Adenot and Menon Complete Critical ISS Maintenance Tasks in Second Spacewalk
Adenot and Menon completed antenna replacement and worked on retroreflector installation during second ISS spacewalk.
Event / Technology
ISS Spacewalk Operations August 2026
French astronaut Sophie Adenot conducted her first spacewalk on August 18, 2026, alongside American astronaut Anil Menon. During a second spacewalk on August 25, they worked on replacing a Space-to-Ground Antenna on the International Space Station. Adenot became the second European woman to conduct a spacewalk.
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2026-08-25 to 2026-11-08 · UTC publication dates
Coverage begins 25 Aug, 07:04 UTC
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What happened
French astronaut Sophie Adenot completes first spacewalk by French astronaut
Sophie Adenot conducted the first spacewalk by a French astronaut on August 18, 2026, alongside American astronaut Anil Menon. The pair spent over 6 hours in space at an altitude of 400 kilometers above Earth. They successfully dismantled a defective Space-to-Ground Antenna (SGANT) but were unable to install the replacement equipment due to time constraints.
ISS spacewalk team attempts retroreflector replacement for spacecraft navigation
During their August 25, 2026 spacewalk, Sophie Adenot and Anil Menon planned to replace a retroreflector on the forward port of the Harmony module of the International Space Station, if time permitted. This device improves navigation data for visiting spacecraft. If unable to complete this task during the August 25 spacewalk, it would be deferred to a scheduled maintenance spacewalk on September 1, 2026.
Sophie Adenot is second European woman to conduct spacewalk
At age 44, Sophie Adenot became the second European woman to conduct a spacewalk in space. Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti was the first European woman to conduct a spacewalk in 2022.
Sophie Adenot and Anil Menon conduct second spacewalk to complete antenna replacement
Sophie Adenot and Anil Menon conducted a second spacewalk on August 25, 2026, to complete the installation of the Space-to-Ground Antenna (SGANT) on the International Space Station. The mission began at 14:35 Paris time and was scheduled to last approximately 6 hours and 30 minutes. The astronauts aimed to retrieve a replacement antenna from storage and install it above the Unity module of the ISS.
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French Astronaut Sophie Adenot Conducts Historic First Spacewalk
French astronaut Sophie Adenot completed the first French spacewalk and is the second European woman to do so.