🔴Live: Sophie Adenot becomes first French female astronaut to venture outside ISS

Sophie Adenot has become the first French female astronaut to venture outside the International Space Station for a spacewalk on Tuesday, accompanied by American astronaut Anil Menon. The spacewalk was scheduled to start at 12:35 GMT and last six and a half hours, with the goal of replacing a space-to-ground antenna on the orbital complex, according to NASA. Adenot, 44, will be the second European woman to conduct a spacewalk, after Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti's mission in 2022. The French astronaut has been preparing for the operation for several days aboard the ISS, 400 kilometres (250 miles) above the Earth. "A successful (spacewalk) starts long before the hatch opens, and that's where my focus has been these past few days: rehearsing, preparing and focusing," Adenot said o