Sophie Adenot

Sophie Marie Laurence Adenot is a French engineer, helicopter pilot, and astronaut. She holds the rank of colonel in the French Air and Space Force and became France's first female helicopter test pilot in 2018. She was selected to join the European Astronaut Corps as part of the 2022 group.

Early life and education

Sophie Adenot was born on 5 July 1982, in Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire, Burgundy, France, to pharmacist and Hubert Adenot, a notary in Corbigny. Her mother served as national president of the, a professional order for pharmacists, from 2009 to 2017.
Adenot attended a maison d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur in Saint-Denis, a secondary school open to girls whose father, grandfather or great-grandfather had been awarded the Legion of Honour, where she obtained her baccalauréat. She then completed classes préparatoires aux grandes écoles to prepare for entry into a grande école.
From 2001 to 2003, she studied engineering at the Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace, specializing in the flight dynamics of aircraft and spacecraft and earned a degree in 2004. That same year, she earned a Master of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While at MIT, she worked in the Man-Vehicle Laboratory and wrote her thesis on how the vestibular system adapts to artificial gravity, contributing to the development of centrifuge training for astronauts.
After graduating, she spent one year working as an engineer at Airbus Helicopters in Marignane, focusing on the design of helicopter cockpits, particularly for the H225 model.

Adenot joined the French Air Force in 2005. After completing helicopter pilot training, she was assigned to Escadron d'Hélicoptères 1/67 Pyrénées at Cazaux Air Base, where she piloted Caracal helicopters on search and rescue missions in hostile environments from 2008 to 2012.
In 2012, she transferred to the High Authority Transport Squadron based in Villacoublay, which is responsible for transporting the head of state, government ministers, and visiting foreign delegations.
In 2017, she entered the école du personnel navigant d'essais et de réception, a test pilot school, and in 2018 became the first female helicopter test pilot in France. After graduating from Empire Test Pilots' School in the United Kingdom in 2018, she worked as a helicopter test pilot at Cazaux Air Base under the French Defence Procurement Agency from 2019 to 2022.
, she had accumulated over 3,000 flight hours across 22 different types of helicopters.
Adenot was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in August 2006, captain in 2009, commandant in December 2014, lieutenant colonel in June 2020, and colonel in July 2023.

Adenot was selected to join the European Astronaut Corps as part of the 2022 European Space Agency Astronaut Group. She is the second French woman to join the corps, after Claudie Haigneré. The 2022 class, nicknamed "The Hoppers", was chosen from a pool of 22,500 applicants.
In 2024, ESA announced that Adenot would be the first member of her class to fly to the International Space Station for a long-duration mission, with SpaceX Crew-12 planned to launch spring 2026. ESA's portion of the Crew-12 mission—astronaut Sophie Adenot's assignment—will be called Epsilon. She will also bring a selection of French dishes, including lobster bisque and foie gras, created by Michelin-starred chef Anne-Sophie Pic to supplement standard onboard meals.

In 2020, Adenot was recognized by the Young Leaders program of the French-American Foundation. In 2021, she was awarded the for her "actions as an inspiring ambassador for gender equality in sciences". In 2022, she was appointed a chevalier of the French National Order of Merit.