Astronauts Ready for Final Solar Array Spacewalk

Mission managers have approved two astronauts to leave the International Space Station on Thursday. They will install the eighth and last roll-out solar array. This is an important step to increase the space station’s power.

Astronauts Joshua Kutryk from the Canadian Space Agency and Anil Menon from NASA will start their spacewalk at 8:30 a.m. They will work for about seven hours outside the station in space.

The astronauts will do similar tasks as they did on October 29. Kutryk will move to the starboard truss and meet Menon, who will carry the solar array while attached to the Canadarm2 robotic arm. Then Menon will give the solar array to Kutryk for installation.

This final installation will increase the space station’s power from 160 kilowatts to about 215 kilowatts. NASA and other platforms will show live coverage of the spacewalk starting at 7 a.m. on Thursday.

Before the spacewalk, Kutryk and Menon prepared their tools and spacesuits. They also reviewed the spacewalk plans with NASA flight engineers Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney. The four astronauts then talked to mission controllers to confirm readiness.

The astronauts also did science work on the station. Kutryk checked water samples for microbes and took photos. Menon took swabs from surfaces for microbe study. Watkins collected bacteria samples to study antibiotic resistance. Delaney tested lung cells to see how they grow in microgravity.

The three Russian cosmonauts spent most of their day resting. Commander Pyotr Dubrov prepared for the spacewalk. Flight engineers Anna Kikina and Sergey Teteryatnikov worked on equipment for the spacewalkers.

You can learn more about the space station activities by following the space station blog and NASA’s social media accounts.