It's Alive! Humanoid Robot Awakens in Space

NASA's humanoid robot, which was launched into space in February, has finally awakened . . . and it's tweeting.

According to Discovery News, the Robonaut (R2) -- the first humanoid robot in space -- tweeted "My power cable is plugged in and my status LEDs on my power backpack are on.":

"Around 56 minutes left in my power soak test," it added an hour later.

But Robonaut is responding to questions and even sent birthday greetings to one of its 35,000 followers.

R2 was powered on Monday for the first time aboard the International Space Station. It took this long for the operating software to get up there, and for the astronauts to have enough time to help with the experiment. R2 is being tested as a helper to astronauts.

Monday's test involved sending power to all of Robonaut's systems. The robot will make its first physical motion from space early next week.

But you can see its prototype move here now:

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

(Photos: NASA Flickr/Joe Bibby)