Canadian Joshua Kutryk to conduct his first spacewalk — Space.com

Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk is set to conduct his first career spacewalk from the International Space Station on October 29. Together with NASA astronaut Anil Menon, he will install a new iROSA roll-out solar array. It will be the first spacewalk involving a representative of the Canadian Space Agency in more than seven years, Space.com reports .

The work will last nearly seven hours The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 8:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time, or 12:00 p.m.

GMT. Work outside the station is expected to last about six hours and 45 minutes. NASA's broadcast will begin at 6:30 a.m.

U.S. Eastern Time. This will be the first of two planned spacewalks by Kutryk and Menon.

During the two operations, the astronauts are to deploy the seventh and eighth International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays. The second spacewalk is scheduled no earlier than November 5. More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram .

ISS power system upgrade The new iROSAs are installed over the ISS's existing solar panels, which have been operating for decades and are gradually losing efficiency. The first such array was deployed in 2021. Once all eight units are put into operation, the station's power system capacity is expected to increase from 160 to about 215 kilowatts — approximately 30%.

When folded, each array is about three meters long and weighs 340 kilograms on Earth. During the first spacewalk, the Canadarm2 robotic arm will hand one of the arrays to Menon on a mounting platform. Kutryk will join him near the installation site, where the astronauts will secure the structure to an old panel and unfold it to about six meters in length.

During work on the power cables, the section of the station must be in shadow, as sunlight must not reach the arrays at that time. Canadarm2 will also deliver equipment to the installation site.