Sophie Adenot becomes the first French woman to carry out an extravehicular spacewalk

Aboard the International Space Station since February, Sophie Adenot will carry out her first extravehicular outing on Tuesday afternoon. She must, with her American colleague Anil Menon, replace a communication antenna with Earth.

Going into space, “it’s the Holy Grail of all astronauts. It’s the next dream I have on my dream list,” Sophie Adenot told France 2 in April. This day has arrived for the French astronaut. The trained engineer and former test pilot begins walking in the void of space, carrying out her first exit outside the International Space Station (ISS), Tuesday August 18. NASA, the American space agency, announced this on August 10 in a press release. The main interested party confirmed it on her social networks the next day, with great enthusiasm. Around 2:35 p.m., she left the ISS through the Quest airlock with her American colleague, Anil Menon. The start of a mission lasting more than six hours, to replace a communications antenna allowing communication with Earth.

“It makes a lot of sense for Europe and for France.” “She is the first ESA astronaut of French nationality to carry out an extra-vehicular activity, it is a sign of confidence from the partners of the Space Station to entrust this mission to Sophie Adenot”, estimated Tuesday morning on franceinfo Daniel Neuenschwander, director of Human and Robotic Exploration at ESA (European Space Agency).

An antenna to replace. The mission consists of replacing an antenna dedicated to communications between the ISS and teams on Earth. This operation is essential to allow ISS astronauts to maintain permanent contact with the control center in Houston, Texas (United States). Thanks to this antenna, ground teams can receive the results of scientific experiments carried out on board.

A lot of preparation. The 44-year-old Frenchwoman will be accompanied by the American Anil Menon. In recent days, they have been preparing together, during training sessions, in the Quest airlock, the ISS's door to the outside. They conducted emergency drills, checked the fit and mobility of their suits, inspected the toolbox they will take into the vacuum of space and studied the steps to replace a communications antenna.

A historic first. Sophie Adenot became, in February, the second French woman to reach space after Claudie Haigneré, who had participated in two missions, in 1996 and then in 2001. Even if she had been prepared for extravehicular exits, the former astronaut had never carried out one. Sophie Adenot will therefore become the first French woman in history to leave the ISS and the second European to accomplish this mission, after the Italian Samantha Cristoforetti, in 2022.