NASA astronaut Anil Menon, the first person of Kerala origin to reach the International Space Station (ISS), successfully completed his first-ever spacewalk on Friday.

Menon was joined by fellow NASA astronaut Jessica Meir for the mission, which focused on assembling a modification kit for the station’s 3B power channel. The upgrade will enable the future installation of additional roll-out solar arrays to boost the ISS’s power generation.

“NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon concluded their spacewalk outside the International Space Station at 3 pm EDT,” NASA said in a statement. The mission marked Menon’s first spacewalk and Meir’s sixth.

The spacewalk lasted 6 hours and 27 minutes, during which the astronauts completed their primary objectives. “During the 6-hour, 27-minute spacewalk, Meir and Menon completed their primary objectives, which included preparing the 3B power channel,” NASA said.

“This work will enable the future installation of roll-out solar arrays, called IROSA, to provide additional power for the orbiting laboratory, supporting critical systems and the safe, controlled deorbit of the space station,” the US space agency added.

Born in Minneapolis to Indian and Ukrainian immigrant parents, the 49-year-old Menon is an emergency medicine physician and a US Space Force colonel. His father, K P Shankaran Menon, is from Ottapalam in Kerala’s Palakkad district, while his mother, Elizabeth Samoylenko, emigrated from Ukraine to the United States.