Russian spacecraft carrying robot docks with space station: TASS

[August 27, 2019]    MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying a humanoid robot docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday, TASS news agency reported, citing a live broadcast.

A still image, taken from a video footage and released by Russian space agency Roscosmos, shows robot Skybot F-850, also known as FEDOR, inside the Russian Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft carried by Soyuz-2.1a booster after the launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan August 22, 2019. Russian space agency Roscosmos/Handout via REUTERS

The FEDOR (Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research) robot is on a planned mission to support the crew and test its skills. It will stay on the station until Sept. 7.

The first docking attempt on Saturday failed due to issues related to the automatic docking system.

The Skybot F-850 is the first humanoid robot sent to space by Russia. NASA sent a humanoid robot, Robonaut 2, to space in 2011 to work in hazardous environments.

(Reporting by Anton Kolodyazhnyy and Polina Devitt; editing by Darren Schuettler)

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