An unoccupied spacesuit will be launched into space by Cosmonaut Valery Tokarev from the International Space Station during a spacewalk on Friday. SuitSat, as it is known, is equipped with a radio transmitter, an antenna in the helmet, batteries, and data of interest to students all over the world. It will transmit special messages and a slow-scan TV image to Earth.

NASA TV coverage of the spacewalk will begin Friday at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time, and the launch is scheduled for 5:20. Anyone with an amateur ham radio receiver and an FM/VHF scanner can listen for the signal.

SuitSat will be free-floating and should stay in orbit about six weeks after which it will burn up in the atmosphere. Transmissions should last up to a week and include specially recorded voice messages, information on the spacesuit's condition, and a special image.

For more information on the project, see www.amsat.org/amsat-new/articles/BauerSuitsat/index.php, especially if you would like to know how to obtain a special certificate to commemorate receiving the signal. NASA TV offers Web access, so see www.nasa.gov/ntv to learn how to connect.