Spacewalkers install final add-on solar array, completing space station power upgrade

November 5, 2026 / 4:56 PM EST / CBS News

Completing a complex upgrade five years in the making, two spacewalking astronauts on Thursday mounted an eighth and final roll-out solar wing on the International Space Station, boosting the lab's power output to compensate for the age-related degradation of its original arrays.

NASA began the power-system upgrade in 2021 when two spacewalkers installed the first ISS roll-out solar array, or IROSA, at the base of one of the original eight wings. Six additional panels were attached during subsequent spacewalks, with the most recent installation carried out last week during a spacewalk by NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk.

The duo ventured back outside Thursday to install the eighth and final IROSA on the far right end of the station's power truss, beginning the extravehicular activity, or EVA — NASA speak for "spacewalk" — at 8:36 a.m. ET.

The final two IROSAs were delivered to the station aboard a SpaceX Cargo Dragon capsule earlier this month, with each one folded in half and stowed in the ship's unpressurized trunk section. The lab's robot arm mounted both rolled-up blankets on the left side of the station's power truss to…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/world/