Who is Sophie Adenot and what is her role on the ISS
Sophie Adenot is a French astronaut with the ESA (European Space Agency), born on July 5, 1982. She is part of Expedition 75 aboard the International Space Station, serving as a flight engineer responsible for technical and scientific tasks on the orbital laboratory. This is her first spaceflight, the culmination of a career built over nearly two decades across aerospace engineering and test flying.
An elite aerospace engineering background
Before becoming an astronaut, Adenot trained at two of the world's leading aeronautics institutions. Between 2001 and 2003 she studied at ISAE-SUPAERO in Toulouse, graduating as an engineer specializing in spacecraft and aircraft flight dynamics, a field that blends physics, control theory, and flight systems design. In 2004 she rounded out her education with a master's degree in human factors engineering from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in the United States, a discipline focused on how people interact with complex technical systems, directly relevant to the design and operation of spacecraft.
From helicopter pilot to elite test pilot
Adenot's path to the ISS didn't run through a fighter jet cockpit, as is common among many astronauts, but through a helicopter. In 2005 she joined the French Air Force for basic military and flight training, becoming a helicopter pilot. Thirteen years later, in 2018, she graduated with honors as a helicopter test pilot from the renowned Empire Test Pilots' School at Boscombe Down in the United Kingdom, where she earned two notable distinctions: the Mac Kenna trophy and the Patuxent shield.
Between 2019 and 2022 she worked as an experimental test pilot for the French defense procurement agency (DGA) at the Cazaux Flight Test Center, evaluating the performance of new helicopter models and configurations before they entered service. Over her career she has logged more than 3,000 flight hours across 22 different helicopter types, and she also holds a military parachuting license, a light aircraft pilot license, and a glider pilot license.
Her career by the numbers
💡 Fun fact: most astronauts reach ESA or NASA by way of fighter or transport aviation. Adenot represents the opposite profile: her entire flying career has been built on helicopters, a far more demanding aircraft to fly in low-speed and hover maneuvers, and one that rarely serves as the entry point into an astronaut corps.
More on her full biography at Wikipedia.
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