Expedition 69 Flight Engineers Stephen Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg began their spacewalk (US EVA-87) from the Quest airlock on 9 June at 1325 GMT. Their mission was to install an IROSA (International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array) to augment power generation for the 1A power channel on the ISS’s starboard truss structure (S4). After assistance from Emirati astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi, at the controls of the Canadarm2 robotic arm from inside the space station, to place the iROSA into position, Bowen and Hoburg then waited for the space station to move into Earth’s shadow before they attached the cables connecting the new iROSA with the station’s legacy 1A power channel solar array.
Astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg install another iROSA. Courtesy: NASA TV.
Bowen and Hoburg then released bolts to unfold the iROSA from its launch configuration and secured the bolts holding it in place. They then proceeded to deploy the new array, by releasing two more bolts, before the energy stored by the rolled-up carbon composite booms caused the iROSA to unroll on its own to its full length, 18.2 metres (6 metres wide). Hoburg then completed the installation on the 1A power channel by releasing two bolts to tension the new array.
After a few get-ahead tasks, in preparation for the next scheduled EVA on 15 June, the astronauts returned to the Quest airlock where they closed the hatch at 1922 GMT and repressurization commenced at 1928 GMT, concluding their EVA after 6 hours and 3 minutes. This spacewalk was Hoburg’s first, and Bowen’s ninth EVA in total.
