NASA and CSA Astronauts Complete 100th US Spacewalk From ISS and Install Seventh Solar Array

The International Space Station runs on sunlight, and the eight solar arrays built to harvest it have been operating well past their intended service life. NASA designed the original panels for a 15 year lifetime. They have exceeded it, and their power output has declined with age, a gradual loss that matters more every year as the orbiting laboratory's experiments, life support systems and other operations draw on the same electrical grid. Rather than remove the originals and start over, NASA took a different route: attach smaller, more efficient roll out arrays alongside the aging panels and let the two generations work in tandem.

Those add on units are known as International Space Station Roll Out Solar Arrays, or iROSAs. Each arrives folded into a compact package and unfurls using the potential energy stored in rolled up carbon composite booms, which means no motor is required to extend it. They reach orbit inside the unpressurized trunk of SpaceX's Dragon cargo capsule. The unit installed this week was delivered earlier in October on the company's 35th space station resupply mission for NASA, then parked on a temporary stowage platform outside the outpost until a crew was ready to move it.

Spacewalking from the station has its own long chronology. The first US spacewalk conducted outside the Quest airlock was made by Expedition 4 crewmates Carl Walz and Daniel Bursch on February 20, 2002. The count has climbed steadily since. The 100th US spacewalk staged from the station without a space shuttle docked took place this week, and it sits inside a much larger total: 285 spacewalks in support of station assembly, maintenance and upgrades, including 66 from the Russian segment and 119 by visiting shuttle crews.

The crew assigned to the milestone was a pair of Expedition 75 crewmates. NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk floated out of the Quest airlock at 7:57 a.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, October 29, 2026. Menon wore a spacesuit marked with red stripes, while Kutryk wore an unmarked white suit.

Key Facts

NASA reported on October 29, 2026 that the spacewalk concluded at 3:08 p.m. EDT after 7 hours and 11 minutes, with the seventh iROSA installed and deployed on the station's 2A electrical power channel. The agency said the array will provide additional power to support critical operations, including a safe and controlled deorbit.

Space.com reported on October 29, 2026 that Menon secured himself at the end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm and carried the 750 pound (340 kilogram) iROSA to the station's port side, where the two astronauts bolted it to the 2A channel and connected its electrical cables during a night pass. The rolled up assembly measured 10 by 2 by 4 feet (3 by 0.6 by 1.2 meters) before deployment.

Aerospace Global News reported on October 30, 2026 that the panel reached approximately 19 meters, or 63 feet, and took just over 11 minutes to unroll completely. Mission Control reported the deployment four hours and 23 minutes into the spacewalk, and about 12 minutes later the array had fully extended, draping over roughly half of the larger but less capable legacy panel on the P4 truss.

The figures behind the milestone are stacked. It was the 100th US spacewalk from the station and the 285th spacewalk in support of the outpost overall. It was the 7th of 8 planned iROSAs. It was Menon's fourth spacewalk, bringing his total time in vacuum to 26 hours and 31 minutes, and Kutryk's first, making him the fifth Canadian astronaut to conduct an EVA. The previous spacewalk by a Canadian astronaut was in April 2019, when David Saint-Jacques ventured outside with NASA's Anne McClain.

NASA reported on October 29, 2026 that once all eight arrays are in place they will increase available power by up to 30 percent, lifting the station's generation capacity from 160 kilowatts to approximately 215 kilowatts. Space.com reported on October 29, 2026 that the iROSAs, used in tandem with the older panels, have already increased the station's power supply by 20 to 30 percent, while the original arrays continue to fade.

Analysis

The round number is the easy part of this story. What this really means is that the station's power system has been kept alive by retrofit engineering rather than wholesale replacement, and the 100th US spacewalk is less a celebration of a single feat than a receipt for decades of maintenance labor performed in vacuum. The iROSA design itself is the clearest evidence of that logic. Instead of building a new solar wing, engineers built a smaller, self deploying panel that piggybacks on hardware already bolted to the truss. The array does not need motors because the energy is stored in its own carbon composite booms, and it does not need a new mounting structure because it drapes over the panel that is already there.

The bigger picture here is that electrical power on the station has quietly become a deorbit requirement, not merely a science enabler. NASA's own framing ties the new array to a safe and controlled return of the laboratory, a deorbit currently scheduled for 2030. That reframes what sounds like routine upkeep. Extra kilowatts are what allow the station to keep its systems running through the end of its life, and the same power budget underpins the planned disposal of the largest structure humans have assembled in orbit. A power shortfall late in the program would not simply dim experiments; it would complicate the controlled reentry that the agency has promised.

There is also a partnership dimension that the raw numbers do not capture. Kutryk's first spacewalk was the first by a Canadian astronaut since April 2019, and he is only the fifth Canadian to perform one. Menon, meanwhile, moved from the airlock to the end of Canadarm2 with a 750 pound package in hand, the kind of task that depends on a robotic arm built by a partner nation and a spacesuit fleet maintained across programs. The 100th US EVA from the station was, in practice, a joint operation, and the milestone belongs to the station's whole coalition rather than to one agency.

Why It Matters

Power is the station's binding constraint. The laboratory's experiments, life support systems and other operations all draw from the same supply, and the original arrays have exceeded their 15 year design life with measurable degradation. The iROSAs address that shortfall without replacing the legacy hardware, which is why the station's power supply has already risen by 20 to 30 percent as successive arrays have been added. Each new wing buys margin, and margin is what keeps a 26 year old facility flying.

The milestone also documents a capability that is easy to take for granted. A 7 hour and 11 minute spacewalk involved carrying a 340 kilogram object on a robotic arm, bolting it down, routing cables during a night pass, and then waiting for stored energy to unroll a 19 meter panel. Menon said at the conclusion of the excursion that it is always sunny in space and that teams have been doing complex operations like this for over 26 years. The remark is a fair summary of the work: repetitive in method, unforgiving in execution, and cumulative in effect.

For the crews still to fly, the practical payoff arrives soon. The final array is scheduled for November 5, and once it is installed the roll out solar array program will be complete, closing a five year effort to augment the station's power system. That completion matters for planning beyond the station itself, because the hardware and the procedures validated here are the same ones that will shape how the station is shut down safely.

Next Up

Menon and Kutryk are scheduled to return to the vacuum on Thursday, November 5, to install the eighth and final iROSA on the station's 3B power channel. NASA will provide live coverage beginning at 6:45 a.m. Eastern Time. The pair already completed get ahead tasks during the October 29 spacewalk to prepare for that outing, moving equipment needed for the last array into position so the final excursion can focus on the installation itself.

When the eighth array is deployed, the roll out solar arrays will be fully installed and the station's power system augmentation will be complete. The eight units together are projected to raise available power by up to 30 percent, from 160 kilowatts to approximately 215 kilowatts, a margin NASA says is needed for critical operations through the station's final years and for the controlled deorbit now planned for 2030.