Moscow (AFP)

An unmanned Soyuz spacecraft carrying the Russian humanoid robot Fedor docked with the International Space Station (ISS), the Russian space agency Roskosmos said on Tuesday.

The Soyuz MS-14 docked at the ISS at 03:08 GMT, according to a statement posted on the Roskosmos website.

The ship took off Thursday from the Russian cosmodrome Baikonur, Kazakhstan. A first attempt at stowage failed Saturday.

The human-sized robot named Fedor (acronym for Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research) is the first machine of this type sent into space by Russia.

He must stay in the ISS until September 7th to learn how to assist astronauts in the space station.

The Soyuz who put it into orbit carried a cargo of 670 kilos, "including scientific and medical equipment, components for the life system, as well as containers with food, medicine and hygiene products for the people. members of the crew, "Roskomos said.

- "Perfect approach" -

A commentator on Nasa TV, the US space agency's television channel, which broadcast the stowage live, noted "the perfect approach to the ISS".

"The second stowage attempt was magnificent," said the commentator. "The crew is now seven," Fedor and the six astronauts who are already aboard the ISS, he added.

The failure of the Soyuz's first attempt at stowage had been another setback for the Russian space sector, which in recent years has been hit by accidents and corruption scandals.

NASA had said Saturday that the Soyuz "could not lock onto the station's target" and "had moved away at a safe distance from the orbital complex while Russian flight controllers were studying the next steps at take".

These controllers had told the ISS crew that the problem that had prevented the automatic stowage appeared to be in the station and not in the Soyuz, according to NASA.

Last October, a Soyuz with an American astronaut and a Russian astronaut had to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff.

The Soyuz ships normally have a crew on board, but the one who transported the Fedor robot was unmanned to test a new emergency rescue system.

Fedor, a robot with a silver anthropomorphic body, is 1.80 meters tall and weighs 160 kilograms. He has accounts on social networks Instagram and Twitter, which detail his daily life, for example when he learns to open a bottle of water.

On board the ISS, Fedor has to test its capabilities in conditions of very low gravity. His main skills include imitating human movements, which means he can help astronauts perform tasks.

This is not the first robot to leave Earth.

In 2011, NASA sent to space a humanoid robot called Robonaut 2, developed in cooperation with General Motors, with the same goal of working in a high-risk environment. He returned in 2018 due to technical problems.

In 2013, Japan sent a small robot, along with the first Japanese commander of the ISS, Koichi Wakata. Developed with Toyota, Kirobo was able to speak, but only in Japanese.

The ISS has been orbiting the Earth since 1998 at a speed of approximately 28,000 kilometers per hour.

© 2019 AFP