All-Female Spacewalk Team Replaces ISS Camera Despite Suit Issue

When Sophie Adenot's spacesuit shoulder joint stopped moving properly 300 miles above Earth, her spacewalking partner didn't panic—she grabbed her tools and fixed it on the spot.

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot completed a successful six-hour, 49-minute spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Tuesday, replacing a spacecraft docking aid and high-definition camera. The duo floated out of the Quest airlock at 8:40 a.m. EDT to begin their maintenance work on the orbiting laboratory.

Their first major task involved swapping out a planar deflector on the station's Harmony Node 2, a reflector that helps visiting spacecraft navigate during docking. The old reflector had become coated with thruster residue from years of spacecraft arrivals and departures, making it less effective for guiding new visitors to their parking spots.

"And it's off!" Meir announced after removing the old camera assembly, her words met with applause from Mission Control in Houston. The new high-definition camera will provide clearer views of the station's exterior for both operational needs and public engagement.

While Adenot swabbed areas outside the airlock to collect samples for a study on microorganisms in space, Meir rode the Canadarm2 robotic arm to the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. There she tightened 46 bolts to prepare the particle physics detector for future maintenance work.

The spacewalk took an unexpected turn when Adenot reported losing mobility in her left shoulder joint. Mission Control immediately prioritized safety, asking Adenot to wait while Meir returned to help her back to the airlock.

Why This Inspires

Meir's quick thinking demonstrated the problem-solving skills astronauts bring to unexpected challenges. By unzipping a portion of Adenot's suit and inspecting the mechanism, she discovered a cable caught between the shoulder's multi-layer insulation and rotation joint—a fixable problem caused by simple friction.

Within minutes, Meir freed the kink and restored Adenot's full range of motion. The two crewmates then safely returned to the airlock together, their main objectives accomplished despite the mechanical hiccup.

This marked Meir's seventh spacewalk, giving her 49 hours and 22 minutes of EVA time and placing her third among all NASA women astronauts for total spacewalks. Adenot now has three spacewalks and nearly 20 hours of work in the vacuum of space under her belt.

The successful mission represents the 284th spacewalk supporting the International Space Station and the sixth all-female spacewalk in history. When equipment fails in the most hostile environment humans can work in, calm expertise and teamwork make all the difference.