Last February, Sophie Adenot made history by becoming the second French woman to travel into space, after Claudie Haigneré. Six months on, she is about to take another leap forward as she becomes the first French woman to carry out a spacewalk.
On Instagram and X, the astronaut shared the news with her followers.
On 18 August, she will perform her very first spacewalk from the ISS to help repair the station’s transmission system. She will be joined by American astronaut Anil Menon, who has already taken part in a spacewalk to work on a high-bandwidth antenna used for communications with Earth.
“Two astronauts from Expedition 75 will conduct a spacewalk to replace an antenna that is vital for high-bandwidth data transmission and communications between the space station and control centres on the ground”, explained NASA on its website (source in French).
The two astronauts are already preparing
Sophie Adenot and her crewmate have begun meticulous preparations for the mission.
“On Monday, Menon and Adenot worked together in the Quest airlock and prepared the tools they will take outside the station for the operation”, NASA said.
After this mission, Sophie Adenot will become only the second European woman to carry out a spacewalk, after Italy’s Samantha Cristoforetti in 2022.
The French astronaut could head back outside the station on 25 August.