Astronauts install high-tech solar panels on ISS in challenging six-hour spacewalk: Watch

Spacewalker astronauts on Sunday equipped the International Space Station (ISS) with new solar panels approximately 63 feet (19 meters) in length overcoming the spacesuit and other hurdles in space. NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet concluded their spacewalk at 2:10 pm EDT, after 6 hours and 28 minutes. 

The astronauts installed the new ISS Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA) on the far end of the left (port) side of the ISS’ backbone truss structure (P6), said NASA. The two French astronauts unfolded the solar array, bolted it into place, and connected cables to the station’s power supply to complete deployment. The wings solely relied on pent-up energy in space once the bolts were released, while its cameras provided the live TV views.  

The spacewalkers also removed and stowed the hardware to release the second iROSA from its flight support structure to be installed on the P6 truss’ 4B power channel in the second spacewalk scheduled for June 25. The space agency is augmenting at least 6 out of the 8 existing power channels with the new solar arrays in order to maintain sufficient power supply for NASA’s exploration technology demonstrations for lunar mission Artemis.

[In this illustration a vertical solar array is being used as a power source on the surface of the Moon. Credits: NASA]

A week ago, NASA  assembled the “most powerful rocket ever built” the Space Launch System (SLS) that will enable astronauts to begin their journey to the moon. The space administration’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) and Jacobs teams at the spaceport’s High Bay 3 finally stacked the various elements of the SLS rocket on top of the mobile launcher inside the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

And now, the two astronauts were seen spacewalking to install the high-tech solar panels so that the ISS was ready with the reliable, sustainable orbital power source. The pair of the astronaut has been spacewalking since December 2000 to get the panels in position but earlier, on June 16, due to the technical glitches with the display and controls on Kimbrough's spacesuit, the duo had to return to the systems. The astronauts were unable to install the cabling and bolts which were essentially required to complete the installation during their spacewalk of seven hours and 15 minutes on that day. 

ISS Mission Control applauds success

On Sunday, however, the duo managed to unfold and align the solar panels as the astronauts in the ISS Mission Control applauded their success. Interestingly, the astronauts had to wait until they were on the night side of the Earth again. While they had traveled to replace the older panels, they weren’t soaking any sunlight and generating power as such. But in course of their waiting, the camera-and-light assembly on Kimbrough’s helmet reportedly became loose despite that he had slipped into the new spacesuit for Sunday’s spacewalk.  

Pesquet and Kimbrough are expected to return to work on the second solar panel delivered by Space X  on Friday this week. “Spacewalks are going to be very challenging, very complex, so we've got to make sure that we're both on the same page for every movement that we do," Kimbrough had said in a live-streamed address on Wednesday ahead of the spacewalk. The procedure is carried out on the ISS under the Earth’s shadow. The new solar panels are expected to boost power onboard ISS by 20 to 30 percent as the ISS will be operating at 215 kilowatts.