MOSCOW, February 12. /TASS/. Plans are in store to beef up efforts on researching astronaut-android communication and interaction, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin tweeted on Tuesday.

"After cosmonauts Kononeko and Prokopyev’s entry into outer space, a decision was made to step up research into the cooperation between a cosmonaut and a remotely operated humanoid robot," Rogozin wrote.

These types of robots will make it possible to ensure the safety of operations in the external section of the International Space Station (ISS), he said.

Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononeko and Sergei Prokopyev entered space to examine a hole in the covering of the Soyuz MS-09 overnight into December 12. The operation to open the meteorite shield in open space was carried out for the first time in the history of world cosmonautics.

According to earlier reports, on February 8, six research cosmonauts carried out the experiment to remotely operate a humanoid robot in the Gagarin Research & Test Cosmonaut Center. The robot repeated the operator’s actions in the experiment.

The Center noted after the test that Roscosmos’ research cosmonaut Sergei Kud-Sverchkov fixed the safety tether springhook to the handrail for operation in open space with the robot’s help just in 12 minutes.