Again the "New Orleans" was replenished at Pearl Harbor, steaming out on 7 July to rendezvous off the Fiji Islands for the invasion of the Solomon Islands, during which she screened the . Fighting off enemy air attacks on 24–25 August, the "New Orleans" aided the U.S. Marine Corps beachhead on Guadalcanal, as a Japanese landing expedition was turned back in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. At this point, "New Orleans" had been in the Coral Sea for two full months, and food began to run low. The crew went on half rations and Spam became the main course of every meal; eventually they ran out of rice. When the "Saratoga" was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine on 31 August, the "New Orleans" escorted her to Pearl Harbor, arriving on 21 September.