According to the latest information from NASA and suitsat.org, it looks like SuitSat-1 froze after two orbits of the Earth. Even during these flights, it emitted only very weak signals that could only be picked up by antennas with high gain and preamplifiers included. For those who couldn't watch NASA TV live, a few facts from the launch (times in UTC):
22:43 – opening of the hatch on the ISS after decompression, gradual ascent of two Russian astronauts into open space
22:59 - Russian astronaut turns on the power for SuitSat-1, at first it seems that SuitSat-1 has not started, a few seconds later the astronaut announces that SuitSat-1 is operational
23:02 - "dropping" the space suit into orbit - Afternoon... SuitSat-1 is moving away from the ISS, a strange sight only known from sci-fi movies, when an astronaut moves away from the ship after losing contact. SuitSat-1 does slow somersaults.
Two orbits follow, when the earth stations fail to pick up even a hint of a signal on 145.990 MHz. Since the spacesuit was not air-conditioned, it is likely that the batteries froze and thus interrupted the functioning of the radio.
approx 4:00 - NASA reports that the batteries are either frozen or out of order and SuitSat-1 is dead.
The satellite was supposed to orbit the Earth for about six weeks. It was assumed that the battery capacity would last for three to four days of operation. After six weeks, the suit descends into the dense layers of the atmosphere, where it burns up.
