Human Spaceflight

Menon and Kutryk prepare cuff checklists for solar-array spacewalk

NASA’s October 27 log adds printed procedures and tool organisation to the astronauts’ preparation. Their station power upgrade remains scheduled for October 29.

28 October 2026 at 9:49 am ISTBy Mission Desk1 min read

Updated 28 October 2026 at 9:49 am IST: Follow-up: NASA’s October 27 log adds cuff-checklist printing and tool organisation to the October 26 emergency-jetpack checks previously reported. The October 29 installation remains planned.

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The International Space Station’s main and roll-out solar arrays above city lights in the southern United States, in the photograph accompanying NASA’s October 26 operations log. This identifying image does not show the cuff-checklist work or the planned October 29 installation. Credit: NASA.

Anil Menon and Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk printed procedures for their planned solar-array spacewalk and put them into small books to wear on their spacesuit cuffs, NASA’s October 27, 2026, station log records. The checklist preparation comes ahead of their scheduled October 29 excursion from the International Space Station.

The two astronauts also organised installation tools inside the Quest airlock, according to the same log. Their planned task is to install a roll-out solar array on the station’s port-side truss.

The cuff-checklist work adds to the October 26 preparation covered in our previous report. NASA’s earlier log recorded checks of the emergency jetpacks’ fuel, batteries and thrusters, along with a review of the Canadarm2 robotic arm movements needed for the installation.

Menon is an Indian-origin NASA astronaut. His agency biography states that he was born and raised in Minneapolis to Ukrainian and Indian immigrants.

NASA schedules the spacewalk for 8 a.m. EDT on October 29, or 5:30 p.m. IST, with a planned duration of six hours and 45 minutes. Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney are to help with the spacesuits and operate Canadarm2. The installation remains planned; the October 27 account documents preparation.

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