Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk and NASA astronaut Anil Menon are scheduled to leave the International Space Station's Quest airlock at 8 a.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 29, to install and unfurl a new roll-out solar array^1,2.

Space.com reported it would be Kutryk's first spacewalk and the first by a Canadian astronaut in more than seven years¹. Spaceflight Now framed the same outing as the seventh of eight International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array, or iROSA, installations in a campaign NASA began in 2021².

The compact panels sit on top of the station's original solar wings, which have degraded after more than two decades in orbit^1,2. NASA has said completing all eight iROSAs would raise available power from 160 kilowatts to about 215 kilowatts, a gain of roughly 30 percent^1,2.

Space.com said a second spacewalk by the same pair is planned no sooner than Nov. 5 to install the eighth and final array¹. Spaceflight Now said that outing is planned Nov. 5 if all goes to plan, and would cap work meant to support station operations through a planned decommissioning in 2030, including a controlled deorbit².

Kutryk is a colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force¹. Spaceflight Now identified Menon as 43 and Kutryk as 44². The last Canadian spacewalk Space.com cited was David Saint-Jacques on April 8, 2019, with NASA astronaut Anne McClain¹.

Space.com said Kutryk and Menon would slide an array off a transport rail, then Menon would ride a Canadarm2 platform so NASA astronauts Luke Delaney and Jessica Watkins could move him and the hardware to the port installation site for the 2A electrical-power channel¹.

NASA spacewalk flight director Garrett Hehn said at an Oct. 20 briefing that each folded array is about 10 feet (3 meters) long and weighs 750 pounds (340 kilograms) on Earth, calling the units "a lot to handle"¹. Hehn said NASA planned maneuvers around the arrays' center of mass rather than the crew member¹.

Spaceflight Now reported the final pair of iROSAs arrived at the station rolled on a carrier in the unpressurized trunk of a SpaceX Cargo Dragon after a Falcon 9 launch Oct. 13 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station².

Spaceflight Now said it planned live coverage starting at 6:30 a.m. EDT². Whether the Thursday EVA starts on time, and whether both remaining arrays deploy as planned, had not been confirmed at filing.