Icarus Robotics sends flying robot Joyride to the ISS

A new robot for the space station: The US startup Icarus Robotics is building a robot that is scheduled to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) next year.

The robot, developed by the startup Icarus Robotics founded in 2024, is called Joyride. Joyride is "a free-flying robotic platform", according to Voyager Technologies. The US defense and aerospace company is responsible for organizing and preparing the robot's transport into space.

The robot has two arms that the Icarus Robotics team can control from the ground. Small propellers serve as propulsion. The robot is to be controlled from Earth. During the test, data is to be collected so that it can operate autonomously in the future.

To the ISS in early 2027

The test will involve testing autonomous navigation, maneuverability, and operation in the environment of a real space station. Joyride is scheduled to fly to the ISS in early 2027.

It is not the first robot to be tested on the ISS: In 2024, for example, the US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sent the surgical robot Miniaturized In vivo Robotic Assistant (Mira) to the station to test teleoperations in space. The mini-robots Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) and their successors Astrobee tested human-machine interaction on board the ISS and supported the crews with experiments. In 2018, the hovering assistant robot Crew Interactive Mobile Companion (Cimon) flew to the ISS together with German astronaut Alexander Gerst.

(wpl)