This is an update on the ARISSat activities. We had a telecon with the ARISSat team in Russia. Here is the situation as described by them. The Russian suit battery that was intended to be used on ARISSat was used during testing both on the ground and onboard ISS when it first arrived. When it was tested prior to the planned April 12 operation, it was discovered that the battery was low on charge. The suit battery's are specified for only five cycles of charge. It was decided to not recharge the battery at this time in order to keep the number of cycles as low as possible and thus saving the battery for the actual mission. That deployment is currently scheduled for July 26. We are still trying to get more information on the storage status and the battery health from the Russian team. We will keep you informed as we prepare for the eventual deployment of ARISSat.
Lou McFadin W5DID ARISS US Hardware manager