Astronauts begin final installation of new solar arrays on ISS

NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk exited the International Space Station on Thursday morning to install the seventh of eight new solar arrays. This first of two spacewalks, scheduled a week apart, aims to finish a multi-year upgrade to the station’s aging power grid.

The pair switched their suits to battery power at 7:57 a.m. EDT from the Quest airlock. This marked the start of a planned six-and-a-half-hour excursion. It is the eighth spacewalk of 2026 and the 285th conducted since the station’s assembly began in 1998. The work began during orbital darkness, a moment Kutryk noted by saying, "the night is dark and full of wonders."

The station’s original solar panels generated approximately 152 kilowatts of power. The six new Integrated Roll-Out Solar Arrays, or IROSAs, installed so far have increased that output to roughly 200 kilowatts. The final two sets will raise total capacity to 215 kilowatts. This level is required to sustain life support, research, and visiting vehicles until the station retires and de-orbits in 2030.

SpaceX delivered the final two IROSAs to the station earlier this month on a Cargo Dragon capsule. The arrays were folded in half and stowed in the ship’s unpressurized trunk. The station’s robot arm, controlled remotely by flight controllers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, retrieved them and placed them on the left side of the power truss.

Menon, who has completed three spacewalks earlier this year, and Kutryk, on his first extravehicular activity, worked to install the seventh IROSA. The plan involved unbolt the stowed array so Menon could anchor to the end of the station’s 58-foot robot arm. He then carried the heavy equipment to its mounting point further outboard on the truss.

Garrett Hehn, a spacewalk flight director, described the maneuver as a solution to handling the weight. He noted the folded arrays weigh about 750 pounds and are roughly 10 feet long. He explained that controllers developed a series of maneuvers to rotate around the array’s center mass rather than the crew member. This approach reduces fatigue for Menon while he holds the equipment in his hands.

Once positioned, the astronauts mounted the IROSA on its support frame and unfolded its two halves. They then bolted the sections together. Working during the station’s night side, when the arrays were not generating power, they made electrical connections to power channel 2A. The arrays deploy using stored energy, similar to a snap bracelet, and unroll steadily over about 10 minutes without motors.

Menon and Kutryk are scheduled to return to space on November 5 to install the final IROSA. This last array will go on a solar wing at the far right end of the power truss. Because the robot arm cannot reach that distance, the astronauts will hand the equipment to each other in a leapfrog fashion to move it to the waiting support frame. Gaurang Patel, a senior manager in NASA’s Low Earth Orbit Program, stated that this second spacewalk will complete the power augmentation upgrades.