Astronauts begin final phase of space station solar power upgrade

NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk began a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on October 29, 2026, to install one of the final two solar arrays in a years-long power upgrade, CBS News reported. The work is intended to help sustain station operations through its planned retirement in 2030.

The astronauts switched their suits to battery power at 7:57 a.m. EDT, marking the start of the excursion, according to CBS News. NASA had scheduled them to install and deploy the seventh International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array, known as an IROSA, on the station’s 2A electrical power channel. The installation was underway; its completion had not been established.

How the new arrays increase station power

CBS News reported that the full set of eight is expected to bring available power to about 215 kilowatts. That supply supports life-support systems, research and visiting spacecraft as the station approaches its planned retirement and deorbit in 2030. NASA said the seventh array would also provide additional power for critical operations, including a safe and controlled deorbit.

What the astronauts are installing

The final two arrays arrived earlier in October aboard a SpaceX Cargo Dragon spacecraft, folded and stored in its unpressurized trunk, CBS News reported. Flight controllers used the station’s robotic arm to move them to its power truss ahead of the spacewalk. For the first installation, the plan called for Menon to carry an array on the end of the robotic arm to its mounting point, where he and Kutryk would secure and unfold it.

NASA identified Menon as the lead spacewalker and Kutryk as the second crew member. It said this was Menon’s fourth spacewalk and Kutryk’s first, and counted the excursion as the 285th spacewalk for station assembly, maintenance and upgrades.

Menon and Kutryk planned to return outside on November 5 to install the eighth and final array, CBS News reported. That array’s mounting point is beyond the robotic arm’s reach, so the astronauts planned to pass it between them along the truss. Gaurang Patel, a senior manager in NASA’s Low Earth Orbit Program, said the second excursion would ‘essentially complete our power augmentation upgrades.’