French Astronaut Begins Return to Earth

Paris (AFP) – After eight months in Earth orbit, French astronaut Sophie Adenot departed the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday, heading for Earth, where she is expected to arrive on Thursday, according to footage broadcast by the US space agency (NASA).

Adenot spent eight months aboard the space station, which orbits at an altitude of approximately 400 kilometers, and began her return journey with three colleagues.

With this mission, Sophie Adenot has spent a total of 235 days on the ISS, breaking the record for the longest continuous stay in orbit by a European astronaut, male or female.

In a final message published from Earth orbit hours before the start of her return journey, Adenot wrote that she was preparing to “separate from the station, land in the sea, return to Europe, and readjust to Earth’s gravity!”

The SpaceX “Dragon” capsule, which had been docked to the ISS since its arrival on February 14, separated from the station as scheduled at 14:05 (12:05 GMT), carrying the French astronaut and her three colleagues: American Jessica Meir, American Jack Hathaway, and Russian Andrei Fedyaev.

After a journey lasting more than a day, the astronauts will cross Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic speeds. In the final minutes of the flight, their capsule will be slowed by powerful parachutes, landing in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. NASA has set the water landing time for 17:34 Paris time (15:34 GMT) on Thursday.

The capsule will then be lifted aboard a specialized ship, and the astronauts will be removed and placed on stretchers or specially prepared seats to avoid the risks of fainting and falling.