AMU Editor's Pick Original Space

This Week in Space! February 3, 2006 – NASA Launches SuitSat-1 from ISS

Featured GIF courtesy NASA

By Wes O’Donnell
Managing Editor of In MilitaryInCyberDefense and In Space News.

This week in 2006, SuitSat-1, a decommissioned Russian spacesuit, was taken on a spacewalk from the International Space Station by cosmonaut Valeri Tokarev and astronaut Bill McArthur. The suit was then released and allowed to enter its own independent orbit. No doubt becoming one of the strangest satellites in history.

Get started on your Space Studies Degree at American Military University.

That gave cosmonaut Sergey Samburov an idea: Maybe we can turn old spacesuits into useful satellites? SuitSat-1 was the first test of that idea.

SuitSat-1 was a Russian Orlan spacesuit equipped with three batteries, a radio transmitter and internal sensors to measure temperature and battery power.

The official designation for SuitSat was AMSAT-OSCAR 54, although it was nicknamed “Ivan Ivanovich” or “Mr. Smith.” The radio transmitter used a frequency of 145.990 MHz and the signal could be picked up by amateur radio astronomers on the ground.

Courtesy NASA

Unfortunately, the batteries failed after only two orbits and Ivan Ivanovich burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere in September of that year. At the time, NASA was enthusiastic about SuitSat-1 and tried to get as many students in as many nations as possible to tune in to the suit’s broadcast.

Five years later, another ISS hand-launched satellite named SuitSat-2 was deployed and stayed in orbit for 154 days before reentry.

Wes O'Donnell

Wes O’Donnell is an Army and Air Force veteran and writer covering military and tech topics. As a sought-after professional speaker, Wes has presented at U.S. Air Force Academy, Fortune 500 companies, and TEDx, covering trending topics from data visualization to leadership and veterans’ advocacy. As a filmmaker, he directed the award-winning short film, “Memorial Day.”

Comments are closed.