Spacewalkers begin final phase of a space station upgrade

Two astronauts stepped outside the International Space Station for the first of two spacewalks, one week apart, to complete a complex upgrade to the aging power system. Two astronauts stepped outside the International Space Station Thursday for the first of two spacewalks, one week apart, to install a final pair of roll-out solar blankets that will complete a complex, years-long upgrade of the lab's aging power system. Floating in the station's Quest airlock, NASA's Anil Menon and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk switched their suits to battery power at 7:57 a.m. EDT, officially kicking off a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk, the eighth so far this year and the 285th since ISS assembly began in 1998.

The spacewalk began in orbital darkness, prompting Kutryk to observe "the night is dark and full of wonders." The goal of the excursion and a follow-on spacewalk next week is to complete an upgrade that began in 2021 when the first of eight ISS roll-out solar arrays, or IROSAs, was installed. The IROSAs are smaller than the station's original solar panels but they are more efficient, featuring state-of-the-art solar cells. Before the first IROSA was installed, the original arrays were generating about 152 kilowatts of power. The six IROSAs installed to date have boosted that up to about 200 kilowatts. With the final two sets,