RUSSIA LAUNCHES FIRST HUMANOID ROBOT ON ISS

Russia launched on Thursday, August 22, a rocket for the International Space Station (ISS) with on board a humanoid robot named Fedor .

According to Navias, a NASA representative, Fedor "looked good, sitting in the shuttle commander's seat."

Fedor carrying the Skybot F850 identification number took off at 6:38 am (Moscow time) aboard a Soyuz rocket from the Russian Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to join the ISS.

After his arrival scheduled for Saturday, August 24, the anthropomorphic robot, which measures 1.80 m and weighs 160 kg, will begin a stay of ten days.

Fedor shares its travel capsule with 660 kilograms of goods, including food supplies, and supplies for the ISS crew.

Purpose of this mission

Once arrived at destination, no rest for the robot: it is expected by the Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov who will be responsible for supervising during his stay on the ISS. Fedor will have to carry out different tasks. Able to imitate human movements, it has been designed to assist astronauts in their daily lives.

"His operations will lead him to use a screwdriver or keys," said Alexander Blochenko, director of promising programs at the Russian Space Agency (Roskosmos), in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper.

The robot will also have to test its capabilities in very low gravity conditions.

A Fedor to perform all these tests successfully to conquer the deep space.

Communication operation

It is also a big communication operation for Russia that did not fail to retransmit the take-off on television and during which the robot pronounced

"Let's go, let's go! ".

Words that obviously refer to those uttered by Yuri Gagarin in 1961, when he made the first flight of a man in space.

Like any good modern self-respecting humanoid, Fedor has its own Instagram and Twitter social network accounts on which he shares his daily life:

"I am going to fulfill the mission entrusted to me. What is the space still hiding ? " Released the robot before leaving.

In the meantime, Fedor has certainly not finished making the buzz.

He will be back on Earth on September 6th, still aboard Soyuz.