Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk completes nearly seven-hour spacewalk to install final solar array
Joshua Kutryk and NASA astronaut Anil Menon spent 6 hours 59 minutes outside the International Space Station to attach the eighth solar array, part of a project to boost the station’s power generation by up to 30 percent.
Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk and NASA astronaut Anil Menon conducted a spacewalk Thursday that lasted 6 hours and 59 minutes, during which they installed the eighth and final solar array on the starboard side of the station’s truss. The work is part of a solar-array upgrade campaign that began in 2021 and is expected to raise the International Space Station’s power-generation capacity by as much as 30 percent, according to the Canadian Space Agency.
Kutryk, the fifth Canadian to perform a spacewalk, emerged first from the Quest airlock, his suit marked by a red stripe on the legs. The mission marked Kutryk’s second spacewalk in two weeks and Menon’s fifth, NASA reported. The astronauts were tethered to the station and used tools while the Canadarm2 robotic arm positioned the new array, with support from CSA teams in Longueuil and CAPCOM Jenni Gibbons in Houston.
The Canadian Space Agency noted that spacewalks are among the most demanding and hazardous tasks for astronauts but are essential for installing and repairing equipment. The last Canadian to conduct a spacewalk before Kutryk was David Saint-Jacques in 2019. Kutryk and his crew arrived at the International Space Station on Oct. 1 for a six-month mission.