Anil Menon, Jessica Meir complete ISS spacewalk for new solar arrays

Washington,UPDATED: Aug 7, 2026 09:22 IST

NASA astronauts Anil Menon and Jessica Meir completed a spacewalk outside the Space Station to assemble a modification kit for one of its power channels, a step that will allow new solar arrays to be added. NASA said the work is part of preparations to boost power supply for the orbiting laboratory and support its critical systems.

The spacewalk was the 281st in support of the space station. It was Meir's sixth spacewalk and Menon's first. It began at 8:33 am EDT on Thursday, or 6:03 pm IST, and ended at 3:00 pm EDT, or 12:30 am IST on Friday, lasting six hours and 27 minutes.

Menon and Meir exited the Quest airlock and carried out structural upgrades on the outside of the space station. Their main task was to install mounting hardware on the station's 3B power channel on the Starboard 6 truss segment.

"This work will enable the future installation of roll-out solar arrays, called IROSA, to provide additional power for the orbiting laboratory, supporting critical systems and the safe, controlled deorbit of the space station," NASA said in a statement. Since 2021, astronauts on earlier spacewalks have deployed six Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array assemblies, with two more due to be delivered to the station later this year.

During the work, Menon was positioned on an articulating portable foot restraint on top of a worksite interface, giving him a stable position to work from the truss. The two astronauts later routed cabling that will carry electricity from the future iROSA into the 3B power channel and then covered the struts with multi-layer insulation.

At one point during a short break, Meir said, "Anil, you can see the moon to the - well, I am not sure what way you're facing, but" Menon replied, "To my right. Yeah, I see it - thanks for the heads-up. I can see a future moon base there."

This was the first of three spacewalks planned this month for the space station's Expedition 75 crew. On August 13, two astronauts will replace a Space-to-Ground antenna, which NASA uses to send data and high-speed communications between Mission Control in Houston and the space station. On August 25, crew members will connect power channel cables and data relay systems as part of maintenance work, including preparations for the station's future deorbit, and replace a navigational aid used for spacecraft docking on the Harmony module's forward port.

In all, Menon and Meir's spacewalk completed power system upgrade work outside the station, advanced preparations for the next set of solar arrays, and marked the start of a three-spacewalk schedule for Expedition 75 this month.

With PTI Inputs

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