NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Joshua Kutryk installed and deployed a new roll-out solar array outside the International Space Station on Thursday (Oct. 29), completing the 100th U.S. spacewalk conducted from the orbiting laboratory, Space reports.
The two Expedition 75 crewmates finished the extravehicular activity (EVA) at 3:08 p.m. EDT (1908 GMT), after 7 hours and 11 minutes. Both worked in NASA's extravehicular mobility unit spacesuits, entering and exiting the vacuum of space through the station's U.S. Quest airlock.
It was the first spacewalk by a Canadian astronaut since April 2019, when David Saint-Jacques went outside alongside NASA's Anne McClain, according to Space.
Why it matters
The excursion marked a double milestone: a century of U.S.-led spacewalks staged from the station itself, and another step in a multi-year effort to refresh the outpost's aging power supply.
The station's eight original solar arrays have outlived their 15-year design life and now produce less power than intended. The newer roll-out panels, known as iROSAs, work alongside the older arrays and have lifted the station's total power supply by 20% to 30%, Space reports. That extra electricity is meant to cover current and planned station operations, including the laboratory's controlled deorbit, which is currently targeted for 2030.
Space also notes that Thursday's EVA was the 285th spacewalk in support of station assembly, maintenance and upgrades overall. That total includes 66 outings from the Russian segment and 119 by space shuttle crews during the era when orbiters were docked to the complex.
A 750-pound package moved by robotic arm
The hardware Menon and Kutryk handled was delivered to the station earlier this month inside the unpressurized trunk of a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule, on the company's 35th resupply mission for NASA. The rolled-up assembly measured 10 by 2 by 4 feet (3 by 0.6 by 1.2 meters) before deployment.
Once outside, the pair unbolted the array from its temporary stowage platform. Menon then attached himself to the end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm and rode the 750-pound (340-kilogram) unit to the station's port side, while Kutryk traveled to the same worksite along the station's backbone truss.
There they mounted the array on the 2A electrical power channel, fastening it with bolts and hooking up its electrical cables to tie it into the station's power system. Space reports that the cable connection was carried out during a night pass as a safety precaution.
Deployment required no motor. The stored energy in the assembly's rolled-up carbon composite booms was enough to unroll the panel to its full 63-foot (19-meter) length. Mission Control announced the start of deployment four hours and 23 minutes into the spacewalk, and about 12 minutes later the array was fully extended, covering roughly half of the larger legacy panel on the P4 truss.
Ahead of schedule, with one more to go
Because the work went faster than planned, the astronauts used the remaining time to loosen some of the beams securing the final iROSA on its temporary platform and to turn two launch locks that had held that unit in place during its Dragon ride uphill.
Speaking at the close of the EVA, Menon described the view from outside and the length of the effort. "Being outside, I can say it is always sunny in space," he said, adding that he found it remarkable what teams had accomplished in supplying new solar arrays to the station and that complex operations of this kind have been under way for more than 26 years.
He also framed the 100th U.S. segment EVA as a significant marker of how much has been achieved, Space reports.
Thursday's outing was Menon's fourth spacewalk and Kutryk's first. Menon has now spent 26 hours and 31 minutes working outside during his current stay aboard the station, and Kutryk becomes the fifth Canadian astronaut to perform an EVA.
The first U.S. spacewalk from Quest was conducted by Expedition 4 crewmates Carl Walz and Daniel Bursch on Feb. 20, 2002. That 5-hour-and-47-minute EVA was largely devoted to testing the airlock's systems and carrying out routine chores, according to Space.
Menon and Kutryk are scheduled to go outside again on Nov. 5, when they are expected to install the eighth and final iROSA and close out a five-year effort to upgrade the station's power system.
