NASA Sets Three August Spacewalks to Upgrade ISS Systems

NASA schedules three August spacewalks for station power, communications, and maintenance work

NASA said it will carry out three U.S. spacewalks from the International Space Station in August, with the work focused on power upgrades, communications hardware, and cable routing needed for ongoing station operations. The agency also said it will hold a preview news conference on Thursday, July 30, from Johnson Space Center in Houston ahead of the series.

The plan lays out a tightly sequenced set of excursions outside the station. Each one addresses a different part of the orbiting laboratory’s long-term upkeep, but together they show how NASA is balancing near-term maintenance with preparations for future hardware deliveries and the eventual end-of-life management of the station.

According to NASA, the first of the three outings is scheduled for Thursday, August 6. NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon are set to leave the Quest airlock to install hardware that will modify the station’s 3B power channel. That work is intended to prepare the outpost for a future International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array, or IROSA, that NASA said is scheduled for delivery later this year.

The array would be the seventh IROSA sent to the station. NASA said the additional generating capacity is meant to support critical station operations, including the station’s safe and controlled deorbit. That detail places the August work in a broader operational context: the ISS is still being maintained as a functioning research platform, but infrastructure decisions are now also being tied to the station’s eventual retirement.

First August spacewalk centers on future solar array installation

The August 6 excursion is expected to begin at 8 a.m. after NASA starts live coverage at 6:30 a.m. The agency said the spacewalk should last about six and a half hours. Meir will serve as spacewalk crew member 1 and wear a suit with red stripes, while Menon will serve as crew member 2 in an unmarked suit.

For Meir, the excursion will be her sixth spacewalk. For Menon, NASA said it will be his first. That pairing matters operationally because station spacewalks often combine experienced crew members with first-time walkers when tasks are complex but manageable within established procedures. The August 6 mission appears to fit that pattern, with a clearly defined hardware installation job tied to a future power system enhancement.

The solar array effort reflects a long-running campaign to refresh station power capability as existing systems age. Roll-out arrays have been a notable part of recent ISS modernization because they can add power without requiring a full redesign of the original truss structure. NASA’s description of the work indicates that the upcoming excursion is not about installing the new array itself, but about setting up the station so that later installation can proceed.

Second outing targets a critical station communications antenna

The second planned spacewalk is set for Thursday, August 13. NASA said two astronauts will replace a Space-to-Ground antenna on the orbital complex. The agency described the antenna as a critical communications system used to transmit data and high-speed communications between Mission Control in Houston and the space station.

That makes the August 13 task one of the most operationally sensitive pieces of the month’s EVA schedule. Communications links are foundational to station safety, coordination, and science operations. Although NASA did not identify the astronaut pair for that specific outing in the advisory, the agency made clear that the antenna replacement is part of essential station support rather than discretionary improvement work.

Hardware replacements of this kind also underscore the age and complexity of the ISS. Many core systems have now been in use for years, which means station maintenance increasingly includes targeted swaps of high-value components that cannot be allowed to degrade without backup planning. In practical terms, the antenna job shows that even as NASA prepares for future commercial low Earth orbit platforms, the existing station still depends on a steady cadence of hands-on external maintenance.

Late-August EVA continues deorbit and maintenance preparations

The third spacewalk is scheduled for Tuesday, August 25. NASA said the crew members for U.S. spacewalk 98 will connect power channel cables and data relay systems as part of ongoing maintenance. The agency added that the work includes preparations related to the station’s future deorbit.

That phrasing is significant because it shows how today’s station maintenance is overlapping with planning for the program’s final chapter. NASA did not frame the deorbit-related work as an immediate transition away from routine operations. Instead, it presented it as part of the same technical continuum as power upgrades and communications support: the station must keep operating safely now while also being configured for a controlled end later.

The August 25 outing therefore appears to be both corrective and preparatory. Cable and relay connections are usually less visible than new hardware installations, but they are often what makes larger system changes usable in practice. By bundling that work into a formal EVA, NASA is signaling that the tasks are important enough to require dedicated astronaut time outside the station.

NASA uses preview briefing to frame a busy month of EVA operations

Before the first excursion, NASA plans to host a preview briefing at 2 p.m. EDT on July 30. Participants are set to include Bill Spetch, deputy manager of the Commercial Low Earth Orbit Program, along with spacewalk flight directors Chris Dobbins and Chloe Mehring. Their involvement suggests the discussion will likely connect the immediate operational details of the EVAs with broader planning for station support and the transition to future low Earth orbit infrastructure.

The three-spacewalk sequence illustrates the current reality of the ISS program. The station remains a live operational asset that still needs substantial investment in external hardware, power systems, and communications. At the same time, NASA is now openly linking some of that work to deorbit planning, a reminder that the orbital laboratory has entered a period where maintenance and long-range transition planning increasingly happen at once.

For NASA, August’s EVA schedule is more than a cluster of routine maintenance windows. It is a demonstration of how the agency is managing an aging but still critical platform: extending its usefulness, protecting its core systems, and laying technical groundwork for both the next hardware delivery and the station’s eventual controlled end-of-service.

This article is based on reporting by NASA. Read the original article.