Menon and Adenot install ISS spare antenna, completing deferred repair

NASA astronaut Anil Menon and European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot installed and connected a spare Space-to-Ground antenna outside the International Space Station on August 25, completing the repair that their August 18 spacewalk had left unfinished. NASA said the pair ended U.S. Spacewalk 98 at 2:57 p.m. EDT after six hours and 30 minutes outside. Initial checks of the newly installed antenna showed good power and data transmission, NASA said, while flight controllers continued testing overnight.

The outcome changes the status described in this publication’s August 20 report on U.S. Spacewalk 97. Menon and Adenot had removed the failed antenna then, but electrical connections and bolts took longer than planned, leaving no time to mount the spare. The old unit was temporarily tied down on the station’s Z1 truss, and the high-speed link continued through the remaining working antenna.

A repair deferred by one week

NASA scheduled the follow-up spacewalk specifically to finish the replacement. Its August 20 plan said Menon would ride the Canadarm2 robotic arm to retrieve the spare from an external platform while Adenot released it. The pair were then to install it on Z1 above the Unity module and make the electrical and data connections needed to activate it for high-speed transmissions with Mission Control.

That planned sequence was carried out on August 25, according to NASA’s completion report: Menon and Adenot installed and connected the spare antenna, then secured the failed unit to a spare-parts platform on the truss. NASA described the antenna as a critical link for high-speed data transmission between Mission Control Center in Houston and the orbital complex. It did not report a new problem during the installation.

ESA’s account adds the physical steps behind the swap. It said the spare had been stored on External Stowage Platform 3 since 2009. After Menon brought it to Z1 using Canadarm2, Adenot cleaned and lubricated the bolt inserts; the astronauts mounted and secured the antenna, made electrical connections, removed transport locks from its gimbal and installed a thermal shield.

What the installation restores

The replacement addresses a specific communications-maintenance problem, rather than a station-wide outage. NASA had said before the first August spacewalk that the task was to replace an old high-speed data and communications antenna on Z1. In its August 18 completion update, the agency said one Space-to-Ground antenna remained fully functional after the failed unit was removed, allowing high-data-rate communications to continue while the spare awaited installation.

With the spare now installed and connected, the maintenance work that was deferred on August 18 is no longer open. ESA had described the August 25 objective as restoring the station’s full antenna redundancy. NASA’s immediate report was more limited: it confirmed good initial power and data transmission and said ground controllers would continue testing to ensure full functionality. The agency’s August 26 station update referred to the installation as complete but did not publish a separate final test result.

The August 25 outing was Menon’s third career spacewalk and Adenot’s second. NASA counted it as the 283rd spacewalk supporting station assembly, maintenance and upgrades. ESA said its account of the same EVA marked Adenot’s second outing and the 32nd conducted by a European astronaut. Those programme counts are context for the repair; the operational result is the installation and connection of the spare link.

Menon’s material India connection

Menon is a NASA astronaut whose public biography says he was born and raised in Minneapolis to Ukrainian and Indian immigrants. NASA also says he launched to the station aboard Soyuz MS-29 on July 14 for an approximately eight-month mission. His role in both August antenna EVAs makes this a diaspora-linked development, rather than a story selected merely because of a name or passing India reference.

The two spacewalkers split the work between the station’s robotic arm and hand-over-hand movement along its exterior. ESA said NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway operated Canadarm2 from inside the station while Menon rode the arm with the spare antenna to Z1; Adenot moved independently to the worksite. They later moved the failed antenna from its temporary tie-down to permanent storage before returning through the Quest airlock.

The next work outside

NASA’s August 26 update moved the crew’s attention to a September 1 spacewalk. Adenot and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir are scheduled to replace a visiting-spacecraft navigational aid, install jumper cables for data-relay systems, prepare the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer for future upgrades and replace a high-definition camera. NASA had previously said it would decide whether that early-September outing was needed after the antenna installation; the next-day update lists it as scheduled.

For the antenna story, the meaningful update is narrow and verifiable: the spare was installed, connected and initially showed power and data transmission on August 25, while the failed unit was placed on the truss spare-parts platform. NASA’s public record supports that completed maintenance outcome. It does not, as of the August 26 update, provide a more detailed public account of the overnight test results or any subsequent antenna performance data.