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  MSNBC.com

Spacesuit goes overboard for unusual mission
Worn-out suit recycled into miniature satellite sending out a radio beacon

By James Oberg
NBC News space analyst
Special to MSNBC
Updated: 2:52 p.m. ET Jan. 31, 2006


HOUSTON - It sounds like a scene from science fiction: A lone figure is cast
off from the space
station, getting smaller and smaller as it drifts out into empty space.

In this case, however, no human will actually be at risk. When the crew
members aboard the
international space station toss a worn-out spacesuit over the side, it will
be empty except for an
interesting amateur radio experiment.

During a spacewalk scheduled this Friday, astronaut Bill McArthur and
cosmonaut Valery Tokarev will
spend six hours carrying out assembly, repair and inspection work on the
space station — and one
photogenic feat of "space littering."

It won't be the first time an old Russian spacesuit has been tossed
overboard, but "SuitSat," as it
is called, has an actual mission.

A simple battery-powered radio transmitter inside the suit will use an
antenna mounted to the suit's
helmet to send signals down to Earth for up to several days. The data will
include temperature
readings, a slow-scan TV image and several specially coded messages for ham
radio listeners to
figure out.

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URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11102068/