Spacewalk complete as "Dextre" tools up

By Ed Stoddard

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Dextre the handyman space robot now has the tools of his trade and is ready for work.

Astronauts from the shuttle Endeavour outfitted the International Space Station's newly installed robotic maintenance man with tools and cameras during a seven-hour spacewalk that ended early Tuesday.

Veteran spacewalker Richard Linnehan and rookie Robert Behnken conducted the outing.

"It's a pretty awesome view just looking down on everything," Linnehan commented at one point as the duo floated in space over 200 miles above the planet.

It was the third of five spacewalks scheduled for Endeavour's busy 12-day visit to the orbital outpost.

"I consider this a real success for the team. ... It was a great day," Zebulon Scoville, the chief spacewalk officer for the mission, said at a briefing at the Johnson Space Center.

The outing was mostly smooth but not quite glitch-free.

The astronauts battled to secure a science experiment outside of Europe's Columbus laboratory and in the end took it back to the shuttle's payload bay.