NASA astronaut Anil Menon to conduct his first spacewalk with veteran Jessica Meir on August 6

Two NASA astronauts are preparing to step out of the International Space Station (ISS) on August 6 for a spacewalk. Station commander Jessica Meir and debutant Anil Menon are scheduled to conduct the spacewalk on August 6 to “continue upgrading solar arrays, replace a communications antenna, and connect power and data cables in support of space station operations.”

The duo will “modify the station’s 3B power channel and prepare it for the future installation of an International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array (IROSA),” NASA said in a statement. “The solar array, scheduled for delivery later this year, will be the seventh IROSA and will provide additional power to support critical station operations, including its safe and controlled deorbit,” the agency further said.  

The 96th US spacewalk to date will be the sixth for Meir and the first for Menon and last about six and a half hours. It is scheduled to begin at 8:35 am EDT but NASA will begin its live coverage on Amazon Prime, X, YouTube, and NASA+ at 7 am. During the Extravehicular Activity, or EVA, Meir (crew member 1) will wear a suit with red stripes, whereas Menon (crew member 2) will wear an unmarked suit. Menon arrived at the station on July 14 with Russian cosmonauts Pyrotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard the Soyuz rocket for the MS-29 mission.  

Apart from the four aforementioned astronauts, there are three other residents currently aboard the station that make up Expedition 75. It is being led by Meir, who launched to the station in February 2026 and conducted the first all-female spacewalk with Artemis II astronaut Christina Koch in 2019. On Sunday, three astronauts—NASA's Chris Williams and Russia’s Sergei Mikaev and Sergey Kud-Sverchko—departed the station and landed in Kazakhstan, marking the end of the MS-28 mission launched in November 2025. 

More spacewalks planned 

A total of three spacewalks are planned in August. The second (US spacewalk 97) of the month is scheduled for August 13 to replace a Space-to-Ground antenna, which is used to transmit data and high-speed communication between the Mission Control Center in Houston and the space station. The participants of this spacewalk are yet to be announced.

US spacewalk 98 is planned for August 25 with the objective of connecting power channel cables and data relay systems as part of ongoing maintenance, including preparations for the space station’s future deorbit. “The astronauts also will replace a navigational aid used for spacecraft docking on the Harmony module’s forward port,” NASA said.

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