NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk finished a spacewalk outside the International Space Station at 3:08 p.m. EDT, having spent 7 hours and 11 minutes working on the orbiting lab's electrical system, according to Science Daily. The pair installed and unfurled a new International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array on the station's 2A power channel. It is the seventh array of its kind added to the outpost.
The array is meant to supply extra electricity for the station's core functions, including the controlled deorbit that will eventually bring the laboratory down safely. Science Daily reports that the excursion also included early tasks aimed at preparing for a follow-up spacewalk on Thursday, Nov. 5.
Why it matters
The station's original solar wings have been in service for years and degrade over time. The roll-out arrays are designed to augment that aging hardware rather than replace it outright, and NASA has been adding them in stages across the station's power channels.
The stakes go beyond keeping the lights on. The extra capacity is tied to the station's end-of-life planning, when the laboratory must be brought down in a controlled way. Power availability shapes what the station can support in the meantime, from research payloads to routine systems.
Once the eighth array goes up, the expansion program is finished. Science Daily reports that the eight new arrays together will lift the station's available power by as much as 30%, taking generation capacity from 160 kilowatts to roughly 215 kilowatts.
A first for Kutryk, a fourth for Menon
The completed mission was logged as U.S. spacewalk 100. For Menon it was his fourth time outside the station; for Kutryk it was his first. Yahoo News Canada reported that Kutryk became the fifth Canadian to perform a spacewalk.
The outing was also the 285th spacewalk carried out in support of building, maintaining and upgrading the International Space Station, according to Science Daily. That tally spans decades of assembly work and repairs.
What to watch
The next spacewalk is set for Thursday, Nov. 5, when astronauts will install the eighth and final roll-out array on the station's 3B power channel. NASA plans to start live coverage at 6:45 a.m., and the agency has said details on how to watch are available through its channels.
