NASA has set the dates for the last two pieces of a power upgrade on the International Space Station. In a media advisory published October 14, the agency said US spacewalks 100 and 101 are planned for Thursday, October 29 and Thursday, November 5. Both will install new roll-out solar arrays, and the second will finish the job.
The crew is the same for both. NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk will leave the station through the Quest airlock. On October 29 they will install and deploy an International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array, or IROSA, on the station's 2A power channel, the seventh such array. On November 5 they will install the eighth and final IROSA, on the 3B channel.
Why the station needs more power
NASA describes the work as solar array installation and "power augmentation". It says the full set of eight arrays will raise available power by up to 30 percent, taking generation capacity from 160 kilowatts to about 215 kilowatts.
The more interesting line in the advisory is about what that power is for. NASA says the seventh array will support critical station operations, "including the station's safe and controlled deorbit." The station is not just being kept comfortable for science in its later years. It is being prepared for the end of its life.
That end has been in the planning for a while. In June 2024, TechCrunch reported that NASA picked SpaceX to build the US Deorbit Vehicle, under a contract worth up to US$843 million, to bring the station down, with disposal then targeted for 2030. The station and the vehicle will both break apart on re-entry, so the descent has to be steered away from populated areas. That 2024 timeline is the most recent one cited here; NASA's advisory doesn't restate a deorbit date.
My read, and this is analysis rather than anything NASA has said: the upgrade is as much about margin as about capacity. A station that has to stay powered and controllable right up to a guided re-entry needs reliable power at the end, not just in its prime. Topping up generation now is one way to buy that.
The numbers behind the spacewalks
These won't be the station's 100th and 101st spacewalks overall. The numbers count US spacewalks. NASA says they will be the 285th and 286th spacewalks in support of station assembly, maintenance and upgrades.
The advisory doesn't give start times for either spacewalk. NASA says it will share more coverage details closer to each operation on its live events page and the station blog.
What happens next
Before either spacewalk, NASA will hold a preview news conference at 2 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, October 20, from Johnson Space Center in Houston. It will feature Gaurang Patel, operations integration manager for the Low Earth Orbit Program, and Garrett Hehn, spacewalk flight director. NASA plans to stream it, and US-based media wanting to attend had until 3 p.m. on October 19 to contact the Johnson newsroom.
After that, it is down to the two spacewalks themselves. If both go to plan, the eighth and final IROSA is in place on November 5.
Reporting notes