Soyuz carrying humanoid robot aborts docking at ISS

Washington, Aug. 25 (IANS): The unmanned Soyuz spacecraft carrying a humanoid robot astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) will make a second docking attempt on Monday after the first attempt was aborted on Saturday, NASA said.

A problem with a component associated with the automated docking system believed to have led to its failure to lock on to the “Poisk” module docking port.

The Soyuz was commanded to back away from the station after approaching to within 100 metres of Poisk when the vehicle could not achieve a solid telemetry lock to that docking port through the automated rendezvous system, NASA said in a blog post.

ISS managers and the international partners approved the plan to allow a second rendezvous and docking attempt for the unpiloted Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft to occur on Monday night.

Russia launched the spacecraft carrying its first humanoid robot astronaut into the ISS on August 22.

The robot — named Fedor (Experimental Demonstration Object Research) — is the first ever sent into space by Russia.

The humanoid robot is 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 160 kg.