Fedor – Russia’s first humanoid robot to travel to space – has gone rogue on Twitter, posting a string of humorous and bizarre tweets directed at Russian space agency officials.
First designed for rescue missions, Fedor made his way to space as part of an experimental mission to the International Space Station in 2019. Beloved by Russians, he even found his way onto a 24 ruble postage stamp.
Fedor was, and is, a creation backed by former Deputy Prime Minister, and now head of Director General of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin. At an event in 2017, Rogozin presented the project to the press.
Thus began a bizarre journey of strange and wonderful adventures.
In 2017, Fedor was filmed by the Russian government shooting weapons. In images posted to Twitter, the robot fires two pistols from the hip, much to the delight of Russian officials. After the media picked up on the story, the then Deputy Prime Minister was forced to assure the public that Russia was not, in fact, building a Terminator robot.
A few years later, under the code-name Skybot F-850, Fedor blasted into space to join a team on the ISS. After almost failing to dock with the station, the not-a-terminator made contact with the crew of the space station, making him the first humanoid Russian robot to make it aboard the station.
Floating above the earth, Fedor was used to attempt basic repairs, and even went for a brief space-walk. A few weeks later, he single-handedly landed a reentry capsule back down to earth, landing in the steppes of Kazakhstan.
Fedor blasts off to space. Credit: Roscosmos
Fedor was received with a hero's welcome by the press, but Russian officials were less impressed and chastised the automaton, stating that “Fedor cannot fulfil his mission to replace human astronauts on spacewalks.“
The robot didn't take too kindly to the criticism well and unleashed a litany of angry messages on his official, state-run Twitter account. In 2020, Fedor was blocked for posting several tweets calling former-cosmonauts and Russian deputies Maxim Suraev and Elena Serova “drunks” due to their red, swollen faces.
“Please return me to active work!,” Fedor demanded on Twitter. “Robots do their job better. At least better than these deputies.”
Back from his ban and but clearly with a very low opinion of the Russian space agency and Rogozin, Fedor states that he refuses to take part in “the fascist coven arranged by Rogozin and Roscosmos.”
“Please no longer associate me with these offspring of that red-brown plague (ED note. Fascism, Communism) of the 20th century, which brought death and destruction into the 21st century.”
Fedor vowed to continue posting embarrassing facts about Rogozin. Apparently, the Russian official would use the account to drunkenly post from home in his spare time and insisted that Fedor have legs to “show the Americans” that Russia has combat robots.
An unknown admin is now running the official account, who claims that Fedor will now “speak the truth” about the Russian space agency and officials.
