NASA astronaut Anil Menon and CSA flight engineer Joshua Kutryk are preparing to install the eighth and final roll-out solar array on the International Space Station during a spacewalk planned to start at 8:30 a.m. EST on Thursday, according to NASA. The pair will work on the station's starboard truss structure, opposite the port truss where a roll-out solar array was installed on Oct. 29. NASA says the installation is expected to take about seven hours and will raise the station's power generating capacity about 30 percent, from 160 kilowatts to about 215 kilowatts.

On Monday, Kutryk and Menon joined NASA flight engineers Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney to study Canadarm2 robotic arm procedures needed for Thursday's spacewalk, and the four astronauts took part in two pre-spacewalk conferences with mission controllers. Research also continued: Kutryk wore the Bio-Monitor vest and headband while pedaling an exercise cycle in the Destiny laboratory module, in a study of how the cardiorespiratory system adapts to weightlessness. Delaney tended vascular tissue samples printed in the BioFabrication Facility, and Watkins checked a portable DNA sequencer used to analyze antibiotic-resistant bacteria in microgravity.

In the station's Roscosmos segment, commander Pyotr Dubrov continued studying semiconductor crystal manufacturing in microgravity, Sergey Teteryatnikov began a 24-hour session measuring heart activity and blood pressure, and Anna Kikina worked on ventilation maintenance and cargo transfers aboard the Progress 96 spacecraft, NASA said.