Pierre Jean, acting program manager of the Canadian Space Station program, called Dextre (pronounced Dexter), the "most sophisticated space robot to ever to be launched."

While Canadian engineers worked for 10 years to create Dextre, it never was fully assembled on Earth because the robot would have been crushed under its own weight.

That means the first time it was fired up as a complete unit, was 220 miles above the Earth outside a space station orbiting at 15,700 miles per hour. And all didn't go perfectly. A faulty cable kept power and instructions from flowing from the space station to Dextre for a few days. But engineers quickly diagnosed the problem and worked around it.

"We have to learn how to deal with [problems]," said Beutel. "Until you actually get it up there and experience the 250 degrees Fahrenheit in the sun and negative 200 degrees in the shade, you just don't know what it will be like to work on it until you're up there. Sometimes you just have to go up there and do it. We learned what to do when you get a curve ball 220 miles above the Earth."

Mathieu Caron, supervisor for the Canadian Space Agency's mission control team, said assembling Dextre and getting the robot operational was just the first step in a whole new era of using robotics in space.

"This was essential," said Caron, who will help operate Dextre from the ground. "This will allow us to look and touch the outside of the space station without having to go out. The assembly of the space station is not possible without robotics. End of story. And for maintenance, it will play a critical role."

Caron noted that the space shuttle will be launched again this summer, taking a crew to do maintenance work on the Hubble Telescope. Engineers originally had considered sending up a robot to do all the work - a remote-controlled satellite with robotic arms that could attach itself to the telescope and do all the maintenance work - but decided against it.

"I saw the simulations and the hardware they tested, and it was fascinating," he added. "It's remarkable how much you can do robotically. That opens wide how much we can do with space robotics."

Allard also said the future of space exploration will be tied directly to robotics.

"We're testing out new equipment and new techniques that have never been tried before," he added. "The work we're doing on the space station set us up for more work in the future."