NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen is pictured in his Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or spacesuit, exiting the International Space Station’s Quest airlock and beginning a spacewalk on April 28, 2023. Credit: NASA
NASA astronauts Bowen and Hoburg have begun a spacewalk to install an IROSA to expand power generation on the International Space Station. The new arrays will increase power production by 30%.
Expedition 69 Flight Engineers Steve Bowen and Woody Hoburg of NASA began a spacewalk at 9:25 a.m. EDT (6:25 a,m, PDT) today, June 9, to install an IROSA (International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array) to augment power generation for the 1A power channel on the station’s starboard truss structure.
Bowen, designated extravehicular crew member 1 (EV1), is wearing a suit with red stripes. Hoburg, designated extravehicular crewmember 2 (EV 2), is in an unmarked suit. Coverage of the spacewalk continues on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.
NASA astronauts (from left) Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg will install a set of new roll-out solar arrays on the space station during today’s spacewalk. Credit: NASA
To kick off the spacewalk, which is expected to last about seven hours, the astronauts exited the International Space Station‘s Quest airlock. Bowen and Hoburg will install an IROSA (International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array) to augment power generation for the 1A power channel on the station’s starboard truss structure.
The new arrays are 60 feet long by 20 feet wide (18.2 meters by 6 meters) and will shade a little more than half of the original arrays, which are 112 feet long by 39 feet wide. Each new IROSA will produce more than 20 kilowatts of electricity, and once all are installed, will enable a 30% increase in power production over the station’s current arrays.
The spacewalk is the ninth for Bowen and the first for Hoburg.
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