An old Russian spacesuit, equipped with a radio transmitter and launched by hand from the International Space Station (ISS) two weeks ago, has finally stopped transmitting.
The SuitSat satellite, which was placed into orbit by ISS crew members Bill McArthur and Valery Tokarev during a 6h space walk, transmitted telemetry data and greetings messages in six languages.
Designed as an educational experiment, SuitSat’s signals were very weak from the start. While amateur radio stations continued to provide reception reports from SuitSat over the past week, its telemetry showed that the battery voltage was getting closer to its critical value.
Frank Bauer, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, says: “SuitSat will now begin a slow silent spiral into Earth's atmosphere. Weeks or months later, no one knows exactly when, it will become a brilliant fireball over some part of Earth—a fitting end for a trailblazer.”
NASA is looking at the possibility of future SuitSat missions using other redundant Orlan spacesuits on board the ISS.
Source: Flight Daily News
