Sophie Adenot arrives at Space Station

European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot of France departed today, Saturday 14 February 2026, on her journey to the International Space Station. In addition to her, the Crew-12 mission includes NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir, as well as Russian cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev.

The journey to the International Space Station lasted 34 hours. Awaiting the quartet aboard the station were the three members of Expedition 74: NASA astronaut Christopher Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev. They have been on the station since last November.

The station has now returned to its normal complement of seven crew members. The crew had been smaller than usual since 15 January, when Crew-11 returned to Earth early due to health concerns involving one of its members.

Adenot’s mission, named εpsilon, will last longer than usual - currently planned for approximately nine months. During that time she will not only take part in station maintenance but also conduct 36 long-duration scientific and technical experiments. These relate to human physiology, climate research, technology development, and preparations for long-duration lunar missions.

Adenot is the first of ESA’s new career astronauts selected in 2022 to travel to space. Of the project astronauts chosen at the same time, two have already completed short-duration missions: Sweden’s Marcus Wandt in January 2024 and Poland’s Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski last June.

The next ESA career astronaut scheduled to fly is Belgian astronaut Raphaël Liégeois.