Sophie Adenot is preparing to carry out a new spacewalk

Rebelote. Just one week after becoming the first French woman to go out into space, astronaut Sophie Adenot will once again put on her space suit to carry out an extravehicular exit from the International Space Station (ISS), Tuesday August 25.

The French astronaut and the American Anil Menon who accompanies him know their mission, since it involves completing that of August 18. They must complete the replacement of an essential antenna so that the ISS can communicate with the control center in Houston, Texas (United States), in particular to transmit scientific data and high-speed communications. Removing the faulty antenna took longer than expected during Tuesday's spacewalk, the European Space Agency explains on X.

The two astronauts will be assisted by a robotic arm, to which Anil Menon will be attached. They will have to recover a spare antenna (which is currently on a storage platform), then install it above the “Unity” module of the ISS. It will then be necessary to “make precise connections” to the station’s electrical and communications network, NASA details in a press release. “If time permits”, Sophie Adenot and Anil Menon will also try to replace a “retroreflector”, which allows other space vehicles to obtain more precise navigation data, adds the American space agency.

They will be assisted, from the ISS, by NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, who will help them put on their spacesuit and pilot the Canadarm2 robotic arm. The exit should begin Tuesday at 2:35 p.m. in France, and last approximately 6:30 hours, predicts the American space agency, which is also studying the possibility of a new extravehicular exit on September 1.