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Astronauts Install a New Solar Array on NASA's 100th US Spacewalk

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A spacewalker in a white spacesuit holds onto the International Space Station truss, lit against black space.
Menon, pictured during an earlier excursion on Aug. 6, 2026, went outside again with Joshua Kutryk on Oct. 29, 2026 to bolt the seventh array to the 2A power channel (illustrative)."NASA astronaut Anil Menon conducts a spacewalk (iss075e0011109)" by NASA Johnson Space Center, via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk installed and deployed a roll-out solar array aboard the International Space Station on Oct. 29, 2026, during a 7-hour, 11-minute spacewalk that NASA logged as the 100th US spacewalk from the station.

The array went onto the station's 2A electrical power channel and is the seventh of eight. NASA's space station blog says that Menon rode the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm to begin the installation, and that the array will provide additional power for critical operations, including a safe and controlled deorbit of the station.

Workers in blue coveralls guide two rolled-up solar array canisters onto a pallet inside a clean high bay, with a NASA banner and a US flag on the wall behind them.
On the ground at the Kennedy Space Center on April 2, 2021, a pair of the arrays sits rolled into canisters for the ride to orbit, which is how each one reaches the truss. "ISS roll out solar array in the SSPF" by Frank Michaux, via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Once the eighth array is in place, the agency says the full set will lift the station's power generation capacity from 160 kilowatts to about 215 kilowatts.

The two totals count different things. NASA keeps a tally of US spacewalks from the station, and this was number 100. Its wider tally counts spacewalks flown in support of station assembly, maintenance and upgrades, and by that tally the excursion was the 285th. It was Kutryk's first spacewalk and Menon's fourth.

A suited astronaut works amid antennas and handrails on the outside of the space station, with Earth below the horizon at lower left.
Hand over hand along the outside of the station on Aug. 18, 2026; the array job on Oct. 29, 2026 kept two crew members outside for 7 hours and 11 minutes. "Astronauts Anil Menon and Sophie Adenot work together during a six‑hour and 23‑minute spacewalk (iss075e0042854)" by NASA Johnson Space Center, via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Menon and Kutryk also got a head start on tasks for their next spacewalk, planned for Nov. 5, 2026, when NASA says they will install the eighth and final array and complete the station's power upgrade.

Sources

By Diana BrinkerWriter

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