That's Spacesuit 1 (my name for it -- it's actually called SuitSat 1). It is an unmanned but not unfilled space suit that was tossed out of the international space station yesterday. After orbiting the Earth a couple of times, the radio trasmitter, not to mention the old clothes, inside of the suit went silent. Technicians say the batteries probably got too cold. It's chilly out there in space... and no one can hear you scream either.
"The spacesuit project, known as SuitSat-1, was the brainchild of a Russian ham radio operator. It was supposed to send several words in code for schoolchildren listening on the ground. Radio operators were supposed to pick up the messages for several days by tuning into FM frequency 145.990 MHz."
Nifty, but why didn't they simply send codes to the kids from Earth and claim they were coming from space? Just like NASA did when they faked the Apollo moon landings.
Asked if he would be going to Disneyworld or not following the failure of the suit to perform as expected, mission Commander Bill McArthur remained philosophical, saying:
"You know, that's just life in the big city."
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