Radio hams track flying space suit

Suitsat-1 will orbit the earth before burning up in the atmosphere

Nasa caused some excitement over the weekend by releasing Suitsat-1, a broadcasting space suit which will orbit the earth before burning up in the atmosphere.

International Space Station crew members Bill McArthur and Valery Tokarev kicked the suit into orbit on Friday, stuffed with old clothes and a radio transmitter.

Radio enthusiasts are tracking the suit, dubbed Ivan Ivanovich, around the world and are collating the results on a map. The suit broadcasts messages of greetings in English, French, German, Spanish, Russian and Japanese. 

Also included is a CD with images of over 300 items collected from schools and educational organisations around the world. The suit will burn up on re-entry into the earth's atmosphere in two to three weeks' time.

"Our ability to predict mission life is not very good," said a spokesman from Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, which sponsored the idea. "Our prediction is one to two weeks but it may stay on for as little as an hour or as long as several weeks." 

However it seems that the batteries may have cooled down faster than expected and the suit has now stopped broadcasting, according to Nasa.

Transmissions from Suitsat-1 are on a frequency of 145.990MHz FM and can be picked up easily with a VHF hand-talkie ham radio or police-band scanner.