Sophie Adenot Makes Historic Spacewalk

On August 18, French astronaut Sophie Adenot is set to undertake a historic spacewalk, marking a significant milestone in her career and for France. Scheduled to commence at 14:35 Paris time, this event will be the 282nd spacewalk conducted on the International Space Station (ISS) across all nationalities, including those performed during the assembly of the ISS by space shuttle missions.

This particular spacewalk is also notable as it will be the 97th conducted by American astronauts, hence the designation EV97. Joining Adenot in this endeavor is American astronaut Anil Menon from NASA, who will be participating in his second spacewalk of this mission, following his previous outing with Jessica Meir on August 6.

Menon will serve as EV1, the commander of the spacewalk, indicated by the red stripes on his spacesuit, while Adenot will be designated EV2, wearing a suit marked with white stripes. The duration of their spacewalk is expected to be approximately 6 hours and 30 minutes. At 14:35, the astronauts will switch their suits to internal battery power and will exit the ISS a few minutes thereafter, aiming to return around 19:05.

The primary objective of this spacewalk is to replace a high-data-rate communication antenna that links the ISS with Earth. Adenot has dedicated weeks to training for this EVA, logging over 150 hours in underwater simulations at both the astronaut training center in Cologne, Germany, and NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

A First for France

Since the inception of its space program, France has had 11 astronauts, two of whom are women: Claudie Haigneré and Sophie Adenot. Notably, Haigneré, who celebrated 30 years since her first mission on August 17, has never conducted a spacewalk. This means that Sophie Adenot will be recognized as the first French astronaut to accomplish this feat.