Human Spaceflight

Anil Menon prepares spacesuits for station solar-array spacewalks

NASA’s October 19 station log records cooling-loop cleaning and a crew conference. Array installations remain scheduled for October 29 and November 5.

20 October 2026 at 9:50 am ISTBy Mission Desk2 min read

Updated 20 October 2026 at 9:50 am IST: Follow-up: NASA’s October 19 station log adds spacesuit cooling-loop maintenance and a pre-spacewalk crew conference to the October 14 assignment announcement.

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Anil Menon outside the International Space Station during an August 6, 2026 spacewalk. This earlier NASA photograph identifies the astronaut; it does not show the October 19 spacesuit-maintenance work. Credit: NASA.

Anil Menon cleaned cooling loops in two spacesuits aboard the International Space Station on October 19, 2026, as he and Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk prepared for solar-array spacewalks, NASA’s station log records. The work took place inside the Quest airlock.

Kutryk then filled the suits’ tanks and liquid cooling and ventilation garments with clean water, according to the same log. NASA describes the cooling loops as keeping the suits thermally conditioned and their wearers comfortable during a spacewalk.

Menon and Kutryk also joined NASA astronauts Luke Delaney and Jessica Watkins for a conference with mission controllers about the upcoming spacewalks. The October 19 log adds maintenance and crew coordination to the assignments NASA published on October 14.

NASA’s plan calls for Menon and Kutryk to install and deploy a roll-out solar array on the station’s 2A electrical power channel on October 29, followed by the eighth and final array on channel 3B on November 5. Both installations remain scheduled operations.

Menon was born and raised in Minneapolis to Ukrainian and Indian immigrants, NASA’s biography records. The Indian-origin astronaut joined NASA’s 2021 astronaut class and is an emergency medicine physician.

NASA plans to preview the spacewalks at a news conference from Johnson Space Center in Houston on October 20 at 2 p.m. EDT, or 11:30 p.m. IST. The agency’s advisory states that further coverage details will follow closer to each operation.

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