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Russia’s android Fedor to complete ISS program if next Soyuz docking is successful

The robot has been developed by Android Technology Company and the Advanced Research Fund on a technical assignment from Russia’s Emergencies Ministry

© Donat Sorokin/TASS

MOSCOW, August 24. /TASS/. Russian-made android robot Fedor (Skybot F-850) will complete its program on the International Space Station (ISS) if the next attempt to dock the Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft to the ISS results to be successful, acting director of the Android Technology Company (developer of the robot) Yevgeny Dudorov told TASS on Saturday.

"What’s important is that the docking takes place. If this happens, we will complete the whole program, because the total duration of the robot program is two days. The robot will remain at the ISS for almost two weeks (until September 7 - TASS), so there will be time. In any case, its program will be completed," Dudorov said, adding that Saturday’s unsuccessful docking of Soyuz MS-14 did not affect the condition of the robot.

The next docking attempt is set for the morning of August 26.

According to NASA live broadcast, the docking of Soyuz MS-14 was cancelled when the spaceship was at a distance of only 60 meters from the ISS. Now, the spaceship is at a safe distance from the ISS. Earlier, the announcer said that the aborted docking of the Soyuz MS-14 spaceship might be caused by a problem with an amplifier of the Kurs navigation system located on the ISS.

The spacecraft with a robot on its board was set to dock the International Space Station at 08:31 Moscow time on August 24 after a two-day flight.

The Fedor robot

The robot Fedor (Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research or FEDOR) has been developed by Android Technology Company and the Advanced Research Fund on a technical assignment from Russia’s Emergencies Ministry.

The android robot has received its own name of Skybot F-850 where the letter F stands for its affiliation with the Fedor family of robots.

As Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin said, the Skybot F-850’s basic goals include transmitting telemetry data, determining parameters related to the flight safety, including overloads, and carrying out experiments to test the robot’s operations useful on the external side of the space station.

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