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Astronauts Install Seventh Solar Array on International Space Station
Confirmed
In Short: Two astronauts, NASA's Anil Menon and the Canadian Space Agency's Joshua Kutryk, successfully installed the seventh International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array (IROSA) on Thursday, October 26, 2026, during a spacewalk that lasted seven hours and 11 minutes.
Menon and Kutryk began their spacewalk at 7:57 a.m. EDT, switching their suits to battery power to officially start the 285th spacewalk since the station's assembly began in 1998.
The astronauts used a power tool to unbolt a final restraint, allowing the IROSA to unroll to its full length of 60 feet in about 10 minutes.
Garrett Hehn, a spacewalk flight director, noted that the IROSA arrays are around 750 pounds in their folded configuration and about 10 feet long, making them challenging to handle.
Menon and Kutryk also completed a few 'get-ahead' tasks, preparing the final IROSA for installation during a spacewalk scheduled for November 5, 2026.
The new IROSA will add eight kilowatts to the station's power capability, bringing the total power generation from 160 kilowatts to about 215 kilowatts.
The upgrade began in 2021 with the installation of the first IROSA, and the final pair of arrays arrived at the station on October 13, 2026, aboard a SpaceX Cargo Dragon capsule.
The IROSAs are needed to offset age-related degradation that has reduced the power output of the station's original arrays.
NASA astronaut Anil Menon said, 'Everyone had those high expectations for you, and you absolutely delivered.'
What this adds
The final spacewalk is set to complete the installation of the eighth and final IROSA, ensuring the station has sufficient power through its planned decommissioning in 2030.
Background
NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, on Thursday morning, carrying four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) for a six-month science mission.
What's confirmed
- Menon and Kutryk began their spacewalk at 7:57 a.m. EDT, switching their suits to battery power to officially start the 285th spacewalk since the station's assembly began in 1998.
- The astronauts used a power tool to unbolt a final restraint, allowing the IROSA to unroll to its full length of 60 feet in about 10 minutes.
- Garrett Hehn, a spacewalk flight director, noted that the IROSA arrays are around 750 pounds in their folded configuration and about 10 feet long, making them challenging to handle.
- Menon and Kutryk also completed a few 'get-ahead' tasks, preparing the final IROSA for installation during a spacewalk scheduled for November 5, 2026.
- The new IROSA will add eight kilowatts to the station's power capability, bringing the total power generation from 160 kilowatts to about 215 kilowatts.
- The upgrade began in 2021 with the installation of the first IROSA, and the final pair of arrays arrived at the station on October 13, 2026, aboard a SpaceX Cargo Dragon capsule.
- The IROSAs are needed to offset age-related degradation that has reduced the power output of the station's original arrays.
What's still developing
- With the seventh IROSA successfully installed, Menon and Kutryk carried out a few "get-ahead" tasks, preparing the final IROSA for installation next week, and returned to the Quest airlock, bringing the seven-hour 11-minute spacewalk to an end at 3:08 p.m.
- "In fact, we've been powering our efforts in space and doing complex operations like this for over 26 years."
- Menon and Kutryk unbolted the first of the two stowed IROSAs from its carrier so Menon, anchored to the end of the station's 58-foot-long robot arm, could carry it over to its mounting point farther outboard along the power truss.
- "Engineers and electrical officers here in mission control are happy with what they're seeing from the new array, which will add eight kilowatts to the overall power capability of the complex," said NASA commentator Rob Navias.
- He said flight controllers developed "a pretty elegant series of maneuvers" to move Menon and the IROSA on the robot arm "where we've tried to rotate around the actual center mass of the arrays rather than the crew member. It was a lesson learned from previous EVAs of how we could make it a little less tiring on Anil when he's got to hold that array in his hands."
- “Overall, these roll-out arrays increase our power generation capability up to 30 percent,” Gaurang Patel, operations integration manager for NASA’s Low Earth Orbit Program, said during an Oct. 20 briefing at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
- Spaceflight Now will carry live coverage of the spacewalk starting at 6:30 a.m.
- The pair of final IROSA solar wings arrived at the station rolled up and folded on a carrier in the unpressurized trunk of a SpaceX Cargo Dragon capsule after receiving a boost to orbit from a Falcon 9 rocket launched Oct. 13 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
- Thursday’s outing, which marks the 285th spacewalk devoted to station assembly, maintenance and upgrades, is planned to last about six hours and 45 minutes.
- NASA is two spacewalks away from completing a major, years-long upgrade to the International Space Station that will power the orbiting lab through to its planned decommissioning in 2030.
- NASA says the eight IROSA arrays will raise the station’s available power from 160 kilowatts to about 215 kilowatts, supporting critical operations through the outpost’s final years, including its “safe and controlled deorbit” after it is retired in 2030.
- Six arrays were in place by June 2023, and NASA ordered an additional pair that summer.