A milestone spacewalk, and a useful one.
What happened
NASA’s Anil Menon and the Canadian Space Agency’s Joshua Kutryk spent 7 hours and 11 minutes outside on Thursday, Oct 29, on the 100th US spacewalk from the station. It was the first spacewalk by a Canadian since 2019. They moved a 750-pound roll-out solar array (iROSA), which arrived on SpaceX’s CRS-35 Dragon, to the port side and wired it in. It unrolled to 63 feet on its own stored energy, no motor needed. It’s the second-to-last iROSA. Together they add 20% to 30% more power, which the station needs through its planned 2030 deorbit.
My take
A solar panel that unrolls itself like a tape measure is just cool engineering. Congrats to the crew on the 100th.
God Bless, and Happy hacking!
