Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk to make first spacewalk at space station
Kutryk will join a NASA astronaut to install new solar arrays, marking the first Canadian spacewalk in seven years.
Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk will conduct his first spacewalk on Thursday, marking the first time a Canadian has ventured outside the International Space Station in seven years. Kutryk, a colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force, will join NASA astronaut Anil Menon to begin installing new solar arrays on the orbiting complex. The spacewalk is scheduled to start at 8 a.m. EDT and last about six hours and 45 minutes. NASA will provide live coverage beginning at 6:30 a.m. EDT.
This will be the first of two spacewalks for Kutryk and Menon, with the second planned for no earlier than Nov. 5. During the two extravehicular activities, the astronauts will deploy the seventh and eighth International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays, known as iROSAs. These new arrays are being installed on top of the station's older solar panels, which have degraded with age. Once all eight iROSAs are operational, the station's power supply will increase from 160 kilowatts to about 215 kilowatts, a boost of roughly 30 percent.
"It's been busy preparing for the upcoming spacewalks," Menon said in a social media post on Oct. 24. The astronauts will be assisted by the station's Canadian-built robotic arm, Canadarm2. Ground controllers recently used Canadarm2 to move the new solar arrays from a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft to a transporter. "It even loosened bolts for us before the spacewalks … I'm grateful for the help," Menon added.
READ MORE: Canadian astronaut prepares for first spacewalk to install station's final solar arrays
READ MORE: Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk describes 'having a blast' on first space mission
During Thursday's spacewalk, Canadarm2 will play a crucial role. Kutryk and Menon will slide an array off its transport rail, and then Menon will get onto a platform on the robotic arm to take hold of the array. From inside the station, NASA astronauts Luke Delaney and Jessica Watkins will operate Canadarm2 to position Menon and the array at the installation site on the station's port side. Each folded array is about 10 feet long and weighs 750 pounds on Earth, according to NASA spacewalk flight director Garrett Hehn.
"We've tried to rotate around the actual center of mass of the arrays, rather than the crew member," Hehn said during an Oct. 20 press conference. "It was a lesson learned from previous EVAs, of how we thought we could make it a little less tiring on Anil." After Menon is in position, Kutryk will move hand-over-hand across the station's structure to join him. The pair will then bolt the new array onto the older one and release it so it can unfurl. Hehn compared the deployment to a snap bracelet, noting the process will take about 10 minutes.
The astronauts must then connect power cables during a period when that part of the station is in darkness to avoid handling live electrical components in sunlight. "We can't have any sun on the arrays, whenever we're handling those hot cables," Hehn said. A jumper cable will be used to combine power from the old and new arrays. The second spacewalk in November will follow a similar procedure to install another array on the station's starboard side, though the final installation will require the astronauts to perform a "leapfrog" maneuver because it is beyond Canadarm2's direct reach.
This spacewalk will be the 100th conducted from the station involving at least one U.S. astronaut and the 285th in the station's overall history. It is the first since Sept. 1. The Canadian Space Agency's last spacewalk was performed by astronaut David Saint-Jacques on April 8, 2019. Kutryk's mission to the station was delayed by two years after he was originally assigned to fly on Boeing's Starliner capsule, which required more testing. Your Space Hamilton reported last week that Kutryk would conduct two spacewalks to finish upgrading the station's power system. Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jenni Gibbons will serve as the capsule communicator, or capcom, for both spacewalks, relaying instructions from mission control to the crew. Gibbons previously served as a capcom for NASA's Artemis II mission and will lead communications for the Artemis III mission next summer. The station is currently home to seven astronauts, including Kutryk, Menon, Watkins, Delaney, and three Russian cosmonauts.
With files from Space and Yahoo News