(LIVE) NASA Astronauts Meir and Menon Begin Spacewalk 96 to Prepare ISS for New Solar Array

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon ventured outside the International Space Station Thursday morning for a spacewalk expected to last roughly six and a half hours, kicking off the first of three planned excursions the space agency will conduct in August to continue upgrading the orbiting laboratory's aging power systems.

The spacewalk, designated U.S. Spacewalk 96, began at approximately 8:35 a.m. Eastern time, with NASA's live coverage starting at 7 a.m. Eastern on the agency's free NASA+ streaming app, as well as on Amazon Prime and YouTube. Netflix, which had provided coverage of the space station's previous spacewalk, did not host a livestream for Thursday's excursion.

Preparing the Station for Its Next Solar Array

Meir and Menon exited the station's Quest airlock to install hardware that will modify the station's 3B power channel, laying the groundwork for the future installation of the next International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array, commonly known as an iROSA. The array Meir and Menon are preparing for will be the seventh of eight such roll-out arrays installed over the station's existing solar panels to boost its overall electrical power output, part of a broader upgrade effort NASA has described as critical to sustaining station operations through its planned final years before deorbiting.

Mission managers gave the pair formal approval to proceed with the spacewalk Wednesday, according to NASA, clearing the way for the astronauts to spend roughly seven hours in the vacuum of space building the modification kit on the station's Starboard 6 truss segment, where the new solar array is slated to be installed later this year.

A First Spacewalk for Menon, a Sixth for Meir

Thursday's excursion marks a significant career milestone for Menon, who is conducting his first-ever spacewalk. Menon, a physician trained in neurobiology at Harvard and holding a medical degree from Stanford, also serves as a mechanical engineer and colonel in the U.S. Space Force. Before joining NASA's 2021 astronaut class, Menon served as SpaceX's first flight surgeon, the physician responsible for certifying crew members as medically fit to fly aboard the company's Demo-2 mission and subsequent Crew Dragon flights. As an emergency medicine physician, he previously served as a first responder following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, and the 2011 Reno Air Show accident. He arrived at the space station aboard the Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft on July 14, launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome alongside Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina.

Meir, meanwhile, is making her sixth career spacewalk, having first traveled to the space station between 2019 and 2020. She most recently conducted a spacewalk on June 30 alongside NASA astronaut Chris Williams. Meir currently serves as commander of Expedition 75 aboard the station. During Thursday's spacewalk, NASA said Meir would be identifiable by the red stripes on her spacesuit, while Menon's suit would remain unmarked, the standard method mission control uses to help distinguish between spacewalking crew members during television coverage.

A Notable Family Milestone

Thursday's spacewalk also carries a distinctive personal footnote for the Menon family. Anil Menon's wife, Anna Menon, a former SpaceX operations engineer, conducted the first commercial spacewalk in history during the Polaris Dawn mission in September 2024. With Anil Menon's spacewalk Thursday, both members of the Menon household will have now conducted a spacewalk, a distinction NASA and spaceflight observers have noted as unusual even among the relatively small community of people who have ventured outside a spacecraft while in orbit.

Part of a Broader August Upgrade Campaign

Thursday's excursion is the first in a series of three spacewalks NASA has scheduled for August as part of an ongoing effort to upgrade the station's solar power infrastructure, replace aging communications equipment, and maintain critical systems aboard the orbiting laboratory. U.S. Spacewalk 97, scheduled for Aug. 13, will focus on replacing a Space-to-Ground communications antenna, the radio system the station relies on to relay voice communications, high-definition video and telemetry data back to mission control. A third spacewalk, U.S. Spacewalk 98, is planned for later in the month and is expected to again feature Meir, this time alongside European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, based on identifications made during a NASA briefing in late July.

Collectively, the three August spacewalks represent the 281st, 282nd and 283rd spacewalks conducted in support of International Space Station assembly, maintenance and upgrades since the station's construction began, according to NASA. Thursday's spacewalk specifically marks the fourth spacewalk conducted at the station so far in 2026, and the third this year to feature an all-NASA astronaut crew.

A Preview Briefing Ahead of the Excursions

NASA held a news conference on July 30 at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston to preview the upcoming series of spacewalks, featuring Bill Spetch, deputy manager of the Commercial, Low Earth Orbit Program, along with spacewalk flight directors Chris Dobbins and Chloe Mehring. During that briefing, officials outlined the broader goals of the August spacewalk campaign, emphasizing the importance of continuing to upgrade the station's power generation capacity as NASA works to sustain operations aboard the aging outpost.

Continuing a Long-Term Power Upgrade Effort

The iROSA program that Thursday's spacewalk supports has been underway for several years, with NASA gradually installing the roll-out solar arrays over the station's original, aging solar panels to boost overall power generation without requiring a full replacement of the station's existing power infrastructure. Thursday's work on the 3B power channel represents a preparatory step ahead of the physical installation of the seventh array, with the eighth and presumably final array in the current upgrade series expected to follow in a subsequent mission.

With Thursday's spacewalk expected to conclude after roughly six and a half to seven hours outside the station, attention will next turn to the Aug. 13 excursion, when a different focus, replacing the station's Space-to-Ground communications antenna, will take priority. Together, the three planned August spacewalks reflect NASA's continued investment in maintaining the International Space Station's operational systems as the agency works to keep the orbiting laboratory functioning through its planned lifespan in the years ahead.