NASA astronaut Nicole Mann and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata completed their spacewalk at 3:35 p.m. ET at 7 hours 21 minutes. Mann and Wakata completed most of the work from the previous spacewalk and installing a similar assembly for the platform to house the International Space Station’s Deployable Solar Array (iROSA) array for the station’s Power Channel 1B. iROSA kit platform for power channel 1A. Due to time constraints, plans to secure the final support for the second platform have been delayed until a future spacewalk. This does not affect the operation of the space station.

The installation is part of a series of spacewalks to power the International Space Station’s power channels with new iROSAs. Four iROSAs have been installed so far, and two more will be mounted on platforms installed during this spacewalk in the future.

It was the 258th spacewalk to support the assembly, upgrade, and maintenance of the space station, the first spacewalk of 2023, and the first spacewalk for both astronauts.

Mann and Wakata live and work at the Microgravity Laboratory in the middle of a planned six-month science mission to advance science and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic research missions, including NASA’s Artemis mission to the Moon.