- American and French Astronauts deployed a 19m solar panel at the ISS.
- The second array is set to be deployed on Friday.
- The 20-year-old space station is receiving new solar panels to augment the power supply.
French and American astronauts have completed a six-hour spacewalk to install new solar panels to boost power supplies to the International Space Station (ISS).
French astronaut Thomas Pesquet and NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough arrived on the space station in late April. Both men who took part in the eighth spacewalk of the year outside the International Space Station completed the deployment of a new ISS Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA) on the far end of the left (port) side of the station’s backbone truss structure (P6). Kimbrough and Pesquet successfully unfolded the solar array, bolted it into place, and connected cables to the station’s power supply to complete deployment.
The new solar wing, the first of five, will provide the station with additional power as more experiments and visitors to the space station increase. The panels, which are 19 metres (60 foot), were delivered to the ISS earlier in the month by an uncrewed SpaceX flight. The panels will provide energy for daily operations and the research and science projects carried out on the ISS. The lifespan of the panels is estimated at 15 years. Both astronauts will install the second panel on Friday.