Photo released by NASA showing NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway (left) and Anil Menon (right) in the Quest airlock of the International Space Station (ISS). EFE/NASA
Miami (USA), Aug 6 (EFE) – NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon completed a six-hour, 27-minute spacewalk on Thursday, preparing the power channel to which the International Space Station’s (ISS) new solar panels will be connected.
Meir and Menon exited the space station around 8:35 a.m. ET (12:35 GMT), carrying the necessary materials for assembling the panels, and returned inside at 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. GMT), having accomplished all major objectives, NASA reported.
The work focused on power channel 3B, to which the deployable IROSA solar panels will be attached. These will be the seventh of eight planned as part of the modernization program that began in 2021, with their arrival scheduled for late 2026.
These panels will provide additional power to support critical station operations, including its safe and controlled deorbiting.
Unlike traditional systems, these panels don’t need motors to deploy: the energy stored in their composite structures fully extends them to a length of 19 meters in about six minutes.
This is Meir’s sixth spacewalk; last March, he installed a similar support structure during an exterior spacewalk from the space station. It’s Menon’s first, who has only been in space for 22 days.
It was the 281st spacewalk conducted for the assembly, maintenance, and improvement of the orbiting laboratory, according to the U.S. space agency.
NASA has two more maintenance spacewalks scheduled for August 13 and 25, though it has not yet announced which astronauts will perform them.
