ARCHIVE EDITION2026-10-11
TODAY'S STYLEHolographic

Sophie Adenot sets a European single-flight record at 237 days

WHAT HAPPENED

ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot completed the epsilon mission and returned to Europe on October 10 after 237 days, 5 hours and 18 minutes in space, exceeding the previous European single-flight record by more than 35 days a…

Read the full summary & background

ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot completed the epsilon mission and returned to Europe on October 10 after 237 days, 5 hours and 18 minutes in space, exceeding the previous European single-flight record by more than 35 days and making Crew-12 the longest SpaceX Dragon mission to date. Adenot became the second European woman and first French woman to perform an EVA, completing three spacewalks in 14 days for a total of 19 hours and 42 minutes. She spent about 218 hours on 35 European payloads spanning health, materials, biology, fluid and radiation research, while testing the E4D exercise device and in-orbit metal 3D printing. The record is not the endpoint: two to three weeks of readaptation to gravity and data collection are part of turning a long mission into reusable human-spaceflight knowledge.

XIAZI'S TAKE · COMMENTARY

Long-duration spaceflight matters when every day becomes reusable experiment and recovery data.

Doudoulong, in plain words

Readapting to gravity after landing is part of the mission too.

SourceEuropean Space Agency
Edition 2026-10-11

AI-assisted illustration · not a documentary photograph