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Sophie Adenot Set for 'Epsilon' ISS Flight, Linking Orbit Science to French Classrooms

Her flight connects ESA's 2022 astronaut class to a nationwide classroom plant study mirrored on the ISS.

Infographie montrant les impacts des séjours spatiaux sur le corps humain et la santé
L'astronaute Sophie Adenot sur un écran géant lors d'une visioconférence publique à l'Élysée avant son départ pour la Station spatiale internationale, le 5 février 2026 à Paris

Overview

  • Sophie Adenot will launch from Cape Canaveral on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon as part of Crew-12 with Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway and Andrei Fediaev to join the ISS.
  • Across roughly eight months in orbit, she is slated to carry out about 200 investigations and will be the only European on board during her stay.
  • Her ChlorISS experiment will grow Arabidopsis in microgravity while about 260,000 students follow the same protocol on Earth across some 4,500 schools.
  • CNES says 1.2 million seeds are being supplied, including 300,000 produced by an agricultural school in Saintes, with the flight batch riding Cygnus NG-24 in April for planting to begin in May.
  • Mission details highlight a collective-themed patch, tightly scripted daily schedules with mandatory exercise, and celebratory meals created by chef Anne‑Sophie Pic alongside limited personal items and a curated playlist.