French astronaut Sophie Adenot begins second spacewalk to repair ISS antenna

French astronaut Sophie Adenot began her second spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Tuesday, a week after her first historic extravehicular activity. The mission started at 12:27 GMT, with Adenot and her crewmate, U.S. astronaut Anil Menon, exiting the station to replace a faulty communications antenna known as SGANT, which enables ISS communications with Houston .

The spacewalk aims to complete work left unfinished during Adenot’s first outing on Aug. 18, when the pair dismantled the SGANT antenna but encountered stubborn bolts and connectors, preventing them from installing a replacement. This time, they plan to retrieve the new antenna, install it, and relocate the old SGANT to storage. If time permits, they will also reinstall a retroreflector on the station’s exterior .

Adenot, 44, became the first French woman to perform a spacewalk on Aug. 18, joining Menon for a six-hour mission 400 kilometers above Earth. She later described the experience on social media: “You could probably hear it in my voice over the radio, but I A-D-O-R-E-D working in the vacuum of space. It is a true adventure within an adventure – made all the more beautiful because it is experienced as a team” .

The second spacewalk is expected to last around six and a half hours, with time-lapsed images capturing the start of the extravehicular activity . Adenot, an engineer and former test pilot, became the second French woman in history to fly into space in February, following Claudie Haigneré’s missions in 1996 and 2001 .

Adenot and Menon are part of a four-person crew on a nine-month mission aboard the ISS. The pair prepared for Tuesday’s spacewalk over the weekend, reviewing procedures and checking equipment, as shown in a video Adenot posted on Instagram . After her first spacewalk, Adenot expressed gratitude to the teams supporting the mission, stating, “My deepest gratitude goes to everyone who made this possible, pioneers who came before us, but also the incredible teams working behind the scenes today” .