ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot lands in Cologne after record 237-day space mission

Sophie Adenot, an astronaut with the European Space Agency (ESA), landed in Cologne, Germany, at 04:21 GMT on 10 October 2026. The flight completed her return from her first mission to the International Space Station (ISS). She flew in from Houston on an Airbus A330 MRTT Phénix of the French Air and Space Force, which left on 9 October bound for ESA’s European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne. Family, colleagues and representatives of ESA member states met her on the apron in Cologne, the agency said.

ESA says Adenot spent 237 days, 5 hours and 18 minutes in space on the mission, which is called εpsilon. According to the agency, this is a new European record for the longest single spaceflight. It beats the previous record, set by ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano on his Beyond mission, by more than 35 days.

From splashdown to Europe

Adenot launched on 13 February 2026 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on the Crew-12 mission. Her crewmates were NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. The four undocked from the station on 7 October at 12:05 GMT. After a 27-hour, 29-minute journey, they splashed down off the coast of Los Angeles at 15:34 GMT on 8 October. NASA said the crew had completed 237 days at the station and that this was the first spaceflight for both Adenot and Hathaway. ESA said Crew-12 is the longest SpaceX Dragon mission to date, passing the 235 days set by Crew-8.

French official sources give a different figure. CNES, the French space agency, and the French Ministry of the Armed Forces both put her time in orbit at 235 days. The ministry said she had been aboard the ISS since 14 February. Neither source explains the two-day gap with ESA’s figure.

Spacewalks and experiments

ESA said Adenot is the second European woman, after Samantha Cristoforetti, and the first French woman to carry out a spacewalk. She made three spacewalks in 14 days and spent a total of 19 hours and 42 minutes outside the station. The French ministry said this gives her the most cumulative spacewalk time of any European. ESA’s release does not make that claim. NASA said the crew as a whole carried out four spacewalks.

According to ESA, Adenot spent about 218 hours on 35 European payloads. She spent about 25 hours maintaining or upgrading ESA systems in Columbus, Europe’s microgravity research facility on the station. She also tested the European exercise device E4D and metal 3D printing in orbit. She completed all the εpsilon experiments proposed by CNES and all the ESA experiments assigned to her. CNES said she carried out more than 200 experiments in microgravity. Seven of them were prepared for her mission by Cadmos, a CNES centre in Toulouse.

ESA said she reached more than 290,000 students through educational programmes, including the CNES experiment ChlorISS, which ran in about 4,000 schools. CNES put ChlorISS participation at 260,000 pupils across France.

Reactions and next steps

“We are delighted to welcome back our ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot who embodied our values through her successful mission,” said Josef Aschbacher, ESA’s Director General. He linked the mission to an upcoming ESA meeting of ministers: “Human spaceflight and exploration remain at the centre of our attention as we prepare for the Intermediate Ministerial Council Meeting in Rome in December.” He added: “Our ambition is clear: Europe must secure a role in exploration commensurate with its political and economic weight.”

Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA’s Director of Human and Robotic Exploration, said: “Sophie was the first of her class to be assigned to a mission, embarking on a fast-track journey she brilliantly completed.” CNES said she was the first astronaut from ESA’s 2022 class to fly to the station.

Adenot will now spend two to three weeks adjusting to Earth’s gravity and taking part in data collection at :envihab. This facility is run by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and sits next to EAC. ESA said she will then continue rehabilitation and follow-up work with the EAC training team. The French ministry described the recovery programme as lasting about three weeks.