ISS Hosts First Spacewalk by a Frenchwoman
NASA said the replacement will wait for a future spacewalk after tight connectors and locking pins slowed the work.
- On Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, NASA astronaut Anil Menon and ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot performed a spacewalk at the International Space Station to remove a failed Space-To-Ground antenna.
- Mission planners delayed the operation from August 13 after a carbon dioxide sensor on Menon's spacesuit provided "an unexpected data reading" following an earlier spacewalk.
- The 282nd spacewalk lasted 6 hours and 23 minutes, marking a historic milestone as Adenot became the first French woman to perform an EVA.
- While the crew successfully removed the failed antenna, they encountered delays disconnecting electrical components, forcing flight controllers to waive the replacement installation until a future mission.
- Mission managers must now determine whether to add the replacement task to the next spacewalk planned for August 25 or defer it to a later date.
22 Articles
22 Articles
Sophie Adenot became the first French woman to spacewalk on 18 August 2026, but the job she went outside to finish remains unfinished — stubborn electrical cables ate the time she needed to install a new antenna
The suits switched to battery power at 8:29 a.m. EDT on 18 August 2026, and the clock that governs every spacewalk began to run. Six hours and twenty-three minutes later, when the airlock was re-pressurized at 2:52 p.m. EDT, ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot had made history and left one job half done. Both of those things are true, and the second one is not the failure it might sound like. Adenot became the first French woman and fifth French citizen…
ISS spacewalkers discover there's no such thing as a quick antenna job
Stubborn electrical connections and bolts thwarted an attempt to replace an antenna on the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday, forcing spacewalkers to leave the new unit for another day. We've all been there. That "quick job" expected to take a few minutes stretches into hours as bolts refuse to budge and unforeseen problems eat into time better spent enjoying a cookie and tasty beverage. A pair of ISS spacewalkers had much the same exp…
The first Frenchman to go out into space had a historic moment on Tuesday, August 18, 2026. But how can we explain that this mission ended prematurely?
Astronauts Remove Faulty ISS Antenna During Spacewalk
<p>Washington: Astronauts Anil Menon and Sophie Adenot ran out of time to replace the space-to-ground antenna of the International Space Station (ISS) during a spacewalk, with the task now set for a future date.</p> <p>The two astronauts managed to remove the failed antenna and stow it away in their six-hour-23-minute spacewalk that began at 8.29 am EDT. This spacewalk will be the second for Menon, who traces his origins to Kerala in India, and …
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