NASA assigns Anil Menon to final station solar-array spacewalks

NASA assigned Anil Menon and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk to install the International Space Station’s final two roll-out solar arrays during spacewalks scheduled for October 29 and November 5, 2026, in an October 14 advisory.

Under NASA’s plan, the pair will leave the Quest airlock on October 29 to install and deploy the seventh array on electrical power channel 2A. They will install the eighth and final array on channel 3B on November 5.

Menon was born and raised in Minneapolis to Ukrainian and Indian immigrants, NASA’s public biography records. An emergency medicine physician with aerospace medicine training, he was selected for NASA’s 2021 astronaut class.

NASA’s October 13 cargo-launch release had placed installation later this fall. The new advisory adds the crew names, dates and power-channel assignments to that earlier schedule.

The advisory states that the final pair will complete the station’s power augmentation. NASA projects that all eight roll-out arrays together will raise available power by up to 30%, from 160 kilowatts to about 215 kilowatts. Those are planned benefits; the advisory does not report completed installation.

NASA plans a briefing on the spacewalks for October 20 at 2 p.m. EDT, or 11:30 p.m. IST, from Johnson Space Center in Houston. It will provide further coverage details closer to each operation.