LONGUEUIL, Que. – Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk, alongside NASA’s Anil Menon, completed a seven-hour, 11-minute extravehicular activity Thursday (Oct. 29) as part of a five-year effort to boost International Space Station (ISS) power.
It was the first Canadian Space Agency (CSA) spacewalk in more than seven years, following David Saint-Jacques’ spacewalk on April 8, 2019.
“The night is dark and full of wonder,” Menon — on his fourth spacewalk — said at 8:05 a.m. ET as he opened the thermal cover on top of the Quest airlock hatch. (Menon may have been using a more positive take of a famous line from Game of Thrones: “The night is dark and full of terrors.”)
Menon exited Quest at 8:07 a.m. ET Kutryk, when told by Mission Control he was clear to egress the airlock, responded “Happy go” before following his crewmate outside at 8:13 a.m. ET Kutryk’s excursion was the fifth overall by a CSA astronaut after Chris Hadfield (2001), Steve MacLean (2006), Dave Williams (2007) and Saint-Jacques (2019).
The crew were tasked with installing the seventh of eight ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays (IROSA) on top of older hardware, on the P4 truss. Astronauts have been installing IROSAs periodically since 2021 to (upon completion) boost station power by 30% to 215 kilowatts, as the existing solar arrays are decades old and naturally degrading with age. The IROSAs can be difficult in the vacuum of space, but on this occasion everything largely went to plan, in that the bolts did not unduly stick and the array unfurled as planned.
As the crew wrapped up their excursion, Kutryk paid tribute to his crewmates as well as the ground-support team. “ISS is building towards future exploration missions, deep space and beyond. That’s why we’re doing this,” he added. “Today was a step forward [for] the future of space station. But it’s also another step of many forward, towards the EVA that teams will hopefully be doing on the surface of the Moon soon.”
Watch a replay of the spacewalk
Ahead of the timeline, with Canadian support
Kutryk and Menon had ample time to finish get-ahead tasks, such as loosening bolts, for their next planned excursion on Nov. 5 that will unfurl the last IROSA. The astronauts were running ahead of schedule for most of the spacewalk, allowing them to adapt easily as circumstances shifted. For example, roughly three hours in they temporarily stopped power-cable-installation work due to incoming sunlight; the hot cables are not able to be worked when the ISS orbit brings the station (and the arrays) into the sun.
Saint-Jacques had a noon-hour interview with SpaceQ at the Montreal Science Centre shortly after the astronauts temporarily retasked to bolt installation in the sun. He noted the astronauts “have a to-do list, just in case. They’re not going to be waiting around.”
The IROSA spacewalks have been a decade in the planning, with extensive Canadian involvement.
- Saint-Jacques himself worked on some of the IROSA procedures years ago “in the pool” (the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory) in Houston, he told SpaceQ.
- CSA astronaut Jenni Gibbons, capcom for Thursday’s spacewalk, also served as ground IV (the guide on the ground to the ISS crew) on five previous IROSA spacewalks, agency officials told SpaceQ.
- For this spacewalk, Canadarm2—under operation by ground controllers, including at CSA headquarters in Longueuil, Que. — was used to remove the IROSAs from the SpaceX Cargo Dragon trunk that brought them to the station, and also preloosened some bolts.
- Canadarm2 also ferried Menon, who was carrying the 750-pound (340-kilogram) IROSA in his hands, to the installation site under the control of NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins inside ISS.
Saint-Jacques praised how Kutryk’s mission has been going so far since Kutryk and Crew-13 arrived at the ISS on Oct. 1. “Josh’s mission is one of the slickest and most efficient,” Saint-Jacques said, when comparing the time allocated for science versus maintenance tasks. By that metric, the astronaut added, ISS astronauts are far more efficient today than they were when Saint-Jacques was on station for 204 days in 2018-19.
“We should all be very, very proud that Canada is part of this,” Saint-Jacques added. “What we get out of it is fantastic—in knowledge, in industrial benefits, and national posture. Gobsmacking amazement for kids’ motivation; space has this almost magic power, because it’s so hard, and so cool.”
The ISS ‘is actually very robust’ as it approaches retirement
Looking to after Kutryk’s mission concludes, Saint-Jacques pointed to the current ISS retirement in 2030, although there is consortium consideration to keep extending the station if funding, ISS health and other priorities allow.
Aside from a leak that developed in the Russian Zvezda service module’s transfer chamber (PrK) section of the station, Saint-Jacques said the station “is actually very robust” and procedures remain efficient because “a lot of the kinks have been ironed out.” He continued, “So on one hand, we know the end is nigh, but it’s [the ISS is] so useful it delivers. So, an interesting trade will be made.”
Looking ahead to when the ISS retires, Saint-Jacques said: “That’s another brave new world on our doorstep.” NASA is funding commercial stations that intend to be online around the time that ISS retires. Astronaut assignment details for that timeframe, however, are still being figured out.
The same is true on the ISS. No one has said yet if a CSA astronaut will return to ISS after Kutryk. Nominally, CSA astronauts fly to space on ISS every six years given available slots and the agency’s 2.3% station contribution with Canadarm2 and other ISS robotics. (Kutryk’s was supposed to be in 2024, but delayed two years due to a spacecraft swap.)
That would put the next slot in 2030, but in August the CSA said discussions with NASA are ongoing in that respect. Also, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said at Space Canada’s SpaceBound this month that she is hoping to, in the next year, announce a mission assignment for Gibbons; where that would be, and with what vendor, has not been disclosed.