Sophie Adenot became the first French woman to conduct a spacewalk in August 2026, operating outside the International Space Station for approximately six and a half hours. A colonel in the French Air and Space Force, she transitioned from a career in military aviation and helicopter testing to the European Astronaut Corps, eventually serving as a crew member on the SpaceX Crew-12 mission.
Academic Foundation
Born in 1982 in Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire, France, Adenot followed an intensive path toward aerospace engineering. She attended the Maison d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur in Saint-Denis before entering the Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace from 2001 to 2003. In 2004, she earned a Master of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where her research focused on human factors engineering and the vestibular system's adaptation to artificial gravity.
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Adenot began her professional career in 2004 at Airbus Helicopters, where she contributed to cockpit design for the H225. Joining the French Air Force in 2005, she trained as a helicopter pilot and flew search and rescue missions with the Escadron d'Hélicoptères 1/67 Pyrénées. Her career includes service with the High Authority Transport Squadron, transporting state officials. By 2018, she qualified as France’s first female helicopter test pilot after training at the École du personnel navigant d'essais et de réception and the Empire Test Pilots' School. She served with the Direction générale de l'Armement from 2019 to 2022.
European Space Agency Missions
Selected for the 2022 European Space Agency Astronaut group, Adenot was assigned to the Epsilon mission as part of the Expedition 74/75 crew. Launched aboard SpaceX Crew-12 in February 2026, she conducted over 200 microgravity experiments, including EchoFinder for medical ultrasounds and PhysioTool for physiological monitoring. Her primary achievement, the 2026 spacewalk, involved removing a space-to-ground antenna from the Z1 truss segment alongside NASA astronaut Anil Menon, marking a milestone in French space exploration.
Fast facts
- Born: 1982, Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire
- Citizenship: France
- Military Rank: Colonel
- Education: ISAE-SUPAERO (2001-2003), MIT (2004)
- First Female French Helicopter Test Pilot: 2018
- Selected for ESA Astronaut Corps: 2022
- Spaceflight: SpaceX Crew-12 (2026)
- Knight of the National Order of Merit: 2022
Questions readers ask
What was Sophie Adenot's role before becoming an astronaut?
She was a military aviator and test pilot, accumulating over 3,000 flight hours across 22 helicopter types.
Which experiments did she perform on the ISS?
She managed over 200 experiments, including EchoFinder for autonomous ultrasounds, PhysioTool for physiological measurements, and ChlorISS, which studied plant growth in space.
Achievements
- Knight of the National Order of Merit — 2022
- Affiliated with Airbus Helicopters, Direction générale de l'Armement and European Space Agency
- Educated at Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and School of the Air and Space
- Worked as engineer, helicopter pilot and test pilot
