The crew of the International Space Station Saturday launched a discarded spacesuit, which would function as a student satellite broadcasting messages in six languages.
The orbiting Russian spacesuit became the world's latest radio station after Russian astronaut Valery Tokarev and his American colleague William MacArthur jettisoned it into space during their almost six-hour long spacewalk.
The spacesuit is stuffed with equipment developed by the prestigious Russian Bauman Technical University and Moscow Aviation Institute to transmit messages for the next week until the batteries run out.
The student satellite Radioskaf -- fondly christened 'Ivan Ivanovich' due to its human shape, will beam eight-minute recorded messages in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Russian languages, Channel 1 TV reported.
During almost a month-long flight till the batteries are down, the spacesuit satellite 'Radioskaf' with radio ID -- RS0RS will transmit messages at 145.99 MHz and anyone with a FM radio can monitor it.
Special diplomas would be given to those who will send reception reports to the organisers.
Quoting an official of the mission control, the channel said various sensors fitted into the spacesuit would also transmit the data about the impact of autonomous spaceflight, which would be essential for developing spacesuits for future missions to Mars.
MacArthur and Tokarev have been on board the ISS since October 2005 and are due to be replaced in March. It was the fourth spacewalk for McArthur and the second for Tokarev.
