Jamie Condliffe - 

There’s nothing like a good, firm handshake. Especially when it’s with a robot, and you’re in space. Yesterday, NASA’s Robonaut completed its systems checks aboard the International Space Station — and celebrated with a handshake.

It’s taken Robonaut a long time to make it into space, and an absurd length of time to be fully functional, too. Still, over the past year it’s been assembled, and it’s now up and running. As well as the handshake, it also managed to say “Hello World” using sign language.

Dan Burbank, the astronaut on the receiving end of the handshake, said to NASA: “For the record, it was a firm handshake. Very nice. Nice job on the programming and all the engineering. Quite an impressive robot.” Quite an impressive robot? Is that the best you can manage, Dan? [NASA via Forbes]