Published on •Updated
The mission began at 12:27 GMT. Twenty minutes later Sophie Adenot was once again out in open space around the ISS, accompanied by her crewmate, US astronaut Anil Menon.
The 44-year-old Frenchwoman had already carried out her first spacewalk on 18 August with Anil Menon, and says she “loved working in the vacuum of space”.
The two astronauts spent more than six hours outside the ISS, just long enough to dismantle the faulty Space-to-Ground antenna, known to NASA engineers as SGANT.
The equipment allows the ISS to communicate with Houston.
Sophie Adenot and Anil Menon came up against stubborn bolts and connectors, and the two astronauts did not have time to replace SGANT with a new antenna.
The aim of this second spacewalk is to finish the job: retrieve the new antenna, install it and transfer SGANT to its storage location.
If no bolts or other unforeseen problems slow them down, the two astronauts also plan to reinstall the “retroreflector” on the exterior of the station.
In February, Sophie Adenot became the second French woman to fly into space. Claudie Haigneré had gone before her, in 1996 and 2001.