Canada's Dextre installs OPALS on the International Space Station

This computer-generated animation shows Dextre, the Canadian robotic handyman on board the International Space Station (ISS), retrieving OPALS (short for Optical PAyload for Lasercomm Science) from inside the trunk of SpaceX’s Dragon cargo ship, and installing it on the exterior of the ISS.

While sitting on the end of Canadarm2, Dextre is lowered into Dragon’s external compartment (its “trunk”), picks up the OPALS payload with one hand, and places it on his workbench. Canadarm2 then puts Dextre down to change bases (for better reach), and picks Dextre back up again to install OPALS on the exterior of the European Space Agency’s Columbus module, where OPALS will test the potential for using a laser to transmit data to Earth from space.