Space Station Robot Installs Neutron Star Explorer: Watch the Time-Lapse Video

NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) was installed on the International Space Station in June 2017. This time-lapse video was created using cameras on the orbital lab and shows the orbital outpost’s Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM), aka Dextre, transporting NICER.

NICER launched to the space station on June 3 aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship. The experiment is designed to study neutron stars  , the densest observable objects in the universe, NASA officials have said. NICER officially began science operations in July. 

“No instrument like this has ever been built for the space station,” NICER principal investigator Keith Gendreau of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland said in a statement. “As we transition from an instrument development project to a science investigation, it is important to recognize the fantastic engineering and instrument team who built a payload that delivers on all the promises made.”

Note: Space.com senior producer Steve Spaleta  contributed to this report.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik . Follow us @Spacedotcom , Facebook  and Google+ . Original article on Space.com .