360Spacewalkers give the space station a power upgrade
NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk spent 7 hours and 11 minutes outside the International Space Station on 29 October, installing and unrolling a new solar array. It is the seventh of eight. When the last one goes up, in a spacewalk planned for 5 November, the station will have up to 30% more power.
Two astronauts have installed a new solar array on the outside of the International Space Station.
NASA's Anil Menon and the Canadian Space Agency's Joshua Kutryk worked outside for 7 hours and 11 minutes on Thursday, 29 October. They fitted the array to one of the station's power channels and unrolled it. They finished ahead of schedule and used the spare time for other jobs.
The new panels are called iROSA, short for ISS Roll-Out Solar Array. They roll out like a carpet and sit alongside the station's original solar wings, which have been wearing out after more than two decades in space. This was the seventh of eight.
Menon and Kutryk plan to install the last one on another spacewalk on 5 November. According to NASA, the station will then have up to 30% more power for its experiments.
NASA says it was the 285th spacewalk for building and maintaining the station.
Sources: NASA; Spaceflight Now; Space.com; ScienceDaily.