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Sophie Adenot becomes first French woman to spacewalk

scienceAug 18, 202615580

Sophie Adenot became the first French woman to conduct a spacewalk Tuesday, exiting the International Space Station with NASA astronaut Anil Menon for a roughly six and a half hour extravehicular activity to replace a Ku band high-speed communications antenna. Adenot, 44, said "I'm out" after leaving the station and "I feel very good now," and NASA footage captured the two astronauts chatting and laughing during the operation. Adenot is the second European woman to spacewalk after Italy's Samantha Cristoforetti in 2022 and the second Frenchwoman to fly to space after Claudie Haigneré; she arrived at the ISS in mid February. French President Emmanuel Macron praised Adenot as "the embodiment of French pride" and "the face of all possibilities." Flight engineer Jack Hathaway and station commander Jessica Meir monitored the spacewalk from inside the station and operated the robotic arm as needed. The replaced antenna is key to high speed communications and data transmission between the ISS and mission control in Houston, according to NASA, so the EVA restores an important link for station operations.

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