MOSCOW: It was
second time lucky yesterday as an unmanned spacecraft carrying Russia's first
humanoid robot into orbit docked at the International Space Station following a
failed attempt over the weekend. "Sorry for the delay. Got stuck in
traffic. Am ready to carry on with work," the robot's Twitter account said
in a jokey first tweet from space. Copying human movements and designed to help
with high-risk tasks, the lifesize robot named Fedor is due to stay on the ISS
until September 7.

The robot sat in
the commander's seat of an unmanned Soyuz spaceship that blasted off Thursday
from a Russian spaceport in southern Kazakhstan. "Let's go. Let's
go," the robot was heard saying during the launch, repeating the phrase
used by the first man in space Yuri Gagarin. Soyuz capsules are normally manned
on such trips, but this time no humans were travelling in order to test a new
emergency rescue system. The ship was carrying scientific and medical equipment
and components for the space station's life-support system, as well as food,
medicines and personal hygiene products for crew members, Russia's Roscosmos
space agency said.

After the
successful docking at the second attempt, a NASA TV commentator praised the
vessel's "flawless approach to the ISS". "Second time was a
charm... the crew is up to seven," he said, referring to the six
astronauts aboard the space station. An aborted attempt to dock on Saturday had
increased uncertainty over the future of Russia's space programme, which has
suffered a number of recent setbacks. Last October a Soyuz rocket carrying an
American and a Russian had to make an emergency landing shortly after lift-off
-- the first failure in the history of manned Russian flights.

On Saturday, NASA
had said the Soyuz craft was "unable to lock onto its target at the
station". Russian flight controllers had told the ISS crew it appeared the
problem that prevented automated docking was in the station and not the Soyuz
spacecraft, NASA added. Fedor -- short for Final Experimental Demonstration
Object Research -- can be operated manually by ISS astronauts wearing robotic
exoskeleton suits and it mirrors their movements.

Robots like Fedor
will eventually carry out dangerous operations such as space walks, according
to the Russian space agency. Its head Dmitry Rogozin told Interfax news agency
that the next stage for Fedor could be further tests on Russia's new manned
transport ship under development, the Federatsiya, or a spacewalk to work on
the outside of the ISS.

"That's what
he's being created for. We don't really need him inside the station,"
Rogozin said. Fedor is not the first robot to go into space. In 2011, NASA sent
up Robonaut 2, a humanoid developed with General Motors that had a similar aim
of working in high-risk environments.

It was flown back
to Earth in 2018 after experiencing technical problems. In 2013, Japan sent up
a small robot called Kirobo along with the ISS's first Japanese space
commander. Developed with Toyota, it was able to hold conversations -- albeit
only in Japanese. The International Space Station has been orbiting Earth at
about 28,000 kilometres per hour (17,000 miles per hour) since 1998. - AFP