Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON - A new robot came alive and moved its arms outside the International Space Station overnight. Astronauts onboard the station moved Dextre, the Canadian Space Agency's Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, for the first time.

Station Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman and Mission Specialist Robert L. Behnken first put Dextre through a series of tests to make sure the brakes on the joints on the two 11-foot arms on the robot work. Dextre passed those tests Sunday evening.

Later, Reisman and Behnken were the first to move Dextre's arms, positioning them for Dextre's final assembly during the mission's third spacewalk. The movement was completed at 11:22 p.m. CDT. The placement will allow Behnken and Mission Specialist Rick Linnehan to install additional accessories and remove thermal blankets from Dextre.

Work inside the Japanese Kibo Experiment Logistics Module-Pressurized Section continued ahead of schedule. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Astronaut Takao Doi and European Space Agency Astronaut Leopold Eyharts gathered supplies to prepare for the STS-124 mission, when space shuttle Discovery will bring up Kibo's laboratory module.

The spacewalkers, Linnehan and Behnken, are camping out in the Quest Airlock. The hatch was closed at 4:53 a.m.

All ten crewmembers are scheduled to awaken at 1:28 p.m.

Preparations for today's spacewalk will resume at 2:08 p.m. and the spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 6:23 p.m.

The next STS-123 status report will be issued after crew wake-up on Monday, or earlier if events warrant.

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