It made for one of the most dramatic moments in the history of the International Space Station. Dangling at the end of a 50-foot boom, attached to the station's robotic arm, astronaut Scott Parazynski could barely reach his target at the distant edge of the orbiting laboratory—a torn solar array.

Stakes were high in late 2007. NASA had just recovered from the space shuttle Columbia tragedy, and its primary focus was completing construction of the space station. Astronauts had added a new 110-foot solar array in preparation for the expansion, and the additional power was needed for new European and Japanese modules. But a 2.5-foot tear had formed in the array, likely due to a stray guide wire. Absent a repair, mission managers had two options: leave the array as is and use the available power, or jettison it. The problem with the first solution was that the tear might spread, making the array unusable. That could have meant no expansion for the station, which at the time was a only fraction of its finished size.

The cobbled-together plan called for Scott Parazynski, an emergency physician by trade and one of the agency's most experienced spacewalkers, to use a wire-and-tape contraption he and his crew mates built on orbit. The physician would then thread the cufflink-like device through reinforced holes on the panels, allowing them to take the strain of a fully extended solar array.

Sending Parazynski so far from the station's pressurized modules would be dangerous. If something went wrong, he would be far from assistance. Moreover, there was no guarantee the improvisation would work. The station's program manager at the time, Mike Suffredini, said it was one of the station's hairiest moments.

Parazynski and fellow spacewalker Doug Wheelock stepped outside the ISS on the morning of Nov. 3, 2007. Once the station's robotic arm had Parazysnki in position, he began his surgery: snipping away at the guide wire and inserting the cufflinks one by one. He had to be careful to avoid bolts, whose sharp edges could tear his suit, as well as the solar cells and other parts of the array, which could produce any number of electrical hazards.

Finally, after seven hours, the repair was complete, and the robotic arm took Parazysnki back to where Wheelock had been directing him from the base of array. They watched as astronauts inside the station slowly extended the array and locked it in place. The patch job held.

As a physician accustomed to emergency repairs in the operating room, Parazynski exulted in the opportunity to essentially suture the damaged array together. "That was my biggest day on the job, ever," he recalled in 2011. "I felt like my entire career led up to that one single moment."

At the time the station was scheduled to remain operational until 2015, and engineers were confident the repair would hold up until then. It's now 2016, and a photo taken during a spacewalk early in September offers a stunning view of Parazynski's handiwork. After seeing the photo, he tweeted, "Yes, our repairs are still under warranty."

Parazynski has since left NASA. He now works at the University of Arizona as an explorer and technology innovator. However, the space station's commander at the time, Peggy Whitson, will soon launch back to the orbiting laboratory for her third mission. And Parazynski's repairs to the solar array are being counted on to last until at least 2024 and possibly 2029.