Vladimir Putin's six-foot tall humanoid robo-naut Fedor weighing 353 pounds has embarked on a two-week long mission to the ISS after blasting off from Kazakhstan inside a Russian Soyuz rocket (10 Pics)
Russia has launched an unmanned rocket carrying the life-size humanoid robot, dubbed Fedor, for a ten day mission where it will learn to assist astronauts on the International Space Station.
Fedor, for Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research, is formally known as Skybot F850 and is the first robot ever sent up by Russia.
Fedor blasted off in a Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft at 6:38 am Moscow time (03:38 GMT) from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz is set to dock with the space station on Saturday and stay till September 7.
Soyuz ships are normally manned on such trips, but no humans accompanied Fedor as the Russian space agency intends to test a new emergency rescue system.
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 as 'saying' during launch, apparently repeating the famous phrase by first man in space Yuri Gagarin.
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, Kazakhstan. Fedor is the in the rocket and n the way to the ISS
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
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.
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.
The scenes come ahead of its inclusion on the unmanned Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft on 22 August 2019.
Space-bound: Fedor 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
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 this morning
Fedor, on-board the pictured Soyuz rocket, has Instagram and Twitter accounts that describe it as learning new skills such as opening a bottle of water. In the station, it will trial those manual skills in very low gravity
Fedor has Instagram and Twitter accounts that describe it as learning new skills such as opening a bottle of water. In the station, it will trial those manual skills in very low gravity.
'That's connecting and disconnecting electric cables, using standard items from a screwdriver and a spanner to a fire extinguisher,' the Russian space agency's director for prospective programmes and science, Alexander Bloshenko, said in televised comments ahead of the launch.
'The first stage of in-flight experiments went according to the flight plan,' the robot's account tweeted after reaching orbit.
Fedor copies human movements, a key skill that allows it to remotely help astronauts or even people on Earth carry out tasks while they are strapped into an exoskeleton.
It stands 6-foot tall, weighs no less than 233 pounds depending on extra equipment, and can lift up to 44 pounds of cargo.
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.
'During space walking missions and on other planets, astronauts will rely on robots,' said Sergei Khurs, head of the project and director of the National Center for Technology Development and Basic Robotics.
Mimicking human ability: 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'
Preparing for take-off: Robot Fedor will be launched on board of unmanned Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft to the ISS from Baikonur cosmodrome on 22 August 2019
In action: 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
On time: 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 will soon meet