posted 08-10-2026 03:56 PM               

ISS Expedition 75: U.S. Spacewalk 97

Two Expedition 75 flight engineers will perform a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026.

Astronauts Anil Menon of NASA and Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) will spend about six-and-a-half hours swapping an antenna on the orbital outpost's Z1 truss segment. The Space-to-Ground antenna is a critical communication system NASA uses to transmit data and high‑speed communication between the Mission Control Center in Houston and the space station.

The spacewalk will be the 282nd conducted in support of ISS assembly, maintenance, and upgrades. It will be the second for Menon and the first for Adenot. Adenot will become the first French woman to conduct a spacewalk.

posted 08-18-2026 08:01 AM               

NASA astronaut Anil Menon and ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot began a spacewalk at 8:29 a.m. EDT on Tuesday (Aug. 18) outside the International Space Station to replace a Space-to-Ground antenna on the International Space Station.

posted 08-18-2026 02:00 PM               

Astronauts remove antenna, defer replacement

Anil Menon and Sophie Adenot were tasked with the removal and replacement of a Space-to-Ground antenna that since November had ceased being able to track NASA's data relay satellites, rendering it unusable. A second antenna has been in use since, continuing the transmission of critical data and enabling high-speed communications with Mission Control Houston.

Spacewalk planners had allocated about six and a half hours for the work to be completed. The two Expedition 75 crewmates had been successful with removing the failed Space-to-Ground antenna from its mount on the station's truss, but ran into delays disconnecting its electrical connections and and locking down gimbal bolts, or pins, to secure the large dish assembly during its transport to its temporary stowage location.

As such, flight controllers had the astronauts tether the failed antenna to the truss and waived them off installing the replacement antenna, leaving it for a future extravehicular activity (EVA) still to be scheduled. Mission managers will decide whether to add that task to a spacewalk already planned for next Tuesday (Aug. 25) or to leave for a later outing.

Menon and Adenot began the spacewalk at 8:29 a.m. EDT (1229 GMT) when they switched their spacesuits to battery power. Their EVA ended once they were back inside the U.S. Quest airlock and re-pressurization began at 2:52 p.m. EDT (1852 GMT).

Their total time on this spacewalk was 6 hours and 23 minutes.

Tuesday's spacewalk was the 282nd in support of ISS assembly, maintenance and upgrades. It was Menon's second EVA since making his first outing with Jessica Meir, increasing his total spacewalking time to 12 hours and 50 minutes.

It was the first time that Adenot ventured into the vacuum of space, making her the first female and fifth citizen of France to perform a spacewalk after Jean-Loup Chrétien, Jean-Pierre Haigneré, Philippe Perrin, and Thomas Pesquet.

This was the fifth spacewalk conducted out of the International Space Station this year, the second for Expedition 75 and the 97th using U.S. extravehicular mobility unit (EMU) spacesuits at the station.