Russia’s Soyuz rocket carrying a lifesize humanoid robot has successfully docked with the ISS after a failed attempt at the weekend.
Fedor, the nickname of the pioneering robot, stands at six foot tall, weighs 353 pounds and can perform complex movements by mimicking a human on Earth. Roscosmos hopes it will help astronauts carry out tasks remotely.
The robot, which stands for Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research (FEDOR), is also known as Skybot F850 and is the first robot ever sent up by Russia.
The MS-14 Soyuz spacecraft carrying the unmanned mission blasted off at 6:38 am Moscow time (03:38 GMT) from Russia’s Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday and Fedor will leave the ISS on September 7.
The event was live streamed and the redocking of the Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft carrying humanoid robot Fyodor to the International Space Station (ISS) was lead by Mission Control at Russia’s Roscosmos State Corporation in the town of Korolev, Moscow Region (pictured)
Gazprom Space Systems chief designer Nikolai Sevastyanov, Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) Head Dmitry Rogozin, and Energia first deputy chief designer, flight director for the Russian segment of the ISS, Vladimir Solovyev (L-R) talk to the press after a successful redocking
Pictured: A screen showing the process of redocking of the Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft carrying humanoid robot Fyodor – or Fedor – to the International Space Station (ISS) at the Mission Control Centre of Roscosmos
‘Contact confirmed, capture confirmed,’ a NASA commentator announced after successful docking, which was also confirmed by a statement on the website of Russian space agency Roscosmos.
On NASA TV, which broadcast the event, the commentator praised the vessel’s ‘flawless approach to the ISS’.
‘Second time was a charm… the crew is up to seven,’ he said, referring to the six humans already aboard the space station.
The craft launched flawlessly on Thursday and Fedor is intended to assist astronauts there.
Fedor was strapped into a specially adapted pilot’s seat, with a small Russian flag in its hand for the lone mission.
‘Let’s go. Let’s go,’ the robot was heard saying during the launch, repeating the phrase used by the first man in space Yuri Gagarin.
Soyuz ships are normally manned on such trips, but this time no humans were travelling in order to test a new emergency rescue system.
The MS-14 was carrying 1,480lbs (670 kg) of dry cargo including ‘scientific and medical equipment, components for the life-support system, as well as containers with food, medicines and personal hygiene products for crew members’, Roscosmos said.
Fedor – short for Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research – can be operated manually by ISS astronauts wearing robotic exoskeleton suits and it mirrors their movements.
Employees at the Mission Control Centre of Russia’s Roscosmos State Corporation in the town of Korolev watch on as their second attempt at docking Fedor on the ISS is successful
Mission Control in Russia (pictured) controlled the approach to the ISS remotely as there was no human pilot on board, just Fedor
A scheme of redocking of the Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft carrying humanoid robot Fedor to the ISS
Employees worked on to ensure the docking of MS-14, which was carrying 1,480lbs (670 kg) of dry cargo including ‘scientific and medical equipment, components for the life-support system, as well as containers with food, medicines and personal hygiene products for crew members, reached the ISS safely
Russian Soyuz-2.1a booster with the Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft carrying robot Skybot F-850 blasted off from a launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on Thursday. Fedor is being sent to the station for tests and to assist astronauts
Robots like Fedor will eventually carry out dangerous operations such as space walks, according to the Russian space agency.
The robot can ‘crawl, stand up after falling down, take and leave driver’s seat in a car, use tools and operate in a regular building’.
Impressively, some of the first images of Fedor showed the humanoid pumping iron, walking, driving a car and using power tools.
Russian experts hope it will one day be able to help build a base on the moon.
A key task for Fedor will be to ‘assist in construction and use of bases’ on the moon and potentially other planets, said its Russian designers FPI.
Fedor was first unveiled in December 2016 and is part of Vladimir Putin’s strategic plan to conquer the moon for Russia.
Putin’s deputy premier, Dmitry Rogozin, claimed the war in Syria had shown Russia the importance of robots in difficult environments, and promised Fedor would make its space debut in five years – a deadline it has now met.
Previously, Putin has instructed his space chiefs to make a first landing on the moon within 15 years.
Fedor is not the first robot to go into space. In 2011, NASA sent up Robonaut 2, a humanoid developed with General Motors that had a similar aim of working in high-risk environments.
It was flown back to Earth in 2018 after experiencing technical problems.
In 2013, Japan sent up a small robot called Kirobo along with the ISS’s first Japanese space commander. Developed with Toyota, it was able to hold conversations – albeit only in Japanese.
An aborted attempt to dock on Saturday had increased uncertainty over the future of Russia’s space programme, which has suffered a number of recent setbacks.
NASA said that Russian flight controllers had blamed the International Space Station, rather than their spaceship, for the problems with docking.
Russian Soyuz-2.1a booster with the Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft carrying robot Skybot F-850 blasts off from a launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Thursday morning
Putin’s deputy premier, Dmitry Rogozin, claimed the war in Syria had shown Russia the importance of robots in difficult environments, and promised Fedor (pictured) would make a debut in space
Dubbed Putin’s robo-naut, the machine can be seen determining targets and honing in on specific points, such as steering wheels, which will surely come in handy while they’re in orbit
Russia ‘s space agency released eerie footage of its human-like android last week ahead of the mission. Nicknamed Fedor – which stands for Final Experimental Demonstration Research – the anthropomorphous machine was seen undergoing a battery of stress-tests at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan
Russian humanoid robot Skybot F-850. It has been sent to the ISS on August 22 on board the Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft, and will spend over two weeks there before returning to Earth on September 7
Fedor stands 6-foot tall, weighs no less than 233 pounds depending on extra equipment, and can lift up to 44 pounds of cargo