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ESA's Sophie Adenot Becomes First French Woman to Perform a Spacewalk

24 August 2026National
ESA's Sophie Adenot Becomes First French Woman to Perform a Spacewalk

European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot became the first French woman to perform a spacewalk on 18 August 2026, carrying out US Spacewalk 97 outside the International Space Station with NASA's Anil Menon over 6 hours and 23 minutes. The pair set out to replace a failed Space-to-Ground Antenna (SGANT) on the ISS Z1 truss, which carries high-speed data between the station and Mission Control in Houston. Stuck bolts and electrical cabling forced them to secure the failed unit with a tie-down instead. It was the 282nd spacewalk in ISS history; EVA-98 is scheduled for 25 August 2026 to finish the installation.

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The International Space Station is run jointly by NASA, Roscosmos, ESA, JAXA and CSA, and has been continuously crewed since November 2000 | Canadarm2, the ISS robotic arm, was contributed by Canada | ESA, founded in 1975, is headquartered in Paris, France

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ISRO Launches EOS-05, India's First Geosynchronous Imaging Satellite, Aboard GSLV-F17

On 4 September 2026, ISRO launched the 2,367 kg EOS-05 Earth observation satellite aboard the 51.7-metre GSLV-F17 from the Second Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh). EOS-05 is India's first-ever imaging satellite in geosynchronous orbit, capable of continuous large-area monitoring using visible, infrared, multispectral and hyperspectral imaging for agriculture and disaster management. The three-stage GSLV-F17, with a 420.5-tonne lift-off mass and an indigenous cryogenic upper stage, placed it in a Sub-Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit with a perigee of 171 km, apogee of 31,260 km and inclination of 19.28 degrees, to be raised to about 36,000 km.

GK ByteISRO was founded on 15 August 1969 and is headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka; its chairman is V. Narayanan | Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota is India's only orbital launch site, named after ISRO's second chairman | Geosynchronous orbit lies at roughly 36,000 km altitude, where a satellite's orbital period matches Earth's rotation
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China's Chang'e-7 Lunar Mission Set for 24 August Launch to Moon's South Pole

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GK ByteChang'e is China's lunar exploration programme, named after the Chinese moon goddess | China's national space agency is the China National Space Administration (CNSA), founded in 1993 and headquartered in Beijing | Shackleton Crater lies at the Moon's south pole — the same broad region where India's Chandrayaan-3 landed in August 2023
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