Russia’s FEDOR robot to spend 1.5 weeks in space - Roscosmos

Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin

BAIKONUR /Kazakhstan/, July 21. /TASS/: Russia’s FEDOR humanoid robot, which is to depart to the International Space Station (ISS) on August 22, will spend a week and a half aboard the orbital outpost, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin told reporters on Sunday.

"He will spend about a week and a half aboard the station," Rogozin said at the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.

According to the Russian space official, the robot was named Skybot F-850.

Rogozin said that in future, a humanoid robot will be send to the moon as part of preparations for a manned mission to the Earth’s natural satellite.

"We will have a preparatory stage on that matter - first, we will send a humanoid robot there, and only after that we will send humans, after we study all the risks and learn to cope with them," he said.

The FEDOR android robot was created by Android Technics and the Russian Foundation for Advanced Research Projects (FPI) under a technical assignment from Russia’s Emergencies’ Ministry. The robot’s demonstration model under the Rescuer project was made in 2016. Originally, the robot was known under the notional name of Avatar but it was later dubbed FEDOR, which stands for Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research.

On April 11, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said FEDOR was handed over to Roscosmos and Energia Rocket and Space Corporation to study the possibility of its use in Russia’s space programs.