On Tuesday, August 25, 2026, at 8:57 p.m. Central European Summer Time, ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot and her NASA crewmate Anil Menon concluded US EVA-98 after six hours and twenty-three minutes of work outside the International Space Station. The two Expedition 75 flight engineers floated in the vacuum of space at roughly 400 kilometers altitude, completing a task sequence that had begun during an earlier outing on August 18.
A Second Spacewalk for Adenot
For Sophie Adenot, the French ESA astronaut who joined the agency's astronaut corps as part of the 2022 class, EVA-98 marked a personal milestone — her second time working outside a spacecraft in orbit. Her first spacewalk had already taken place earlier during this same assignment aboard the Station. The two outings, both lasting exactly six hours and twenty-three minutes, reflect the precise planning that characterizes extravehicular activity scheduling at NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston.
For Anil Menon — a physician and former U.S. Air Force flight surgeon selected by NASA in 2021 — the mission also added meaningful operational depth to his spaceflight record. Together, the pair demonstrated the kind of coordinated efficiency that complex on-orbit maintenance demands.
High-Speed Hardware, Patient Hands
The central objective of both EVAs was the installation of a high-speed communications system on the exterior of the Station. This type of hardware upgrade is designed to significantly expand data transfer capacity between the ISS and ground-based research teams — a growing priority as onboard scientific experiments continue to generate increasingly large datasets.
The work had been split across two separate outings, with the first session on August 18 laying the groundwork and EVA-98 completing the installation. Mission Control in Houston managed the coordination between both sessions, ensuring task continuity and crew safety throughout. Details on the specific system being installed, including its manufacturer or intended operational date, had not been publicly disclosed at the time of publication.
Europe's Expanding Footprint in EVA History
EVA-98 holds broader significance beyond the two individuals involved. It stands as the 32nd spacewalk performed by a European astronaut — a cumulative record that reflects decades of ESA's commitment to full operational participation in human spaceflight, rather than a supporting or peripheral role.
From the early missions of Jean-Loup Chrétien, the first Western European to conduct an EVA in 1988, to Thomas Pesquet's multiple sorties during his two ISS stays, European astronauts have steadily expanded their presence in one of spaceflight's most demanding disciplines. Adenot's two EVAs during Expedition 75 continue that progression.
Looking further ahead, the skills and experience accumulated through these operations carry weight beyond the ISS itself. As discussions around post-ISS commercial orbital platforms continue among NASA, ESA, and private partners such as Axiom Space, the ability to contribute trained, EVA-qualified astronauts remains a concrete and negotiable asset. The findings from EVA-98 will be assessed by engineering teams in the weeks following the mission, with the Expedition 75 crew's return date not yet formally announced at the time of writing.
