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Indian-origin NASA astronaut Anil Menon completed his first extravehicular activity on 6 August 2026 outside the International Space Station.
The operation, designated US Spacewalk 96, lasted 6 hours and 27 minutes.
Menon worked alongside Jessica Meir, who was performing her sixth spacewalk, on the Starboard 6 truss segment.
They installed mounting hardware on the 3B power channel and routed cabling for a future Roll-Out Solar Array.
It was the 281st spacewalk dedicated to ISS assembly and maintenance.
Extravehicular activity is the term for work carried out by astronauts outside a spacecraft. On the International Space Station, EVAs are used for assembly, maintenance, repairs and the installation of equipment that cannot be handled from inside. Astronauts exit through an airlock — on the US segment, the Quest airlock — wearing pressurised suits that supply oxygen, regulate temperature and protect against micrometeoroid impacts. Because the suit is effectively a personal spacecraft and the work is done in vacuum while orbiting at high speed, EVAs are among the most carefully rehearsed operations in human spaceflight, which is why a first spacewalk is treated as a career milestone.
Simple Analogy: It is the difference between servicing a ship from inside the hull and going over the side in a diving suit while the ship is still moving.
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Work carried out by astronauts outside a spacecraft, commonly called a spacewalk.
A deployable solar power system added to the ISS to increase electrical generation as original arrays degrade.
The structural backbone of the ISS to which solar arrays, radiators and equipment are mounted; the Starboard 6 segment was the worksite here.
Layered thermal shielding wrapped around spacecraft components to control temperature in the extremes of orbit.