NASA astronauts Stephen “Steve” Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg successfully completed a 6-hour and 3-minute spacewalk on June 9 at 3:28 p.m. EST to install the fifth International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array (IROSA) wing on the 1A power channel on the starboard truss of the International Space Station (ISS). This spacewalk, the 87th U.S. spacewalk, achieved all objectives by successfully installing and deploying the fifth wing on the space station. IROSA wings five and six launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 5 at 11:47 a.m. ET onboard SpaceX’s 28th cargo resupply mission to the ISS.
Redwire has developed and delivered six IROSA wings over the past two years. The first pair of IROSAs were launched to the ISS in June 2021 and were installed later that month. In December 2022, the second pair launched and completed spacewalk installation. Since then, each IROSA has been operating nominally and generating power. When wing six is installed and deployed on June 15, the IROSAs will increase power generation capability by up to 30%. Each IROSA wing provides an additional 28 kW of power once deployed and all six IROSA wings combined will provide more than 120 kW for over 10 years.
Redwire’s ROSA technology is compact, modular, and scalable, making it ideal for use on the ISS and other spaceflight platforms. IROSA uses large, flexible photovoltaic blankets with composite booms that are rolled up for storage, launch, and delivery. When installed, each IROSA unit unrolls without the need for motors or other equipment, giving IROSA an advantage over other traditional technologies. The technology behind IROSA was first demonstrated on the ISS in June 2017.
In September 2022, Redwire’s ROSA technology powered NASA’s DART spacecraft to impact asteroid Dimorphos, successfully altering the asteroid’s orbit. Redwire is also producing various versions of ROSA for other government and commercial spaceflight applications including the Power and Propulsion Element for NASA’s Gateway program, a part of the Artemis program, and Astrobotic’s Lunar Vertical Solar Array program, which aims to provide sustainable power on the lunar surface.
IROSA was developed by Redwire and delivered to NASA under contract with Boeing, NASA’s prime contractor for space station operations. To learn more about our ROSA technology, visit our ROSA product page.
