Sophie Adenot will make spaceflight historical past right this moment (Aug. 18).
The European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut will develop into the primary French lady ever to conduct a spacewalk, an exercise she’ll undertake with NASA astronaut Anil Menon.
The duo are scheduled to step exterior the International Space Station (ISS) for a 6.5-hour tour right this moment at round 8:35 a.m. EDT (1235 GMT). You’ll be able to watch it reside right here at House.com, courtesy of NASA. Protection begins at 7 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT).
Adenot and Menon will “change a space-to-ground antenna on the orbital advanced,” NASA officers wrote in a spacewalk preview.
“The antenna is a important communications hyperlink NASA makes use of to transmit information, enabling high-speed communications between the Mission Management Heart in Houston and the house station,” they added.
This would be the second spacewalk for Menon; his first one, performed with fellow NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, occurred on Aug. 6. Throughout that extravehicular exercise (EVA), a carbon dioxide sensor on Menon’s spacesuit gave “an surprising information studying,” NASA officers wrote in an Aug. 7 update.
The sensor returned to regular after Menon doffed the swimsuit, however NASA took some additional time to ensure there was no critical problem. Because of this, the company pushed his second spacewalk again just a few days — from the initially deliberate Aug. 13 to right this moment.
In the present day’s spacewalk would be the 282nd total within the lengthy historical past of the ISS. Menon, who reached orbit on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on July 14, can be “crewmember 1” on the EVA. Adenot — a member of SpaceX’s Crew-12 mission, which reached the orbiting lab in February — can be “crewmember 2.”
Adenot will not be the primary French particular person total to conduct an EVA. That distinction goes to Jean-Loup Chrétien, who carried out a spacewalk exterior the then-Soviet Union’s Mir space station in 1988.
Different male French astronauts, together with Philippe Perrin and Thomas Pesquet, later spacewalked exterior the ISS. Pesquet additionally grew to become the primary French particular person to command an ISS mission, taking the reins in October 2021.
