SuitSat-1: A Spacesuit Floats Free

Isn’t that terrible! Who thought up that dreadful idea???

Can’t you just imagine all those poor aliens looking out their spaceship windows going "Uh oh . . . "

Ground Control to Major Tom …

djm

Yeah, there was a UHF/VHF transmitter inside the suit. I tried to pick up the transmission from the suit according to the coordinates from the web, but got nothing. I later found that the batteries froze and failed. Too bad… :cry:

There’s something spooky about that. Like the scene in 2001.

… great, one more piece of garbage orbiting Earth. They’d better keep good track of it until it re-enters the atmosphere… that chunk of stuff could seriously damage satelites, or worse yet, shuttles and other space bound craft.

Or worse even still, people.

It’s in lower orbit than our communications satalites, not to worry.

It will burn up very quickly upon reentry, though. No safety issue here.
It’ll burn faster than tissue in flame.

more info

REUTERS(C) KANSAS FEB 21
Police here started receiving complaints this morning of soiled Russian underwear landing over an area of approxiamatlely three square miles. Local residents reported to police that the underwear seemed to be drifting down out of the sky. Police and FAA officials are baffled, as no Russian aircraft are reported to have been in the vicinity. Pictures at eleven.

REUTERS(C) KANSAS FEB 21
Police here started receiving complaints this morning of soiled Russian underwear landing over an area of approxiamatlely three square miles. Local residents reported to police that the underwear seemed to be drifting down out of the sky. Police and FAA officials are baffled, as no Russian aircraft are reported to have been in the vicinity. Pictures at eleven.

So Russian Astronauts wear BIG underwear then…? :wink:

… great, more soiled Russian underwear of unknown origin raining down on Kansas, frightening the locals and the livestock. I’ll bet they aren’t edible either.

Is that what happened to Fred Phelps?

This is Major Tom to Ground Control.
I’m stepping through the door -----
And I’m floating in a most peculiar way.
And the stars seems very different today.

djm

I asked my brother about this and this morning he sent me the following:

RadioSkaf stands for Radio-Skafander (translated: Spacesuit Satellite). It was deployed by the Russians during their last EVA to make contact with ham radio participants from schools all over the world.

These photos were taken on board before going out on the spacewalk where they deployed the unmanned suit:

Expedition 12 Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev places the Radioskaf 11.2 Kit and the 825 M Boxes inside the open Orlan suit as he prepares the suit for Radioskaf (also known as Suitsat-1) microsatellite operations. Takarev is working in the Unity Node 1 module. Image taken on Expedition 12.

Expedition 12 Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev installs the Radioskaf bracket 11.3 for the control box and antenna to the Orlan suit helmet visor as he prepares the suit for Radioskaf (also known as Suitsat-1) microsatellite operations. Takarev is working in the Unity Node 1 module. Image taken on Expedition 12.

The Speed Limit sign is interesting!

Actually there has been great concern about stray nut and bolts in the ISS’
s orbit. They are worried about stray hardware orbiting at high speed causing damage to the space station.