Russia's 1st Humanoid Robot in Space

Fedor in Orbit Seeking ISS

Source:  Russian Space Agency Roscosmos - Fedor Spacebot

Docking at ISS Aborted Today

Russia's first humanoid robot Fedor or Skybot F850 is travelling in space aboard an unmanned spacecraft to the International Space Station.  The Russian Soyez spacecraft tried to dock with the ISS to deliver Fedor today but the docking was aborted.  Russian cosmonauts issued the order to abort the approach to the ISS because the Soyez wasn't on target to properly lock-on. The Russian space agency says the approach did not cause any safety issues for the ISS or astronauts onboard.

Second Try on Tuesday

The crewless, automated Soyez backed away safely and Russian flight controllers are determining next steps.  They believe the problem was a radio failure aboard the ISS not the Soyez.  The Director of the Russian space agency Roscosmos says they'll try again to dock on Tuesday morning.

Fedor, Astronauts' Assistant

Once on board the ISS, Fedor will start learning how to serve as an astronauts' assistant.  His actions are human-like and he'll perform light tasks like opening a bottle of water.  He's scheduled to stay aboard the ISS through September 7th.   Fedor is a big robot, nearly 6 feet tall and 350 pounds.  He's the first Russian humanoid robot to go into space.  And, he follows NASA's Robonaut 2, developed with GM, which worked in space from 2011 through 2018 and Japan's Kirobo, developed with Toyota, which worked on the ISS in 2013.  The Russians says Fedor and other robots like him will go on to much more complex tasks like spacewalks and going into deep space.  For a free Kindle borrow of my latest book "Top Space News 2019" and "List of Top New Robots" go to amazon.com/author/ekane