Spacesuit full of data for earthlings fizzles

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — If there was an extraterrestrial watching, it might have called 911.

An unmanned spacesuit tumbled helplessly into space Friday after a cosmonaut untethered it from the international space station.

"Goodbye, Mr. Smith," Russian flight engineer Valery Tokarev said.

Mr. Smith is doomed, but Tokarev's act was not sinister. The spacesuit, named by the cosmonaut, is stuffed with old clothes and ham-radio equipment that was supposed to send recorded messages to radio operators around the world before eventually re-entering Earth's atmosphere and burning up.

But almost five hours after the spacesuit was released, NASA commentator Rob Navias said it had stopped sending signals after emitting only faint transmissions during two orbits. "Perhaps because its batteries have become too cold," Navias said.

"No more transmissions are being received by ham radio operators. ... It may have ceased operating very shortly after its deployment."

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 be able to pick up the messages by tuning into FM frequency 145.990 MHz.

Along with the radio transmitter, the stuffed spacesuit also has internal sensors to monitor temperature and battery power. As it floated along, it was to transmit temperature, battery power and time it had been in space to the ground.

During a spacewalk Friday that ended 15 minutes early, Tokarev and U.S. commander Bill McArthur covered a wide swath of the 240-foot-wide, 140-foot-long station as they took on several chores. The tasks included creating storage space, retrieving a Russian science experiment and photographing handrails, antennas and sensors to see how they have held up in space.