Russia's Humanoid Skybot Robot in Space Commits Twitter Photo Faux-Pas Ahead of Landing

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That's a space no-no, astrobot.

After launching to the International Space Station last month, Skybot F-850, everyone's favorite, terrifying, humanoid Russian robot, tweeted out a picture of Earth that's causing quite a commotion. 

On Aug. 31, the bot, which is one of the latest versions of Russia's FEDOR robots, tweeted out a picture of the Earth from the space station alongside the caption (roughly translated from Russian) "At the end of the working day, I admire our Earth from the porthole of the "Union MS-14." She is beautiful. Studying and exploring space makes people smarter and makes them act together. And we, machines created by people, are ready to help our creators move on." Union MS-14 is the Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft that delivered Skybot F-850 to the station. 

Video: Watch Russia's Humanoid Skybot Use a Drill in Space
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But, while this seemed like a fairly innocuous post (and probably one of FEDOR's least thrilling photos), it came to light that this wasn't actually a photo from the space-bot. The image of Earth which shows the Strait of Gibraltar on Earth that FEDOR tweeted out was actually taken and originally shared by NASA Astronaut Doug Wheelock in September, 2010, just about 9 years ago. 

Russia's Skybot F-850 humanoid robot holds a Russian flag with cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin for a photo in the Zvezda service module of the International Space Station in this photo released Sept.  (Image credit: Roscosmos via Twitter)

People quickly noticed the mix-up, labeling the robot as a plagiarist. And yes, passing off someone else's photo as your own fits that bill. But at least Skybot is safe from copyright infringement. The photo, while taken and shared by Wheelock, is not owned by the astronaut and would technically be credited to NASA, and NASA's media library is public domain. 

So at least there's that, Skybot.

Skybot F-850 has spent the last few weeks completing experiments aboard the space station. The robot will start making its way home to Earth today (Sept. 6) as the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft undocks from the space station.

The uncrewed Soyuz spacecraft carrying Skybot F-850 and other gear will undock from the International Space Station at 2:13 p.m. EDT (1913 GMT). It is scheduled to land on the steppes of south-central Kazakhstan at 5:35 p.m. EDT (2135 GMT). It will be 3:35 p.m. local time at the landing site. 

Here's a look back at some of the memorable moments aboard the space station that Skybot F-850 tweeted about, from its first look around the Soyuz craft to when it wore mittens and the time it wielded a drill that happened to be pointed at a cosmonaut. 

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correctly note that Russia's Skybot did, indeed, appear to plagiarize NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock's photo of Earth from space. 

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Chelsea Gohd
Chelsea Gohd
Senior Writer

Chelsea “Foxanne” Gohd joined Space.com in 2018 and is now a Senior Writer, writing about everything from climate change to planetary science and human spaceflight in both articles and on-camera in videos. With a degree in Public Health and biological sciences, Chelsea has written and worked for institutions including the American Museum of Natural History, Scientific American, Discover Magazine Blog, Astronomy Magazine and Live Science. When not writing, editing or filming something space-y, Chelsea "Foxanne" Gohd is writing music and performing as Foxanne, even launching a song to space in 2021 with Inspiration4. You can follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd and @foxannemusic.