NASA’s Crew-12 returns Sophie Adenot after European-record spaceflight

Adenot completed three spacewalks, spending a combined 19 hours and 42 minutes outside the station. ESA says she was the first French woman to conduct a spacewalk.

The excursions combined station maintenance and science-related work. Adenot’s first two spacewalks were with NASA astronaut Anil Menon on Aug. 18 and Aug. 25. She completed her third with Meir on Sept. 1; the three took place over 14 days.

How did NASA, ESA and SpaceX contribute?

Adenot launched on Feb. 13 aboard Dragon Freedom for her first space mission. NASA identifies Crew-12 as a mission in its Commercial Crew Program and the 12th crew rotation to use SpaceX’s human space-transportation system.

The four-person crew brought together astronauts from three space agencies: ESA’s Adenot, NASA’s Meir and Hathaway, and Roscosmos’ Fedyaev. SpaceX provided the transportation system, while the crew carried out station operations and research. Adenot’s experiments included work for ESA, alongside her shared work with NASA astronauts on spacewalks.

ESA says Adenot’s research covered health, materials science, biology and physics. Her work also included testing a European exercise device and in-orbit metal 3D printing. NASA’s account of Crew-12’s wider research lists investigations into bone regeneration, antibiotic resistance, cartilage, stem cells, intravenous-fluid production and metal printing.

The station’s microgravity environment gives researchers a way to study how cells behave and materials form, NASA says. The range of work—from biological research to testing manufacturing in orbit—shows how agencies use a long-duration mission for multiple investigations, not just a single experiment.

What could the research mean on Earth?

NASA presents some applications as possibilities rather than established results. On-demand production of intravenous fluids, for example, could support future space missions and remote or emergency settings on Earth. The mission included research on bone, cartilage and stem cells, but those investigations are research, not evidence of a new treatment.

The metal-printing work has a practical next step: parts made in orbit returned with the crew for quality evaluation. NASA says the assessment will examine the returned parts; the experiment tests a manufacturing approach, while any broader use depends on what the evaluation finds.

That distinction matters to the public case for human spaceflight. Crew-12 completed a record-setting mission and returned hardware, while potential benefits to patients or manufacturing remain tied to research and evaluation. The collaboration also depended on the work of a multinational crew, with ESA and NASA astronauts joined by a Roscosmos cosmonaut, and SpaceX supplying transport.

For Adenot, the flight was an individual milestone within that larger effort: a European single-flight record, three spacewalks and months of research. For the agencies, the next tangible measure includes the quality evaluation of the metal parts brought back from orbit.