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Sophie Adenot becomes first French woman to spacewalk

scienceAug 18, 2026162,162

Sophie Adenot, 44, became the first French woman to perform a spacewalk Tuesday when she and NASA astronaut Anil Menon exited the International Space Station for a roughly six-and-a-half-hour extravehicular activity to replace a high-speed Ku-band communications antenna. Adenot, aboard the ISS since mid-February, said "I'm out" after leaving the station and later described extensive rehearsals and preparation for the operation. Flight engineer Jack Hathaway and station commander Jessica Meir monitored the spacewalk and operated a robotic arm from inside the station while NASA provided live footage in which the two spacewalkers chatted and laughed. Adenot is the second European woman to walk in space after Italy's Samantha Cristoforetti in 2022 and is the second Frenchwoman to fly into space following Claudie Haigneré; Thomas Pesquet was the last French person to perform spacewalks, doing so six times. French president Emmanuel Macron called Adenot "the embodiment of French pride" and praised her as the "face of all possibilities."

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