ALBAWABA - In a historic space mission, French astronaut Sophie Adenot is set to become the first French female astronaut to take a walk outside the International Space Station (ISS).
According to sources, Sophie Adenot will be holding the spacewalk on Tuesday, along with American astronaut Anil Menon. NASA detailed that the mission will last for six and a half hours.
NASA clarified that Adenot and Menon will start their spacewalk outside the ISS at around 1400 CET, aiming to replace a space-to-ground antenna on the orbital complex.
The spacewalk will make Adenot, 44, the second EU woman to venture outside the International Space Station, after Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti's mission in 2022.
French astronaut Sophie Adenot. (Instagram/ @soph_astro)
"A successful (spacewalk) starts long before the hatch opens and that's where my focus has been these past few days: rehearsing, preparing and focusing," Adenot wrote on Sunday via the X platform.
She added in a post on Instagram, "Day 183 orbit 2837 — 🚨 Did you know I will be going out on my first EVA on Tuesday 18 August? @astro_anil and I will spacewalk together to replace a Space-to-Ground antenna which (as its name indicates) is a critical piece of hardware, allowing communications between the ground control teams in Houston and the International Space Station."
