Putin’s six-foot tall Russian robo-naut Fedor has reached the ISS

Vladimir Putin’s six-foot tall robo-naut Fedor has finally reached the ISS and successfully docked after a failed attempt at the weekend

  • Russia’s Soyuz rocket with Vladimir Putin’s six-foot tall humanoid robot Fedor has finally docked at the ISS 
  • Failed attempt at the weekend blamed on the International Space Station, not the spaceship, by Roscosmos 
  • Fedor the six foot tall humanoid robot was on-board the Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft with no humans 
  • Also known as Skybot F850 – it is first Russian robot in space and allows astronauts carry out tasks remotely 

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. 

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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

WHAT IS FEDOR? 

Fedor is the name of a Russian human-like robot which will be sent to the ISS. 

Formally known as Final Experimental Demonstration Research it will be sent to the ISS via an unmanned Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft next week. 

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’.

It is six foot tall and weighs 233 pounds when not carrying extra cargo. 

It is also capable of carrying up to 44 pounds of cargo. 

It mimics the movement of a human, who will remain on Earth, and is versatile enough that footage has emerged of it lifting weights, walking, driving and using tools. 

Russian experts hope it will one day be able to help build a base on the moon.

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

WHAT IS THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION?

The International Space Station (ISS) is a $100 billion (£80 billion) science and engineering laboratory that orbits 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

It has been permanently staffed by rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts since November 2000. 

Research conducted aboard the ISS often requires one or more of the unusual conditions present in low Earth orbit, such as low-gravity or oxygen.

ISS studies have investigated human research, space medicine, life sciences, physical sciences, astronomy and meteorology.

The US space agency, Nasa, spends about $3 billion (£2.4 billion) a year on the space station program, a level of funding that is endorsed by the Trump administration and Congress.

A U.S. House of Representatives committee that oversees Nasa has begun looking at whether to extend the program beyond 2024.

Alternatively the money could be used to speed up planned human space initiatives to the moon and Mars.

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