French astronaut Sophie Adenot completed a 235‑day mission, orbiting 400 km above Earth. She and three fellow ISS crew members splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego, California, on Thursday, 8 October at 17:35 French time.
The re‑entry phase was thrilling for Adenot, Russian cosmonaut Andrei Fediaiev and Americans Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway. They experienced a rapid plunge through the atmosphere, decelerated by powerful parachutes, all while communications were temporarily lost.
After exiting their spacecraft and undergoing a quick medical check, the quartet will be transported to U.S. soil, first to North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego, and then to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
An ESA medical team will monitor Adenot during the flight back to Cologne, Germany, where she will reunite with family and start a multi‑week recovery programme.
Thirty years after Claudie Haigneré’s historic flight, Sophie Adenot became the second Frenchwoman to cross the Kármán line in February, the internationally recognised edge of space. She also became the first French woman to perform spacewalks, completing three on 18 August, 25 August and 1 September.
Having logged 237 days in orbit, Adenot now holds the European record for the longest spaceflight. She surpasses the previous mark of 201 days set by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano during his 2019‑2020 mission.
Also Read
- South African Jurist Navi Pillay Awarded Nobel Peace Prize for Lifelong Advocacy in International Justice
- Panama shaken by 7.7 magnitude quake as tsunami threat prompts alert
- Powerful 7.7-Magnitude Quake Rocks Panama’s Southern Coast; Tsunami Threat Under Investigation
- Young Orangutan Rescued from Indonesian Wildfires Receives Medical Care
