Anil Menon and Joshua Kutryk Begin Spacewalk to Install Final ISS Solar Array

NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk began a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Thursday, November 5, to install its final new roll-out solar array. The excursion started at 8:36 a.m. EST. Their assignment is to install and deploy the eighth International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array, known as IROSA, on the station’s 3B electrical power channel. NASA says the full set of eight arrays will “increase available power by up to 30%,” raising generating capacity from 160 kilowatts to approximately 215 kilowatts. The final array is intended to complete the station’s power augmentation upgrades and help supply critical operations, including its eventual safe and controlled deorbit. The agency expected the excursion to last more than six and a half hours. It is Menon’s fifth spacewalk and Kutryk’s second. Kutryk is wearing the spacesuit with red stripes, while Menon is in the unmarked suit. The same pair installed and deployed the seventh roll-out array on October 29 during a spacewalk lasting 7 hours and 11 minutes. That array serves the 2A power channel. During that earlier excursion, the astronauts also carried out preparatory work for the November 5 installation.