By Ed Stoddard
HOUSTON, March 16 (Reuters) - Spacewalking astronauts attached a pair of arms to a Canadian-built robot that will act as a mechanical maintenance man to the International Space Station.
Veteran astronaut Richard Linnehan and rookie partner Michael Foreman completed their spacewalk after a little over seven hours at 2:57 a.m. EDT/0657 GMT on Sunday.
It was the second of five spacewalks planned during the shuttle Endeavour's 12-day visit to the station.
Attention on Sunday will turn to testing the arms of the robot, dubbed Dextre. Each of its arms is 11 feet (3.4 meters) while the body is about 12 feet in length, giving it the look of a large, human-like creature with gangly limbs.
The $209 million robot is officially set to come to life at the end of a third spacewalk Monday.
The work wasn't easy. Grunting and groaning, 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.
NASA might be high-tech but the arm was eventually released with the help of a pry bar and a lot of muscle. They were then able to get on with their assembly job.
"Good job guys, we now have a one-arm monster," shuttle astronaut Bob Behnken told the spacewalkers by radio after the first arm was successfully attached.
The robot can be mounted on the station's crane to transport equipment and handle routine maintenance chores, such as replacing electronics boxes.
While the spacewalk took place, crewmates set up equipment inside the first piece of Japan's newly arrived space laboratory which was also brought up with the shuttle.
The shuttle arrived at the orbital outpost Wednesday for a construction and maintenance mission, the second of five visits to the space station NASA plans this year. A sixth shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope is also scheduled for late summer.
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