[sarex] SUIT SAT DEPLOYED AND SHOULD BE TX

[Arthur Rowe <azrowe80@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

Station Spacewalk with Third Suit Begins

International Space Station crewmembers Valery Tokarev and Bill McArthur 
stepped into space from the Pirs airlock at 5:44 p.m. EST Friday. With 
them was a third Russian Orlan spacesuit, empty except for electronic 
equipment that should attract considerable attention from students 
around the world.

The spacewalk is expected to last about six hours. Tokarev, Expedition 
12 flight engineer, is the lead spacewalker, EV-1. Both he and E12 
Commander McArthur are wearing red-striped spacesuits.

The third spacesuit, near the end of its useful life, will be jettisoned 
by Tokarev early in the spacewalk. That suit, called SuitSat-1, will 
remain in its own orbit for as much as six weeks before re-entering the 
Earth's atmosphere and burning.

For the first part of that time in orbit – for perhaps a week or two – 
devices in the suit will broadcast recorded ham radio messages in 
Russian, Japanese, Spanish, German, French and English. Most will be 
voiced by students.

The transmission, possibly for as much as several weeks or for as little 
as an hour (depending on battery life), will be on 145.990 MHz FM, in 
the VHF or 2-meter part of the amateur radio band. Voice transmissions 
also will include suit data, mission time, suit temperature and battery 
voltage.

SuitSat-1, called RadioSkaf or Radio Sputnik in Russian, is sponsored by 
ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station), an 
international working group made up of volunteers from national amateur 
radio societies, including the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation.

Tokarev will carefully jettison the SuitSat-1 in much the same way 
McArthur jettisoned the Floating Potential Probe experiment during their 
November spacewalk. He will push the suit away at about a 30-degree 
angle upward and about 10 degrees to the left of the back of the station.

After the spacesuit jettison, the crew will relocate a boom adapter for 
the Strela, a Russian hand-operated crane, from the Zarya module to 
Pressurized Mating Adapter 3. That is being done to clear the Zarya area 
for temporary stowage of protective debris panels for the Zvezda Service 
Module, to be delivered on STS-116.

A two-hour task at the mobile transporter, which can provide a base for 
the station's robotic arm for movement along the rails on the orbiting 
laboratory's main truss, is next on the schedule.

On Dec. 16 one of two trailing umbilical system cables providing power, 
data and video was severed by a device designed to cut the umbilical 
should it become jammed. A second cable provides the same links to the 
mobile transporter. Spacewalkers will insert a bolt to eliminate the 
risk of uncommanded cutting of the second, intact cable.

To replace the severed cable, a new umbilical assembly is scheduled to 
be installed during Discovery's STS-121 mission to the station.

Back on the hull of the Zvezda service module, spacewalkers will 
retrieve the Biorisk experiment, which looks at microorganisms in space. 
Next, they'll photograph a sensor for a Russian Micrometeoroid Measuring 
System.

Tokarev and McArthur will inspect and/or photograph several areas on 
Zvezda's exterior, including thrusters and nearby areas. They'll 
photograph a ham radio antenna and a fuel drain outlet pipe, then 
retrieve a Kromka panel, part of a thruster contamination experiment.

The spacewalkers will inspect their suits, wipe off suit gloves and then 
jettison the towels before re-entering Pirs and closing its hatch.

This is the second spacewalk for Tokarev and the fourth for McArthur.
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