Close Encounters of the Robotic Kind

This is probably the third-scariest headline imaginable:

Astronauts Build ‘Monster’ Robot in Space

The story itself it pretty cool:

Two astronauts spent their Saturday night assembling a giant robot outside the International Space Station (ISS), wrangling with stubborn bolts to attach the machine’s two massive arms.

Astronauts Rick Linnehan and Mike Foreman, who both arrived at the space station in NASA’s shuttle Endeavour, worked in the vacuum of space for 7 hours and 8 minutes to assemble the 1.7-ton Dextre maintenance robot. Several stuck bolts on a U-shaped shipping platform slowed down the two spacewalkers, but ultimately didn’t stop them from piecing together the Canadian-built “Mr. Dextre.”

So long as Mr. Dextre isn’t armed with frickin’ laser beams, I think we’ll be all right.