Replacement solar panels for ISS

Astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet conducted three spacewalks in June to install new solar panels on the International Space Station (ISS). The six panels are a new ‘roll out’ design, and are wrapped up to make them easier to transport. Once installed, the arrays took 10 minutes to unfurl.

The panels replaced several of the ISS’s original solar arrays, which had been in operation since December 2000. After

20 years, their efficiency was beginning to drop, but these new arrays returned the station to its original power output.