Overview
- NASA announced on Monday that Menon will perform three extravehicular activities with Jessica Meir on August 6, August 13, and August 25 to upgrade the International Space Station.
- The scheduled tasks include replacing a critical Space-to-Ground communications antenna, connecting power-channel and data-relay cables, and swapping a docking navigational aid on the Harmony module.
- Those hardware changes are explicitly intended to ready the station for installation of International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays (IROSA), which add electrical capacity without replacing the main wings.
- Menon arrived at the station on July 14 on Soyuz MS-29 for an about eight-month mission that mixes station operations, experiments, technology demonstrations, and these forthcoming spacewalks.
- Beyond immediate repairs, the work will strengthen high-speed links with Mission Control, improve visiting-vehicle docking reliability, and help preserve the station’s ability to end operations in a controlled deorbit.