NASA Releases Time-Lapse Video of Solar Panel Installation at ISS

Space explorers Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency have concluded their second spacewalk in four days, ending on Sunday, June 20.

ISS Astronauts Installed New Solar Arrays While Spacewalking

The pair took a spacewalk to install a solar array, which scales 60 feet in length and 10 feet in width, at the International Space Station ISS. The installation is among the progressing work to redesign the satellite's energy frameworks.

In the span of 6 hours and 28 minutes, Kimbrough and Pesquet completed the spacewalk, officially called extravehicular activity or EVA, at exactly 2:00 PM. This EVA serves as the eighth successful ISS spacewalk this year.

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The space station's Roll-Out Solar Array iROSA was fixed to the end of the left side of the station's spine support structure. A brief time after the spacewalk finished, NASA published a time-lapse video showing the solar array spreading out.

NASA reports that Kimbrough and Pesquet effortlessly unfurled and bolted the sun-based energy panel. They are also able to associate links to the ISS power supply, completing the deployment successfully. The space explorers eliminated and stowed equipment to give way to delivering the second iROSA from the flight support structure. The two astronomers will set to proceed to work on the following solar panel installment that will be conducted this June 25.

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Unfolding of ISS Solar Arrays Begins the Upgrade of the NASA Satellite

The ISS team will attach six new solar panels, which were delivered earlier this year through the Cargo Dragon spacecraft, a part of SpaceX's resupply mission. The reason why the arrays are folded was for them to fit inside the Dragon cargo.

ISS vice president and Boeing program director John Mullhollan provided the engineering assistance in partnership with NASA. He stated that newly installed batteries, which were also deployed last year, will have a great impact on the ISS endeavors. The power supply will relay solidified sustainable energy that will last for a decade, reports Digital Trends.

The conducted spacewalk was the fourth EVA for Pesquet and the eighth for Kimbrough. The walk was fourth for both astronauts. NASA records show that the spacewalk for Kimbrough is now clocking a total of 52 hours and 43 minutes, and Pesquet having 26 hours and 15 minutes.

Until this point in time, the ISS crewmembers have already completed a total of 240 spacewalks intended for gathering and upkeep of the space lab/satellite station, which circles Earth 250 miles above the surface. It implies that spacewalkers have now spent a sum of 63 days and 56 minutes working on the hovering station.

In November 2020, the space station had already exceeded the 20-year milestone of human's precedence on space. This milestone includes many studies and technological advancements that helped various researches in and out of Earth, including the anticipated voyage to Mars and our return to the Moon. In addition to the current projects, many upcoming experiments will be supervised soon at the ISS.