On February 3, 2006, astronauts at the International Space Station sent an empty spacesuit tumbling through space all by itself … for science.
Known as SuitSat, this empty spacesuit was equipped with a radio transmitter that would constantly broadcast pre-recorded messages from scientists and students from around the world. It also broadcasted telemetry data, so amateur radio operators and citizen scientists on Earth could participate in tracking this creepy satellite. SuitSat only made it around the Earth twice before its batteries died prematurely, and it burned up while reentering Earth's atmosphere a few months later.
Known as SuitSat, this empty spacesuit was equipped with a radio transmitter that would constantly broadcast pre-recorded messages from scientists and students from around the world. It also broadcasted telemetry data, so amateur radio operators and citizen scientists on Earth could participate in tracking this creepy satellite. SuitSat only made it around the Earth twice before its batteries died prematurely, and it burned up while reentering Earth's atmosphere a few months later.
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TechTranscript
00:00On this day in space.
00:04On February 3rd, 2006, astronauts at the International Space Station
00:08sent an empty spacesuit tumbling through space all by itself for science.
00:12Known as Suitsat, this empty spacesuit was equipped with a radio transmitter
00:16that would constantly broadcast pre-recorded messages from scientists and students around the world.
00:20It also broadcasted telemetry data so amateur radio
00:24operators and citizen scientists on Earth could participate in tracking this creepy satellite.
00:28Suitsat only made it around the Earth twice before its batteries died prematurely
00:32and it burned up while re-entering Earth's atmosphere a few months later.
00:36And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:40NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology