Sophie Adenot Completes Her Spacewalks: How to Spot the ISS This Month

When you look up tonight and spot that bright point of light gliding silently across the constellations, remember that it is not just a lone machine travelling up there, but seven people immersed in scientific work. Among them is European astronaut Sophie Adenot, who has just completed her third and final spacewalk of the mission, leading operations outside the orbital complex. Watching the International Space Station from your backyard takes on a completely different meaning when you know exactly who is walking on its hull and what transformations our outpost in the cosmos is undergoing.

What happened

The roundup of recent weeks in Earth orbit and deep space reveals a series of outstanding technical milestones, as reported by the European Space Agency (ESA) in its monthly activity summary. The event most closely tied to daily life on the station was the success of Sophie Adenot's third extravehicular activity. The French astronaut once again took on the role of lead spacewalker (EV-1), wearing the suit with red identification stripes to direct complex maintenance and infrastructure upgrade tasks outside the ISS truss.

European activity beyond our planet did not stop there. In transport and Earth observation, a Vega-C rocket successfully placed the FLEX and Sentinel-3C satellites into orbit, designed to monitor global vegetation fluorescence and ocean health, respectively. In parallel, the Spectrum launcher became the first rocket to reach orbit directly from mainland European soil, opening up sovereign access to space. Farther out in the solar system, the BepiColombo probe completed the separation of its transfer module en route to Mercury, while the James Webb Space Telescope identified ultra-small brown dwarfs with the potential to form protoplanetary systems.

Adding to this pace of institutional launches is continuous pressure from the commercial and security sectors. Across the Atlantic, as reported by Spaceflight Now, a Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off from historic Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center on a classified mission for the US spy satellite agency, serving as a reminder of how heavily trafficked Earth's low and medium orbits have become.

Why it matters

Spacewalks are often portrayed in the media as athletic feats or visually stunning moments, but for those of us tracking the ISS pass by pass, they represent the technical heartbeat keeping the structure alive. Every time astronauts like Adenot step through the Quest airlock into the vacuum, they are not performing cosmetic tasks: they install cooling lines, configure interfaces for future roll-out solar arrays, and replace refrigerator-sized batteries that store the power gathered during each daytime pass.

Taking on the role of EV-1 means coordinating critical life-support timelines, managing the safety tethers that prevent drifting away uncontrollably at thousands of kilometres per hour, and making real-time decisions when confronted with stuck bolts or thermal blankets degraded by constant micrometeoroid strikes. Having a European astronaut lead three of these sorties solidifies the European agency's technical standing in maintaining the most complex laboratory ever assembled.

Furthermore, the coexistence of classified missions like the Falcon Heavy flight alongside the scientific work of the ISS and environmental satellites like FLEX highlights a tangible reality: low Earth orbit is now an undeniably strategic realm. While commercial rockets scale up heavy payloads, the Space Station remains the sole open outpost where international cooperation and biological and astronomical research retain absolute civilian priority.

What to look for in the sky

Knowing what is happening outside the station completely transforms the viewing experience. Right now, according to telemetry data from our real-time tracker, the International Space Station is flying at an altitude of 429 kilometres while travelling at a staggering speed of 27,567 km/h. At that pace, it completes an orbit every ninety minutes, allowing its crew to witness sixteen sunrises and sunsets every twenty-four hours.

If you check the list of the current crew on board, you will find seven professionals sharing this habitat: Jessica Meir, Anna Kikina, Pyotr Dubrov, Jack Hathaway, Anil Menon, Andrei Fedyaev, and Sophie Adenot herself, now resting after completing her spacewalk series. When you look up during your next favourable pass, watch for a steady white light—brighter than almost any star—that does not flicker or blink with coloured lights like commercial aircraft.

To plan your viewing session and know exactly to the minute when it will rise above your horizon, check our tool with pass times tailored to your geographic location. The best viewing windows occur at dusk or dawn: ground level in your city is already plunged into darkness, but more than 400 kilometres up, the station's massive solar arrays are still catching full sunlight and reflecting it straight down to your eyes.

Don't miss the station's next pass over your city: head to our tracker to follow its position live, and step outside to watch Sophie Adenot and her six crewmates glide across your own sky.