'You just saved the video dish': Two astronauts complete spacewalk to replace ISS antenna

"Houston, we have a working comm link again." Thanks to the efforts of two astronauts, such a call is possible again using one of two Space-to-Ground antennas outside the International Space Station (ISS).

The pair finished the replacement of a faulty dish assembly during a spacewalk on Tuesday (Aug.

25).

Anil Menon of NASA and Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency (ESA), who previously removed a faulty dish during a spacewalk on Aug.

18, installed a spare in its place and moved the broken assembly from a temporary to more permanent storage location along the station's backbone truss.

As seen from a camera mounted on ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot's helmet, fellow Expedition 75 crew member Anil Menon of NASA works to mount a replacement Space-to-Ground antenna during a spacewalk outside of the International Space Station on Tuesday, Aug.

25, 2026. (Image credit: NASA) With Menon positioned at the end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm and Adenot traversing by handrails to join him, the two Expedition 75 crewmates first retrieved a spare Space-to-Ground Antenna (SGANT) from an external stowage position.

Menon and the spare dish were then maneuvered to the Z-1 truss, where it was mounted and connected to the station's power and data systems.

Menon and Adenot then retrieved the faulty antenna, which they had stowed on the Z-1 truss during the prior spacewalk.

Menon (on the arm) moved it to external stowage platform-3 (ESP-3) on the starboard side of the truss.

The replacement work became necessary after the SGANT ceased being able to track NASA's data and relay satellites , rendering it unusable, beginning last November.

A second antenna has been in use since, continuing the transmission of voice and critical data, but this repair re-established redundancy to the system.

"On behalf of CAPCOM and I, we're going to count down like a bolt: '3, 2, 1… You just saved the video dish, you just saved the video dish,'" sang astronaut Anne McClain from Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, parodying the The Buggles' 1979 hit "Video Killed the Radio Star." "Oh my god, it is hard to top that," replied Menon, who could be heard laughing along with Adenot.

"I want to thank the entire team on executing this complex, time-critical operation successfully." Tuesday's spacewalk began at 8:27 a.m.