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IPFS News Link • Space Travel and Exploration

Russian Soyuz rocket with Vladimir Putin's six-foot tall humanoid robo-naut Fedor strapped into.

• https://www.dailymail.co, By LUKE ANDREWS

Russia's Soyuz rocket that is carrying Vladimir Putin's six-foot tall humanoid robot Fedor strapped into the pilot seat and clutching a Russian flag has failed to dock at the International Space Station.

After an attempt to make the attachment, which was scheduled for around 5.30am GMT, a live broadcast of the event was cut. 

The setback means Fedor, which stands for Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research, will have to wait until Monday before joining astronauts, when the docking will be re-attempted. 

It is currently floating in the Soyuz rocket around 100 metres from the station.

After the failure, which has been blamed on issues related to the automatic docking system, journalists were ushered out of Russian space agency Roskosmos' mission control, outside Moscow, where they were watching the docking, reports DW.

The agency showed a live feed of the expected final part of the journey. However, when docking was unsuccessful the ship began to move away and the feed ended, according to an Interfax correspondent.

NASA said that Russian flight controllers had blamed the International Space Station, rather than their spaceship, for the problems with docking. 


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