Image: NASA
Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk began his first spacewalk at 7:57 a.m. ET on Thursday, October 29, outside the International Space Station, weeks after riding a SpaceX Crew-13 Dragon to orbit.
NASA astronaut Anil Menon joined him for U.S. spacewalk 100, a planned six-and-a-half-hour job to install and deploy the station’s seventh Roll-Out Solar Array on the 2A power channel. NASA called the outing the 285th spacewalk supporting station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.
Kutryk is the fifth Canadian to walk in space after Chris Hadfield, Steve MacLean, Dave Williams, and David Saint-Jacques, the Canadian Space Agency said ahead of the attempt. Menon is on his fourth spacewalk; Kutryk is on his first.
The new array rode up earlier this month in the unpressurized trunk of a SpaceX Cargo Dragon on CRS-35, and Redwire, which builds the roll-out wings, said Menon and Kutryk were guiding the seventh unit toward its 2A mount to join six already powering the station.
About two hours in, NASA said the solar array was out of its carrier and headed to the installation site. Controllers plan a follow-up outing on November 5 for the eighth and final IROSA, which would finish a years-long power upgrade that NASA says can raise available generation by up to 30 percent.
Crew-13 launched on October 1 with NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov, part of a busy SpaceX stretch that also included three Falcon flights in under 13 hours. Canadarm2 is helping on today’s job as a worksite base for one of the spacewalkers.
Will Kutryk and Menon wrap the seventh array today and clear the path for the final IROSA next week?
