One Giant Step for France! A Spacewalker Makes History Outside the Space Station Today
Quick Summary
Two astronauts stepped outside the International Space Station (ISS) today to replace a broken communications antenna. One of them — a French astronaut named Sophie Adenot — could make history as the first French woman to ever walk in space.
What Happened?
This morning, NASA astronaut Anil Menon and ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot floated out of the ISS’s Quest airlock at around 8:35 a.m. Eastern Time. Their spacewalk was expected to last about six and a half hours — that’s roughly the same time as a full school day!
This spacewalk has a special job: replacing an old Space-to-Ground antenna on the outside of the station. Think of that antenna like the ISS’s telephone. It carries high-speed messages back and forth between the crew in space and Mission Control in Houston, Texas. Without it working well, the station has a harder time “calling home.”
The antenna sits on a part of the station called the Z1 truss — basically a metal framework that sticks up from the top of the station. Menon rode the station’s robotic arm, called Canadarm2, to reach it. Inside the station, astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway helped by operating the arm and helping Menon and Adenot put on their spacesuits.
For Sophie Adenot, this is her very first spacewalk. It is also her first trip to space ever. If everything went as planned, she became the first French woman in history to perform an extravehicular activity — which is the fancy NASA term for a spacewalk. France has sent astronauts to space for decades, but this milestone had never happened before.
This was also Menon’s second spacewalk of the month. He completed another one on August 6 alongside Jessica Meir.
This particular spacewalk is called U.S. Spacewalk 97. It is the 282nd spacewalk in support of building, maintaining, and upgrading the International Space Station.
Why Does It Matter?
The ISS has been flying above Earth for over 25 years. Keeping it working requires regular check-ups and repairs — just like a car needs oil changes, but much, much harder. Astronauts do these repairs while floating 250 miles above the ground in the vacuum of space.
For Sophie Adenot and France, today is a proud moment. Breaking new records shows that space exploration keeps opening doors for people from all over the world. Future astronauts — maybe kids reading this right now — could be the ones making history next.
Big Words
- Extravehicular Activity (EVA) — the official term for a spacewalk, meaning any time an astronaut goes outside a spacecraft into open space
- Truss — a strong metal framework used to hold things together, like the backbone of a building or bridge
- Canadarm2 — the ISS’s large robotic arm, built by Canada, used to move astronauts and heavy equipment around the outside of the station
- Airlock — a special room with two sealed doors that lets astronauts move between the air inside the station and the vacuum of space without letting all the air escape
- Antenna — a device that sends and receives signals, like a radio or Wi-Fi antenna but much more powerful
Fun Fact
The International Space Station travels at about 17,500 miles per hour. That means while Menon and Adenot were working outside, the whole station lapped the entire Earth once roughly every 90 minutes!
Think About It
If you were an astronaut and could pick one job to do on a spacewalk, what would it be — and what tool would you bring?
Sources
- NASA — U.S. Spacewalk 97 (nasa.gov official coverage page)
- BusinessToday India — Sophie Adenot could become the first French woman to spacewalk on August 18
- SpaceCalendar — U.S. ISS Spacewalk 97
- NASA ISS Blog — Space Station Crew Wraps Busy Week, Plans New Date for US Spacewalk 97