European and international space missions reach key operational milestones

French astronaut Sophie Adenot has completed her third spacewalk outside the International Space Station alongside NASA astronaut Jessica Meir. The all-female team performed maintenance on the orbital laboratory, including replacing a navigation retroreflector designed to assist visiting vehicles.

Concurrently, the joint European Space Agency and JAXA BepiColombo mission reached a pivotal phase following an eight-year journey. On 3 September, the probe separated from its propulsion unit to allow its two orbiters to prepare for insertion into orbit around Mercury. Operators highlighted the high risk of the procedure due to communication time delays between Earth and the spacecraft.

Additionally, NASA launched the four-billion-dollar Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on a SpaceX rocket to research dark matter and search for distant exoplanets.

Sources: La Tribune, Le Figaro, Le Monde, Libération, RTBF Info