Sophie Adenot Makes History as First French Woman to Spacewalk

French astronaut Sophie Adenot has made history as the first French woman to conduct a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS).

Adenot stepped outside the orbital station on Tuesday alongside US astronaut Anil Menon for a mission that lasted nearly six and a half hours.

According to NASA, the astronauts were tasked with replacing an antenna used by the ISS to maintain communication with mission control in Houston.

“I’m out,” Adenot, 44, said after exiting the ISS, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) above the Earth. “I feel very good now.”

Adenot, 44, became the second European woman to conduct a spacewalk after Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti’s 2022 mission.

Adenot and Menon could be heard chatting and laughing in NASA footage of their adventure.

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While they successfully removed the faulty antenna, they were unable to replace it with new equipment due to time constraints, NASA said.

French President Emmanuel Macron hailed Adenot’s space walk as a cause for “French pride,” leading a chorus of praise from political leaders in her home country.

Flight engineer Jack Hathaway and station commander Jessica Meir remained inside the ISS during the space walk. After helping their colleagues don space suits they were to monitor them and operate a robotic arm to assist with the antenna repair.

“Yeah, what a day,” Adenot said after the space walk. “My deepest gratitude goes to everyone who made this possible, pioneers who came before us, but also the incredible teams working behind the scenes today.”

For several days leading up to the operation, the French astronaut prepared by reviewing spacesuits, tools and safety procedures to follow once outside the space station.

“A successful (space walk) starts long before the hatch opens, and that’s where my focus has been these past few days: rehearsing, preparing and focusing,” Adenot said on X on Sunday.

An engineer by training and a former test pilot, Adenot became in February the second Frenchwoman in history to fly into space after pioneer Claudie Haignere.

The last French person to walk in space was Thomas Pesquet, who did so six times over two stays aboard the ISS.

AFP