CSA astronaut Joshua Kutryk and NASA astronaut Anil Menon conducted a spacewalk on October 29, 2026, installing a new roll-out solar array on the International Space Station while orbiting 267 miles above the South Atlantic Ocean. The pair also completed preparatory work for their next spacewalk, scheduled for November 5, 2026. That upcoming EVA will install the eighth and final roll-out solar array — the capstone of a multi-year campaign to modernize the station's power infrastructure. Together, the eight arrays will increase the ISS's available power by up to 30%, a substantial generative upgrade to a platform that has been continuously inhabited since November 2000. The power upgrade matters because the ISS's original solar arrays, some dating back two decades, have degraded with age and micrometeorite damage. The roll-out arrays, manufactured by Boeing and Redwire (formerly Deployable Space Systems), mount directly over the degraded originals — a retrofit solution that avoids the far more expensive and complex option of full panel replacement. This is a genuinely multinational effort. A Canadian astronaut installing hardware on an American-led station built with Russian, European, and Japanese modules underscores that the ISS remains one of the few functioning examples of cooperative international infrastructure. Kutryk's participation reflects Canada's continued investment in human spaceflight capability through the CSA. The 30% power boost is not abstract. Additional power directly enables more simultaneous science experiments, supports commercial crew operations, and provides margin for the station's growing roster of visiting vehicles. Power is the binding constraint on what the ISS can do; expanding it expands capability across every user. With seven of eight arrays now installed and the final panel days away, this is infrastructure work in the most literal sense — unsexy, high-skill labor that extends the useful life of a $150 billion asset. The station's operational mandate currently runs through 2030, and these arrays are a prerequisite for reaching that date with full scientific capacity.
