European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot became the first French woman to perform a spacewalk on August 18, 2026. Working outside the International Space Station with NASA astronaut Anil Menon on U.S. Spacewalk 97, Adenot helped remove a failed antenna before stubborn cables and bolts cut the outing short.
History was made in orbit on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, but stubborn engineering ground the milestone to a disciplined halt. European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot floated out of the International Space Station’s Quest airlock alongside NASA astronaut Anil Menon for U.S. Spacewalk 97, marking the 282nd extravehicular activity dedicated to station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.
In doing so, Adenot became the first French woman and fifth French citizen to complete a spacewalk, following in the footsteps of pioneers like Jean-Loup Chrétien, Jean-Pierre Haigneré, Philippe Perrin, and Thomas Pesquet, according to reporting by Space. She also stands as the second European woman to perform a spacewalk, following Samantha Cristoforetti in 2022. Yet the landmark outing will be remembered as much for the hardware that fought back as for the milestone itself.
Tackling the Dead-Weight Antenna on the Z1 Truss
The primary assignment for the spacewalkers was a straightforward swap: remove a failed Space-to-Ground antenna—known in station shorthand as an SGANT—and bolt a fresh unit onto the orbital outpost’s Z1 truss segment. The old unit had been a dead weight since November, when it ceased being able to track NASA’s data-relay satellites.
While the failed dish created a maintenance item, it posed no immediate danger to station operations. A second, healthy antenna continued to carry high-speed communications and critical data streams down to Mission Control in Houston without interruption. The spacewalkers successfully uninstalled the malfunctioning dish, but freeing tight electrical cables, managing locking pins in the gimbal assembly, and loosening stubborn bolts devoured the allotted schedule.
“We got into this with the mindset that we wanted everything to go perfectly,” said Menon as the spacewalk came to an end. “Things were a lot different than expected, but what I would say that I am really impressed with is that all of those contingencies were well thought out.”
Anil Menon, NASA astronaut
Operating inside a pressurized suit turns everyday mechanical tasks into a strenuous workout. Every bolt requires a precise torque specification and a tethered tool to prevent it from drifting into microgravity. With the station experiencing a day-night cycle every 45 minutes, cables and connectors that pop loose instantly in a laboratory setting can fight a gloved astronaut in a vacuum.
Flight Controllers Call a Disciplined Wave-Off
Planners had budgeted approximately six and a half hours for the full remove-and-replace operation. When the disconnect phase ran over time, flight controllers exercised pre-planned contingencies rather than chase a depleting timeline. Mission Control radioed up a revised directive to stop installation efforts and secure the hardware.
We are going to go directly to the long-duration tie-down of this SGANT on the Z-1 truss,
Mission Control radioed to the spacewalkers. Complying with the order, Menon and Adenot lashed the failed antenna securely to the truss, leaving its replacement bolted to a storage platform for a future excursion.
The spacesuits were switched to battery power at 8:29 a.m. EDT, marking the official start of the EVA. When the airlock hatch closed and repressurization began at 2:52 p.m. EDT, the total duration clocked in at six hours and 23 minutes. The timing demonstrated that the crew maintained a steady pace, but the physical resistance of the hardware simply outpaced the schedule.
Post-Spacewalk Recovery and Looking Toward Next Tuesday
Following Tuesday’s intense physical labor, the Expedition 75 crew focused on cleanup and resumed microgravity research on Wednesday. Adenot spent time inside the Quest airlock refilling the water tanks that provided cooling to the spacesuit systems during the spacewalk, while station commander Jessica Meir helped power down hardware and stow batteries.
Meanwhile, Menon participated in the Venus Flow biomedical investigation in the Columbus laboratory module, conducting blood tests and vein scans with assistance from Meir and flight engineer Jack Hathaway to study space-caused health risks to blood flow.
Adenot reflected on the historic and demanding day with appreciation for the broader team supporting the mission from the ground. My deepest gratitude to everyone who made this possible — the pioneers who came before us, but also the incredible teams working behind the scenes today,
Adenot said.
Station managers are currently evaluating whether to install the replacement antenna during a spacewalk already scheduled for next Tuesday or defer the task to a later outing, ensuring that redundancy is restored to the station’s high-speed communication network without compromising suit safety margins.
