Mission controllers said the pallet had been sent up with the wrong type of cabling.
Long-term, this was not a problem, they explained, because Dextre would not live on its travel pallet but at any of a number of attachment points directly on the space station.
The main section of Japan's Kibo complex will fly to the ISS in May.
Japanese astronaut Takao Doi has already christened the new storage component by climbing into it.
"This is a small step for one Japanese astronaut, but a giant entrance for Japan to a greater and newer space programme," Doi said.
The shuttle blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday and is scheduled to land on Wednesday 26 March.
On completion of its mission, the new European space freighter, the ATV Jules Verne, will be ordered to make a docking. It is bringing just under five tonnes of supplies to the station.