Joshua Kutryk set for first spacewalk as Canadarm2 helps install new solar arrays

LONGUEUIL, Que. —

Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk is scheduled to make his first spacewalk on Thursday, going outside the International Space Station with NASA astronaut Anil Menon to install and deploy new solar panels. ¹²

Kutryk, a colonel, will be the fifth CSA astronaut to conduct a spacewalk outside the station, after Chris Hadfield, Steve MacLean, Dave Williams and David Saint-Jacques. ¹³

The pair are scheduled to go out again on Nov. 5. The two outings will be the 285th and 286th spacewalks in support of station assembly, maintenance and upgrades. ²³

Two new solar arrays

The spacewalks are designed to complete the installation of two new solar arrays. Together with arrays installed earlier, they will increase the station's power generation capacity by up to 30 per cent, the CSA says. ²³

The work will take place as the station circles Earth every 90 minutes at about eight kilometres per second, or 28,000 km/h. Both spacewalks were tested underwater with replicas of station components, including Canadarm2, and with simulators. ²

Kutryk launched to the station on Oct. 1 with his Crew-13 crewmates, NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. ³

Canada's roles on the day

Canadarm2 will help the astronauts pick up each rolled-up solar array from the Mobile Base and move it to its new location, and will serve as a base for one astronaut to stand on. Earlier this month, the arm removed the new arrays from the trunk of a Dragon cargo spacecraft and placed them on the Mobile Base. ²³

Watkins and Delaney will operate the arm from inside the station. The CSA's flight control and engineering teams in Longueuil designed the arm's sequence for the operation and will monitor and support the work in real time from the Robotics Mission Control Centre. ¹²

CSA astronaut Jenni Gibbons will serve as capcom, short for capsule communicator, from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. She will be the main link between experts on the ground and the crew, and most recently held the role of lunar capcom during the Artemis II mission. ¹²

Canadarm2 and Dextre are Canada's contribution to the station and have helped maintain it for more than 25 years, moving supplies and instruments and catching arriving cargo spacecraft. ²

Watching from Montreal

The CSA has invited media to watch the livestream at the Montreal Science Centre, at 2 De la Commune St. W., where Saint-Jacques will provide commentary. The broadcast of the spacewalk begins at 7:30 a.m. ET, and Saint-Jacques is scheduled to answer questions at 9:30 a.m. ET. ¹

On Friday, media will be able to speak with Kutryk during a live space-to-Earth connection, the agency said. ¹

Sources

1. Canadian Space Agency: Media invited to witness CSA astronaut Joshua Kutryk's first spacewalk (media advisory, Oct. 26, 2026)
2. Canadian Space Agency: Canada taking on multiple roles in upcoming spacewalks (Oct. 20, 2026)
3. Canadian Space Agency: CSA astronaut Joshua Kutryk to conduct two spacewalks (Oct. 14, 2026)

This article was reported and written by Ethan Clarke and edited by Daniel Okafor. It draws on the sources above, which are credited in the text. Our standards · Report an error